I added liquid barley straw for the first time this year and have been pleased so far with the results but it so expensive when thinking about adding to my larger ponds, I decided to do a little shopping on the internet for "Barley straw bales Ohio". I found Doug's Barley Straw sales, east of Bowling Green. $ 15.00 for a 50lb bale plus shipping. Close enough for us to pick up. :)

Also there is an fact sheet published by Ohio state University on the use and effectivness of Barley straw for controling Filamentous algae in ponds which is worth reading. We can all call ourselves experts. HAHA

Fm3

I do have some of the barley extract coming with an order, and if it works then I will probably get some barley locally to try. My pond is small so an entire bale would be overkill! LOL

Does anyone have a preference of the liquid extract vs. the bales/balls that are sold? We have a 100 gallon pond that is currently looking like soup and i'm dying to make the green go away.

I haven't tried any barley yet....but am going today to get some "mini" bales I saw at the garden centre the other day. The also have the pellet form so I don't know which is better, but I am going to try the bales first. Will let you all know. I think they were $12 for two little bales (about the size of a submarine sandwich!)

I've used bales and pellets. I hated the pellets. Bales are good. Many have used the liquid and like that. It's supposed to ate faster whereas bales have to age (rot).

I picked up 2 of the bales today. They are supposed to do 2,000 gallons but I put both in there anyhow! One in the top pond and one in the bottom one. It says they take a month to work :-(

My garden center sells a barley bale in a mesh bag that can be used as a floating planter. I bought it but didn't think it did too much good. It didn't look very good either. I began using the liquid and am much happier. My pond is crystal clear!

thanks bfly, if this doesn't work I will switch to the liquid! I am not too concerned with looks right now as it is just a temporary set up till the new pond gets built.

I have always understood that Barley only inhibits the growth of string algae. I have heard that Koi clay in the correct amounts will clear your water of suspended algae and has many health benefits for your fish, although I have never tried it myself. Supposedly it causes it to clump together so your filter can remove it. Of course the best way is to encourage floating plants to grow. 50 % min coverage is recommended if you have full sun.

FM3

Last summer I used Barley/Lavender bales to clear the algae from my 2500 gallon pond. I threw them into my bio filter, and it took about 4 weeks to go from "soup" to crystal clear. This year (temps hit the low 70sF in January so algae got a head start!) I tried barley extract several times with no results, so I am back to using bales.

Lori