Azolla Farming

Azolla is a water based fern. One thing I have noticed about it is that it will put a little droplet of water above it to act as a lens to concentrate sunlight and will also use its deep roots in the water below to handle the extra heat as a cooling system, which I surmise is how it is able to grow so quickly.

Most azolla will just grow great with fish in the pond below that will create manure in a sort of aquaponics type of situation, but the fish can also nibble on its roots which can slow growth. So if you want to grow without fish then I suggest adding the Leaf Formula to the water on a weekly basis. This can be much more dilute than the usual ratios used for plants as it will float around and encourage other water-borne biology to thrive which will also create nutrients for the azolla.

The key is to get a diverse and healthy biome thriving in the water, and the azolla will convert sunlight into nutrients and the biology will make other things and get a positive feedback loop going. So, when you harvest, I recommend only taking 1/3 of the azolla at a time so as not to upset this loop once you get it going.