Azolla availabilty

Hi all
i wanted to know avilability of azolla ferns in HASSAN to cultivate
and alfalfa seeds(lucerne)
thanks in advance
khannae

Hi
Few things I would like to point out on Azolla as well as Lucerene which you should know before you decide to invest time and money.
Azolla

  1. This is a green fern/algae/whatever which grow very fast. It needs to be grown with lots of care almost precision style.
  2. Issues are it can be spoilt due to weather changes, can be infected with larvae worms.
  3. Since it is grown in tank of cowdung based water, smell of cowdung is difficult to remove and most cows refuse to eat.
  4. Costing is the key, calculate costs based on dry matter basis. Azolla is almost 90% water, so for every 1 kg cow gets only 100gms for its stomach. So price per kg multiplies 10 times. Do your cost analysis by adding labour expenses, building infrastructure and then decide.
    My personal view - It is cheaper and easier and better to feed 1 kg of good quality feed pellets.

Lucerene

  1. Very tough to maintain. It grows very fast, but it is easily smothered in weeds. So weeding becomes a big expense. It could become costlier to grow.

  2. Careful seed selection, buy from some reputed people. Someone in gujrat seems to be one of the famous ones, check on google. Some seeds have something like a parasite (cuscutta), it becomes orange thread like and grows on the lucerene plant and destroys it. So be very careful; with seeds selection, the seller should guarantee it is cuscutta free.

I have experienced with both azolla and lucerene and am not following either now due to above issues. I felt you should know.

Good luck.
Nikhil

thanks for the true and honest ground reality opinion hats off to you sir
now
i contacted gujarat dealer (Mr Jaimin)about a week back and he assured seeds are cascuta free
am trying only on experimental basis— am not going to invest more than 3000rs (including tilling, seeds cost etc etc)
and for azolla not more than Rs 1500
:sunglasses: ;D :wink:
thanks niks :smiley:

khannae.

best wishes from me…

Pls update once u start.