why isn't my duckweeed growing?

Red root floaters are cool too, many fish nibble the roots. GF probably eat the whole plant...

I have a tropical plain green leaf lily in my "pond" pot (no flowers yet but lots of leaves) & a dwarf more temperate water lily. Both are in full sun so I have to refill fairly often. If you get fish you'll have to take better care (like feeding & water changes) than with just plants, something to consider...

Another seasonal option (winter for us Cali women) might be to grow some spinach &/or romaine etc (cabbage? Brussels sprouts?) & just pull off an outer leaf as needed for GF, plus salads for people! Maybe zucchini in summer? It's probably too late to start those now. I haven't gotten the hang of gardening here yet, lol. Almost opposite of where I've lived before. If you have kids growing your own food might be fun...& less work for you? I never had kids...

Then there's always a jar of alfalfa sprouts on the kitchen counter, haven't done that since the 70-80s, lol. I bet GF would eat them, lol.
 
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My goldies eat salvinia, but duckweed seems preferred.
 
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FWIW - My goldfish eat duckweed... I usually drop in bits from my other tanks that get overrun and they clean it up right away. They nip the small root hairs off any other plants like Pothos as well.
 
I have been quite successful growing duckweed permanently, although of late I have changed to frogbit more. I have both. Its been over 2 years now.
Basically I grow the floaters to feed my other aquariums, whose fish chomp on the floating stuff. Silver dollars, flagtail and others eat them. But in generally I like to have them (contained) in the tanks, as nice looking, a-peacing the fish, providing some food, and extracting nitrates. I use them as a disposable plant in a floating corral, which is replenished regularly. See silver dollar tank below.
What I consider key to growing them well is this: I grow them in 2 aquaria, a 10 gal, and a 5 gal, in the basement.
1) Light is regular fluorescent aquarium light
2) I do not use heating, nor filtration, nor water movement. However, I stir the surface once by hand almost every day. In winter, coldest is 60 F, in summer is 82F
3) I change ~70% water weekly in the two small aquaria where floating plants are grown
4) replace water with used water from fish-containing aquaria water, thus with nitrates and other goodies, possibly traces of Flourish plant food
4) Thin them regularly because they grow too much, remove parts that look old and fraying. --> take some to the floating corrals, or throw some away

Good luck!!

SilverDollars_16-17June2019_IMG_0489.jpg
 
ella_R said:
Gangbusters, Haha. Redlands is somewhat close to La. I have the duckweed growing indoors, as my backyard is completely full sun. i also heard duckweed does not like the water surface moving much?
Click to expand...

I usually filter my tanks more than most people do (about 10x per hour) and still have duckweed I pull out by the net full every week or two.
 
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