Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Product sources Barley Straw

Dave thanks for the Post, it gives me another chance to elaborate.

To my knowledge very little serious research has been done or at least published on barley straw. I think a few institutions are currently doing some casual research with bs. Just a lot of generalizations published so far. Few to no peer reviewed studies have been conducted or published so far, probably because there is no "big money" behind it, driving a market. Lack of good published info was verified by Dr.Willis' search. Dave as you know it takes some serious, highly technical research which is not cheap to produce the kind of information I was asking about.

BS 'probably' (emphasis on maybe) is pretty benign as far as overall ecosystem impact goes. BUT this also depends a lot on conditions, inter-intra-reactive chemistries & dosages. BS and the by-products have to have some overall impact because at times it can decimate the primary productivity. It does not seem to provide dependable results from one pond to the next which I think goes back to species diversity and natural variability. Dosage variability and timing also no doubt play a big part. Each pond can have a unique species causing the overpopulation or "problem". Way too many people lump all "algae" into to one specie or type. As with most all living things variations naturally occur among species in susceptibility or tolerance to any given product.

Doug (DR) was making some "sweeping" statements about "algae" and many readers could easily be misled. It is one thing the sell a product locally among nieve neighbors. It is a whole different type of ballgame (hardball) to go world-wide (internet) and expose oneself to ALL predators. I was trying to 'gently' show him some of the types of attacks/fouls that could occur in playing "hardball". CB thought I was being mean. But what DR is now doing, is like putting a jr-hi student into a college or pro ballgame. Not everyone is nice, even to kids, in the real world. In the real world, some kids get killed for no reason or for a pair of shoes. I'd hate to see him 'go down in flames' which could easily happen if he is not careful.