Better fertilizing

82. To grow the natural foods that your fish need, you can fertilize your bigger ponds just as you did your smaller ponds. You can fertilize them with

· compost made with animal manure
· compost made with plant material
· animal manure
· plans materiel

83. However, with bigger ponds you will have to be especially careful to fertilize them very well.

84. In Items 15 to 31 in Booklet No. 30, you reamed some things that you need to know to fertilize a pond. Here are some other things that you should know.

85. With your old smaller ponds, you built a crib in one corner in the shallow part of the pond to hold the fertilizer just like the one shown below.

Build a crib

86. If you build a new pond that is bigger than 500 square metres, you should build two cribs in the corners of the shallow part of the pond. The drawings below show you where to put them.

Two cribs

87. If you are going to fertilize your new bigger ponds with compost, you will need to put in
· 10 kilograms of compost for each 100 square metres of pond each week.

88. If you are going to fertilize your new bigger ponds with animal manure, you will need to put in

· 2 to 3 kilograms of poultry droppings for each 100 square metres of pond each week 2 to 3 kg or

Use poultry droppings

· 8 to 10 kilograms of pig dung for each 100 square metres of pond each week 8 to 10 kg or

Use pig dung

· 10 to 15 kilograms of cow dung for each 100 square metres of pond each week. 10 to 15 kg

Use cow dung

you are going to fertilize your new bigger ponds with animal manure but you do not have enough of any one kind of animal manure, you can make a mixture of several kinds.

90. You can make a mixture using 1 part of poultry droppings, 2 parts of pig dung and 3 parts of cow dung.

Figure 1 part + 2 parts + 3 parts

You will need to put in
· 10 kilograms of this mixture for each 100 square metres of pond each week.

91. When the water is green, you will know that there is enough natural food in the water for your fish.

92. In Booklet No. 30, you learned that when you have fertilized a pond it will take about a week for the water to turn green.

93. To make sure that the water in your pond is green enough, you should test it each week. To do this, put your arm in the water up to the elbow.

Test the green water

94. If you are just able to see the ends of your fingers, the water is green enough. If you are able to see the ends of your fingers well, you will know that the water is not green enough.

95. If the water is not green enough, add more fertilizer each week and test the water from time to time until you see that it is green enough.

Note
Remember, you must still feed your fish the other kinds of food that they need to grow strong and healthy. Items 91 to 104 in Booklet No. 30 tell you what to feed them and how to feed them.