Written by: Steve Johnson
2021
Due to the nature of our Treated Sewerage irrigation water and the extreme temperature here in Oman, we have constantly battled with different forms of algae blooms within our on-course lakes. We had tried several different non-chemical processes to control and eradicate the ongoing blooms and associated smells.
It was brought to our attention by a British member with a farming background to trial the use of Wheat Straw as a means of algae control. After sourcing bales of straw we simply "dumped" around 30 bales of hay into a 1.5-hectare surface area lake and waited to see what transpired.
It was about a month before we started to see signs of the algae deteriorating and eight weeks in total before all forms of algae had been eradicated from the lake. The exact science behind the straw eradicating the algae is not known however after 18 months of using straw in the lake we have had no signs of returning algae and it's a very simple and cost-effective method.
