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  • From: Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Water Hyacinth (was Plants for nitrate/phosphate uptake)
  • Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:02:21 -0400

Re: water hyacinth: it SEEMS to have a lot of bulk but when dry its a tiny percentage of its wet weight and turns rapidly to a very fine powder. A mountain of them composts down to a fairly small molehill.

[snip]http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/water_hyacinth01.html

The *fresh* plant contains prickly crystals which make it unpalatable for livestock. The fresh leaves are sometimes eaten when other feeds are scarce, but normally more than 25% fresh water hyacinth in the feed reduces intake. Furthermore, the high water content of the plant imposes a limitation on the amount of dry matter an animal is capable of ingesting, and the danger of spreading the weed through seeds in the feces is great.

Boiled water hyacinth is used in Southeast Asia as a feed for pigs. The plants are chopped and sometimes mixed with other vegetable wastes, such as banana stems, and boiled slowly for a few hours until the ingredients turn into a paste, to which oil cake, rice bran and sometimes maize and salt are added. The cooked mixture is good for only three days, after which it turns sour. A common formula is 40 kg of water hyacinth, 15 kg of rice bran, 2.5 kg of fish meal and 5 kg of coconut meal.

The physical structure of the plant makes it unsuitable for the normal methods of making hay and silage. The plants dry rather quickly in the sun, but the neck between the petiole and the lamina is very brittle. The lamina shrinks and breaks off with handling, leaving only the petiole which remains round and full of air. The hay is therefore very bulky, and it is not palatable to cattle unless mixed with at least 20% molasses. Urea may be included to increase the content of crude protein. The nutritive value per unit of dry natter is too low to warrant the cost of artificial drying.

This aquatic weed which doubles itself once in 15 days and till recently considered to be a terrible environmental hazard is now considered a golden weed. The council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India, at Johart and Hyderabad have *made varieties of high quality paper* out of the stalk of the weed. The Agricultural University at Trivandrum, India, *makes cattle feed out of the leaves* and Ryan Foundation has taught villagers to *crush the roots and make briquettes for their cook stoves*. This weed must be commercialized and supplied to paper and board factories to save logging, deforestation and pollution.

Water hyacinth is just beginning to be used for phytoremediation. This use came about for a few reasons, the first being that water hyacinth is so plentiful. People have been trying to remove the plant from many water ways, spending billions of dollars in doing so. In many cases this removal is nigh unto impossible. It has been discovered that water hyacinth's quest for nutrients can be turned in a more useful direction.

Water hyacinth is already being used to clean up waster water in small scale sewage treatment plants. This plant utilizes vast amount of many nutrients which are poisonous to humans in these amounts. *The water hyacinth has been shown to remove Nitrogen and Phosphates, as well as biochemical oxygen demands.* In the process of studying water hyacinth's capabilities in sewage treatment it has been discovered that this plant removes trace toxic metals as well. It's ability to remove toxic heavy metals is what makes water hyacinth so appealing for treating the water. Studies have already been done to find out how and why water hyacinth attracts toxic metals.

*Water hyacinths thrive on sewage; they absorb and digest wastewater pollutants, converting sewage effluents to relatively clean water.* Thus, the plants have exciting promise as a natural water purification system, which can be established at a fraction of the cost of a conventional sewage treatment facility. Water hyacinths are serving that purpose in several locales and a number of other communities are considering adoption of the technique. For maximum effectiveness, pollution-gorged water hyacinths must be harvested at intervals, but this apparent drawback offers potential for additional benefit. *Harvested plants can be– and are being – used as fertilizer.* They can also be heat-treated to produce consumer energy in the form of methane gas. And if an economical way of drying the plants can be developed, they may find further utility as high-protein animal feed.

*Decaying water hyacinth was found to be the perfect medium to cultivate valuable straw mushrooms* and has been successful as an ingredient in a *water-hyacinth-based fiber board for construction.*

*Because it rots in 15 days, it is an ideal component in fertilizer.* Weed harvested from the Bangkok area is used in a new fertilizer factory to provide *low cost organic fertilizer for farms.* But the real success, both economically and in terms of eliminating the weed, lies in the field of wickerwork. Wicker items made from the stems have proved extremely popular in Germany and Japan, where environmentally friendly products are fashionable. Rural farmers can gain valuable extra income from wickerwork in the off-season. The success of wickerwork sales has in fact caused a shortage of water hyacinth and, incredibly, the weed must be brought in from other areas to maintain production levels.
...
Meanwhile, other uses for the water hyacinth are also being studied. "We are testing fermenting water hyacinth for butane gas production," Chantrasiri says, "also using it for 'green fuel'--*water hyacinth compacted into cooking wood.* It's a versatile plant." The water hyacinth has witnessed an amazing and unexpected turnaround. While many invasive plants have given rise to some well-intentioned, but ultimately inconsequential ideas for their use, it is a rare weed indeed that can eventually lay claim to being in high demand as a raw material.

[snip]

roxann wrote:
hyacinth. one of the main reasons i'm interested in this particular plant is
because they are 1) bulky and will add lots of organic matter to the soil
when composted, 2) break down really rapidly under compost and 3) hopefully
are excellent nutrient uptakers, which will serve two purposes by taking out
nutrients from the gray water and adding it back to my compost/soil. It will
be a great dual purpose plant to include in my system if it is true.
--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
Impeachment: It's not just for blowjobs anymore.
Switch to Solar Power the Easy Way
http://www.jointhesolution.com/KeithJ-SunPower
http://www.PowUr.com/KeithJ-SunPower
Blog: http://kjpermaculture.blogspot.com/
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/design/Designconsult.html
also Association for Regenerative Culture
also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a
small world after oil.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/applebloomington
also Bloomington Permaculture Guild




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