Information in the literature about plant yields and growth
rates are varying. The productivity of water hyacinth
cultured in nutrient enriched waters and wastewaters has
been found to be in the range of 40-88 mt (dry wt)
/ha/yr[88,89]. Jo et al.[90] evaluated the growth of water
hyacinth after 30 days and reported yield of 6402.5 g/m2
whereas Sooknah and Wilkie[91] used hyacinth in dairy
manure for 31 days and found its yield was 1608 g/m2
.
DeBusk et al.[92] evaluated hyacinth in secondarily treated
municipal wastewater and reported plant productivity of 16
g/m2
/day. Similarly, Ayyasamy et al.[93] observed biomass
which increased from 75 to 101-106 mg/L, with 37%
increase in 10 days. Snow and Ghaly[94] found water
hyacinth yields were 83 and 49 g/m2 with hydraulic retention
times (HRT) of 6 and 12 days, respectively. It has been
estimated by Reed et al.[95] that 10 individual plants can
spread and cover one acre pond within 8 months.