Have been growing Azolla for some years.

This year am trialling the use of Horse Manure, results not good so far.

Will try another approach before the Season ends.

At the moment am able to harvest approximately one Wheelbarrow load per day.

Apart from digging it in, this case starting a Vegie patch, the initially dried Azolla is used in my potting mix, pulverised in a Blender, as a seed raising substrate.

So far no problems with Sciarid Flies.

Trying Azolla as a mulch around some Tomato seedlings. Looking forward to a positive result.

Also an indication of progress since starting the Vegie Plot.

I was confused then and I'm confused now. Azolla is a genus of aquatic ferns. You can't get much farther from a cactus then that.

I've heard of Azolla being used as fertilizer, but I wouldn't imagine cacti need much fertilizer. Most of mine don't get fertilized at all, ever. Of the ones who do (mainly epiphytes) it's only once a year, with a weak solution.

The only fertilizer my plants ever get is from the small percentage of organic matter in the soil(30-15%).
My seedlings sown in sand however, are getting a small amount, monthly..
It is synthetic however....

From the amount it appears that ausrpned is growing, maybe its a food supplement too. Azolla on your salad anyone?

The only australian thing ive tried is vegemite, and i like it. This, however, is used for livestock, and may have cyanobacteria with some kind of neurotoxin...

Is it cheap to grow? Sounds like my next drug of choice.

I had never heard of Azolla until I saw the original post... interesting plant (way outside my experience) with interesting uses. I would imagine the best forum to discuss aquatic ferns would be the water gardening forum, which appears to have much less traffic at the moment.

https://garden.org/forums/view...

I grow Salvinias, but only for ornamental purposes. I've never tried to fertilize my succulents with it.

Baja_Costero said:I had never heard of Azolla until I saw the original post... interesting plant (way outside my experience) with interesting uses. I would imagine the best forum to discuss aquatic ferns would be the water gardening forum, which appears to have much less traffic at the moment.

https://garden.org/forums/view...

Agree no problems, sorry I have neglected this thread.

DaisyI said:From the amount it appears that ausrpned is growing, maybe its a food supplement too. Azolla on your salad anyone?

It is edible, tastes "watery" refreshing on a warm day.

DaisyI said:What does Eltu mean? I suspect not "English Language Teaching Unit" (the only thing I can think of).

Has no meaning other than to myself.

Cheers

Jai_Ganesha said:I grow Salvinias, but only for ornamental purposes. I've never tried to fertilize my succulents with it.

Jai_Ganesha
The reason for using Azolla is that it has symbiotic nitrogen fixing, bacteria.

Many claims made for it's productivity but apparently it was one of the main sources of Nitrogen in rice growing in SE Asia.

Certainly has proven effective in my experience especially in conjunction with Biochar. Without Azolla or being precharged with organic/inorganic fertiliser, Biochar initially removes plant nutrients, not a desirable outcome.

It is true from my own experience and from some trials carried out which mentions the problem in literature on the Net..

Cheers

Looks to me you grow it large scale.
Why horse manure? Cheaper? More available? Curious mind?
You can't give horse manure away here. Heck, you can't even pay folks to haul it away here. It is largely regarded as one of the worse fertilizers around.

One would thing you'd just have fish in your tanks and call it good. With outdoor tanks like that, you wouldn't even have to feed the fish. I know Azolla is suppose to keep the mosquito population down, but nature finds a way.

My favorite fertilizer is rabbit poop. I have friends who operate rabbit rescue missions and I get all the free rabbit poop a girl could hope for. (No, not really, I could use twice as much, but I make do.)

I don't have enough Azolla to use it as mulch, wish I did. I do have a healthy supply of other floating water plants that I fish out and dump on the garden as needed.

I keep a stock tank full of azolla and another full of duckweed. Many of my fish will eat it, but they won't let a colony remain established in a pond with them. I haven't tried mulching with it, but my azolla is growing quite thickly this year, so maybe I'll give it a go.