Algae as fertilizer/mulch

[rmorgan]

I spent the afternoon yanking about 2 loader-buckets full of filamentous algae out of the pond. OK, I confess the obvious--too much time on my hands--but the city friends don't like swimming in green goo. Anyway, I've read that it can be used for compost, but the reference was vague. My question is--has anybody any experience (or thoughts about) using it for compost, soil amendment, mulch, or any combination of these? Seems like it should work well as tree mulch, but I don't want to create any problems I can find out about in advance . . .

--Rick Morgan

 

[RPM]

It should work well as a fertilizer - algae is very efficient at removing phosphates and nitrates from pond water. Nice thing is that it locks up these nutrients in its biomass and releases them over a longer period than chemical fertilizers as it decays.

One concern is that algae is also very good at locking up heavy metals and some other pollutants if present in your water (e.g. if there has been a history of mining in your area). There's also sometimes a high bacterial content. So, you may not want to use it around food-crops. The risk should be low, but it's there.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I use it as soil ammendment and as mulch to hold in moisture and ****** weed growth. If you have fish in your pond(s) don't take too much out until after spawning/hatching and little critters are big enough to not need to hide so much. I was going to put extra grass carp in some of my ponds showing a lot more algae but was cautioned regarding the fish habitat angle.

Patrick