Barley Straw and Farm Ponds

Bill64 · Mar 1, 2009

I have a 3/4 acre farm pond on my property in NC. I read some arcitles about using barley straw to control algee growth. Some say sink the sacks of straw and some say float them. Have any of you tried barley straw? Does it work? If so, what is the best way to apply it?
Thanks,
Bill

Roger in Iowa · Mar 1, 2009

It works. CAn also buy the extract in a bottle but is pricy!

We floated a couple for long term and busted two for immediate results (couple of days).

Rick Kr · Mar 1, 2009

Hasn"t appeared to work too well for me. My pond is also 3/4 acre.

I have used 1 bale each year for 07 and 08. I added an aerator in 08 that helped. It is in the deep end approx. 15" down.
I run the aerator 24/7 until the ice hits.

I did rake a little less algae in 08 than 07.
Maybe it just takes a while to get the algae under control.

My neighbor has the same size pond and does nothing. He will get carpet algae 7 to 8 foot wide around the entire shore, making the pond almost useless.

Hopefully you"ll have better luck than I do. Or maybe I just have better conditions for algae.

Rick

730 virgil · Mar 1, 2009

a friend of mine has several people that show up ever spring to buy barley straw bales to use in their ponds.

Gene Dotson · Mar 2, 2009

Neighbor has a 1/2 acre pond to harvest ice, so needs clean water. He just uses old spoiled hay bales. 2 bales thrown in keeps the water algea free for clear ice... Gene

prawnfarmer · Mar 2, 2009

Barley straw is an excellent non-chemical, non-mechanical solution to control algae. We use aeration ( a Gast rotary vane compressor) in our our production ponds to bring up the dissolved oxygen levels, de-stratify water and to remove nitrogen. Weed and algae control in our reserve ponds is accomplished by a minimum water depth of 24 inches at the pond bank. Also discourages thieving herons, cranes, etc. as they don't like to get their feathers wet.

John - OH · Mar 2, 2009

We use the concentrated barley extract, it works good. As mentioned, it is a bit on the pricey side.

prawnfarmer · Mar 2, 2009

Rick, you may want to run use 2 diffusers in a 3/4 acre pond. Maybe place the second unit in 6-8 ft of water with the original left at the 15' level. Curious why you stop aerating when the pond freezes?

olgentdc · Mar 2, 2009

It really Works , MY PONDS WERE VERY BAD ,, Left mine with the plastic twine on , toward end of summer Algae was all but gone,The bale floated around from July til month ago when I walked out on Ice and cut strings... No Algae anywhere...

Anonymous-0 · Mar 2, 2009

The main reason they use barley is that it has a chemical that slows down the reproduction of algae. However, if you think about the hay infusion we almost all did back in high school biology; there would also be a big benefit to throwing hay/ or really anything that will produce the microbes into the pond all around the edges. I.E. just rolling a big round bale in at one spot won't do much good.

Rick Kr · Mar 2, 2009

I stop aerating so the kids can ice skate. I do have a second aerator in another pond. I could run both of them and see if that helps. It can't hurt.

I just wonder if the air will go to the one that is only 8' deep. I could put a restrictor in-line to force the rest of the air to the deeper aerator.

Rick

Ray · Mar 2, 2009

Grass carp work best.Straw just turns black and looks bad.

MGTPa · Mar 2, 2009

So, what is the clear ice used for?? In an old antique ice cooler?? Harvested and sold in blocks to the public?? Or used as ice cubes in iced tea?? Not trying to be funny. Just curious.

prawnfarmer · Mar 2, 2009

The deeper the diffuser the more efficient, however, they will still work in shallow water as my prawn ponds only average 54" deep (3ft at the shallow end then slope down to 6ft at the draining/harvesting end). Since the aeration pump is high volume/low psi, I use an 1.25" polyethylene pipe as the main supply line to the ponds and then made reducing manifolds out of galvanized tees and nipples with (2) 1/2" brass ball valves to feed/control air into the 1/2" lines out to the two diffusers in each pond.

Barley Straw and Farm Ponds

Bill64

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Roger in Iowa

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Rick Kr

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730 virgil

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Gene Dotson

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prawnfarmer

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John - OH

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prawnfarmer

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olgentdc

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Anonymous-0

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Rick Kr

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Ray

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MGTPa

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prawnfarmer

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