Duckweed Grows in Darkness for Over a Year
Green, living duckweed unearthed after surviving 15 months under a pile of mulch. Photo courtesy Ken Carman
Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from good friend, Ken Carman of South Carolina today. “Tamra, you won’t believe this but I just dug up living green duckweed from the center of a mulch pile that I started in the summer of 2012!”
“You gotta be kidding. Duckweed that survived one winter, a long hot summer, and going on its second winter buried under 7 inches of mulch?” I was incredulous. I knew duckweed was versatile in its ability to adapt to different energy and nutrient inputs, allowing it to be heterotrophic, but this had me totally awed. “Can you try to get it to grow with sunlight?” Ken took several samples and transplanted them in rain water. Guess we’ll see here in a week or two if the duckweed can make the transition.
Ken harvested this superman duckweed strain from a picturesque pond at Roxbury Park, Meggett, South Carolina where he is manager. Talk about having a green thumb!
Great, Cindy! I suggest joining the International Lemna Association as well as we have lots of duckweed gurus in our midst to help you get off to a good start. It’s free to join.
http://www.Internationallemnaassociation.org
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Love your blog posts. We are just getting started with aquaponic & also have a small family farm with chickens. Rabbits. Goats. Horses. And of course cats & dogs. It just makes sense to us to supplement our feed with duckweed. I’m learning all I can from you so in the spring we can start farming it.
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