duck weed in canal (again)

[magnetman]

Anyone else have a weed problem?

 

This is Bromley by Bow on Lee Navigation.

 

Shocking

[AllanC]

Wow!! that's a serious amount of duck weed. Never seen anything like it!

I have it on my home Koi pond and when it gets thick I have to net it off. No chance of doing that there.

It does look like a nice lawn though :-)

[Murflynn]

it happens because we are all feeding ducks with bread - they're too lazy to keep the canals clean.

[magnetman]

My younger daughter (4) calls it the weed carpet

 

It is pretty thick and spreading.

Looking back after going through it in a small boat

Strangely enough talking about lawns my mum had a whippet when she was young (1950s) and he ran straight onto the Thames when there was a lot of duckweed about thinking it was a lawn. I had a whippet cross when I was young ( yes it was on a string ) (1990s) and she did exactly the same thing.

it happens because we are all feeding ducks with bread - they're too lazy to keep the canals clean.

Feeding bread to ducks should be outlawed or subject to age restrictions

[Jerra]

it happens because we are all feeding ducks with bread - they're too lazy to keep the canals clean.

It seems strange I have come across masses of duckweed well away from anywhere ducks are fed - always assuming you are correct in your assertion.

[NickF]

It used to happen a lot at the very bottom of The Huddersfield Broad .. I don't know whether it still does

 

 

[Tiggs]

If anyone know The Navigation ph on the Erewash at Trent Lock.

 

The lock is right in front of the lock, and there was a whole load of us sat outside on the tables.

 

Well one night in the summer a drunken man came out of the pub, down the steps and mistaking the duck weed for grass walked straight into the lock.

[magnetman]

It used to happen a lot at the very bottom of The Huddersfield Broad .. I don't know whether it still does

Noticed your location is Deal

 

We go there after visiting the beach at Ramsgate with the children. Sandy beach is nice but you can't beat an evening on the stony beach at Deal for relaxing we were there on Wednesday as it happens

[patty-ann]

Isn't it something to do with the weather and/or what goes into canals

I did see some in areas on my wander around towpaths in London recently

[magnetman]

it does seem to spread fast in hot weather yes.

 

Not sure about discharges into the canal. I would expect run off from fields with crops to contain fertiliser but not sure what is going into the cut in east London other then runoff from housing and roads

[AMModels]

Used to be a big problem on the BCN, we had raw water cooling and it was a PITA keep taking the filter off cleaning it and then going for another 100 yards and doing it all over again.

[Jerra]

it does seem to spread fast in hot weather yes.

 

Not sure about discharges into the canal. I would expect run off from fields with crops to contain fertiliser but not sure what is going into the cut in east London other then runoff from housing and roads

Raising the temperature at which a plant is growing by 5C doubles its speed of growth (after 5C which is more or less the start of the growth for most plants).

 

I would suggest Nitrogen in whatever form getting into the canal is likely to be the cause.

[Murflynn]

Feeding bread to ducks should be outlawed or subject to age restrictions

restriction on the age of the duck or the bread thrower?

maximum or minimum age?

 

please clarify - I can see a rational solution forming in my mind

 

 

PS: why not get a charity (CRT) to arrange a sponsored duckweed collection, and use the harvest to feed the ducks on the local pond, or dry it and make duck-feed pellets?

Edited July 22, 2016 by Murflynn

[magnetman]

restriction on the age of the duck or the bread thrower?

maximum or minimum age?

 

please clarify - I can see a rational solution forming in my mind

 

 

PS: why not get a charity (CRT) to arrange a sponsored duckweed collection, and use the harvest to feed the ducks on the local pond, or dry it and make duck-feed pellets?

In answer to your first question

 

 

Maximum age of bread thrower to be 8 years

[Jerra]

In answer to your first question

 

 

Maximum age of bread thrower to be 8 years

That will lead to a number of distraught kids at 8 years 1 day old!

[magnetman]

I imagine it would be feasible to make it flexible on a case by case basis

[patty-ann]

 

 

 

PS: why not get a charity (CRT) to arrange a sponsored duckweed collection, and use the harvest to feed the ducks on the local pond, or dry it and make duck-feed pellets?

 

has duckweed a use then? can it be recycled into commerciable product? What r they waiting for?

[Jerra]

 

has duckweed a use then? can it be recycled into commerciable product? What r they waiting for?

It can be used in animal feeding products but I suspect you would need to be able to guarantee the feed mill year round supplies.

[ditchcrawler]

Raising the temperature at which a plant is growing by 5C doubles its speed of growth (after 5C which is more or less the start of the growth for most plants).

 

I would suggest Nitrogen in whatever form getting into the canal is likely to be the cause.

Peeing in the cut

[magnetman]

As per the title

 

Duck weed in canal (again)

[Peter X]

Duckweed, like other aquatic plants, needs sunlight and nutrients, and it tends to grow heavily at this time of year. I doubt whether bread fed to the ducks is a major factor in its growth, because it's often seen in the less used waterways. And therein lies the clue; it grows much better in still water. You won't see it in the middle of a river, but you will in quiet places at the margins where the water is hardly moving, and on canals, particularly those with the least boat traffic. So get out there and cruise about everyone!

[Wanderer Vagabond]

Duckweed, like other aquatic plants, needs sunlight and nutrients, and it tends to grow heavily at this time of year. I doubt whether bread fed to the ducks is a major factor in its growth, because it's often seen in the less used waterways. And therein lies the clue; it grows much better in still water. You won't see it in the middle of a river, but you will in quiet places at the margins where the water is hardly moving, and on canals, particularly those with the least boat traffic. So get out there and cruise about everyone!

Not entirely sure of your suggestion, we've just gone around London and the duckweed problem seems to be at its greatest where people moor up, suggesting that they are putting something in the water (washing detergent waste, soap waste, shower gel waste). In Paddington Basin the growth seemed to explode within just a couple of days. I did feel sorry for the guy with the scoop boat trying to clear it. There is a large passenger boat, the Electric Barge, operating out of the basin and it is about 1 foot narrower than the entrance from Little Venice. Little Venice itself is covered with the weed but they've put a bubble barrage across the entrance to the basin to try to stop it getting in. Every time the Electric Barge came through the bridge into the basin it was like a plunger pushing everything in front of it over the bubble barrage. In the time that the guy trying to clear it had emptied a couple of hods of weed into the waste barge the Electric Barge pushed another 10 hod's worth of weed over the barrier, it rather seemed to define the term 'thankless task' .

 

 

 

My main concern about this weed (it doesn't seem to get around the prop too much) is that since it spreads a green film across the surface of the water it will kill any oxygenating weed below the surface since nothing can grow in green light. This wouldn't be too good for the health of the canal or the fish in it.

 

ETA Above Old Ford Locks they had a weed collecting boat that was the bees knees and scooped up, inside 10 minutes,what the guy in Paddington basin would take a couple of hours to collect.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Wanderer Vagabond

[Peter X]

Boats in London are not famous for moving about a lot, so maybe the water in Paddington Basin is fairly still, especially with it being a dead end? Also perhaps duckweed from all along the Paddington Arm tends to slowly drift into there and not leave?

 

Duckweed, like any floating plant, will reduce the light available to plants below it. When I kept tropical fish I had a big problem with this, as any duckweed in the tank would quickly multiply to cover the surface, and it was difficult to remove every last little piece of such a tiny plant.

[magnetman]

I was considering grabbing a bit of the stuff put it in a bottle of water and take it to east India dock by canary wharf and see if it spreads. Would be an interesting experiment.

 

I have not seen it down there before.

Edited July 22, 2016 by magnetman

[Wanderer Vagabond]

Boats in London are not famous for moving about a lot, so maybe the water in Paddington Basin is fairly still, especially with it being a dead end? Also perhaps duckweed from all along the Paddington Arm tends to slowly drift into there and not leave?

 

Duckweed, like any floating plant, will reduce the light available to plants below it. When I kept tropical fish I had a big problem with this, as any duckweed in the tank would quickly multiply to cover the surface, and it was difficult to remove every last little piece of such a tiny plant.

Curiously however, when we first arrived in Paddington Basin we walked around the Regents Canal to the Canal Museum. The clearest section of canal was the bit around Regents Park itself, almost no duckweek at all. 3 days later when we came to take our boat on the same route it was covered. I suspect part of the problem is that the weed sticks to your boat as you travel so moving boats will accelerate the proliferation of it simply by carrying on their hulls.