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Any idea what these are? AI thinks it’s snail egg blobs

Zucchini slices?

Blobs of algae.

Ask AI why snail eggs are green. Likely as what esshup said some form of algae. New pond, old pond, how common are they?

Pond is 2 years old. First time seeing these gelatinous blobs. Maybe 75 or so total in a 2acre pond. Just recently had a couple of geese show up, wonder if they brought with them?

The small algae blobs might be a type of growth in a new pond setting. As the nutrient balance changes due to other types of plant growths, they may not persist.

Goose poop is (unfortunately) an excellent fertilizer.

Many new ponds may start out with low levels of nutrients in the water for plant growth. If the geese are "causative" for the blobs, it might just be due to your pond now having a bit more nutrients. However, it could even be due to the start of spring in a pond that is now one year older.

I suspect as your pond matures, your plant profile will more closely match what is typical for your area.

Have fun developing your newish pond!

As fertilizer producers, 30 geese equal one cow.

One goose in a 24 hr period can poop enough fertilizer to grow 115 pounds of FA. (wet weight). That's the biggest reason why I try to keep them off of my pond. Not to mention them bringing invasive plant seeds to my pond.

Just to break the ice ... a little humor.

So let me get this straight ...

1 goose day = 115 lbs of FA

and

30 geese equal 1 cow for fertilizer therefore:


1 cow day * 30 *115 = 3450 lbs of FA


Or 1.725 tons of wet FA per day (629 tons of wet FA per year)

Dry weight of that FA? 62.9 tons/year of FA hay from the annual poop of 1 cow?


Problem isn't 30 geese = 1 cow. That's a good rule of thumb.

1 goose day = 110 lbs is WAY OFF (7600% too much). Not even close. It's no more than 1.5 lbs wet and .15 lbs dry from 1 goose day.

Another factoid? 1 lb of feed has a minimum of 3.65 goose days of the FA stimulating nutrient phosphorus. That's a bare minimum. But if only 1/2 of the goose poop winds up in the pond (they spend a lot of time grazing away from ponds), that comparison would be 1 lb of feed equals 7.3 days of goose poop because all the feed goes in the pond.

I'll start a new thread on the topic of nutrients when I get a chance.

jpsdad, I'll let you run the numbers.The internet says Goose poop is 2%-4.4% N, 0.1%-1.3% P. and a goose can poop between 1 and 4 pounds of poop daily.

Since geese are grazers, and many pond/lake owners/residents fertilize their lawns, here is some info on grass makeup: Fertilized lawn grass typically maintains high nutrient levels, commonly featuring a nutrient ratio of roughly
4-1-2 (N-P-K) in its leaf tissue. Optimal growth is achieved with 2.75–4.2% Nitrogen (N), 0.3–0.55% Phosphorus (P), and 1.0–2.5% Potassium (K), supporting lush growth and stress tolerance. Or this: Nutrient content of lawn clippings Processing lawn clippings and tree leaves into the lawn provides nutritional value as well as reduces waste. Generally, turf clippings contain 6-7% nitrogen, 0.5 to 1.0% phosphorous and 2-4% potassium; when returned to the lawn, they can account for a fourth of the lawn's fertilizer applications each year.

How much algae can a pound of P grow?

Then the lowest level I found is this:

500 lbs. Algae Adage

So, given those figures, what is the Max/Min amount that can be grown by 1 pound of goose poop and 4 pounds of goose poop?

I have not a lot of time to devote to this right now and will try to be quick. I like your approach of material balance. The only thing faulty about it is that you are mixing dry weight proportions of nutrients and wet weight of poo. Also, when I google what weight of manure ... I only get 1 to 2 lbs of goose manure as the range (lets use 1.5 as the average). Not sure how much forage that is but one should keep in mind that the goose has extracted about half of the energy from the forage to fuel its metabolism. It would make sense that a goose that consumes up to 4 lbs of forage would expel up to 2 lbs of poop. But goose poo is 75% water ... so you need to account for that which will reduce your estimate of phosphorus. Esshup you mentioned several nutrients but in ponds ... usually the limiting nutrient is phosphorus. I think it best to use the phosphorus as the limiting nutrient. If you do a little more research you will find that a typical goose will poo around 1 lb of phosphorus annually. I've seen estimates of 500 to 550 lbs of wet algae for that 1 lb of phosphorus and so I think that is a good number. Let's use it. If the the phosphorus of one goose supports 550 lbs of algae from its yearly poop ... then the poop on a daily basis is:

550/365 days = 1.5 lbs wet algae OR 1.5 lbs wet algae for every 1.5 lbs wet/fresh goose poo (~1 lbs algae/1 lb poo)

so maybe the minimum is 1 lb wet algae and the maximum is 2 lb wet algae for a goose-day depending on how much it poops?

To maintain a bloom ... some fertilize with super-phosphate. The other nutrients (N and K) are in sufficient concentrations and often do not need to be supplemented. When I google how many pounds of Phosphorus are needed annually to fertilize a 1 acre pond ... the answer comes back ... 25 to 50 pounds of phosphorus. So...

If one goose year is 1 lbs of phosphorus, then fertilizing 25 lbs of phosphorus per year is like having 25 geese on your pond every day of the year --- phosphorus wise. That is 9125 goose-days and enough to grow 6.87 tons of wet algae.

Feeding 800 lbs/year of feed with minimum 1% phosphorus ... its like having 8 geese on your pond every day of the year ... but only if it is limited to 1%. If 2% phosphorus, then that would be 16 geese and the potential to grow 4.4 tons of wet algae.