Pond Plants

[wayne]

Joel (or anyone else),

I have quite a few plants in my pond (the more plants you have, the less algae you'll have, similar to salt water).  Most of my plants come back every year, but of course the lettuce and the other floater type stuff doesn't.  Any way to keep that stuff alive so it grows back, or no way to do it in a small pond?  I usually keep my filter pump going over winter and disconnect the falls.  I didn't know you had pond stuff, I'll be visiting again soon to get some plants and fish.  I want to redo my pond (just a hard plastic insert in the ground, I want to remove that, make the hole bigger and put in a liner, more falls, some shallow areas, etc.  Wish I had a bigger yard!).

Wayne

[ohioreef]

Wayne,

What kind of plants do you have? I've just got a couple lilies in mine, but would like to add some others. My downfall is going to the size of my pond, only 90g.

[Joel]

Tropicals like lettuce, hyacynth, water palm, etc will not over winter. YOu will need to bring them indoors in the fall. I have kept lettuce and hyacynth in a rubbermaid tub with a flourscent light over it. I had a small pump for water movement and added a couple types of fertilizers monthy. I have done tropical lily in this manner as well but they seem to want more light.

Umbrella Palms and Taro are real easy to keep, Put them indoors near a window and keep thier container in a shallow tub (saucer) of water. They are very easy to over winter.

As cheap as hyacynth and lettuce are, I normally pitch them and get new ones in the spring but some of the other stuff can be expensive and is well worth the effort to over winter indoors.

[wayne]

Wayne,

What kind of plants do you have? I've just got a couple lilies in mine, but would like to add some others. My downfall is going to the size of my pond, only 90g.

Lilies, iris (at least two varities), 2 types of rush, cattails, hyacinth (if it comes back), and I'll have lettuce and hornwort (think that's what its called) when I get to Joels.  My pond is actually too small for everything I try to keep in it (root balls get huge and I split them halfway through the summer), but it keeps down on the algae (non-existent, usually).  The hyacinth, lettuce and hornwort will easily take over if you let it.  You only need a small amount of lettuce and hornwort to cover small ponds like ours in a few weeks.

Wayne

[ohioreef]

How big is your pond, Wayne? Do you have fish in it?

[wayne]

I don't recall exactly, between 125-150 gallon.  Yes, I have 1 real koi, the rest (~ 12) are gold fish which I've had for about 6 years, and they are very large now (most are 4-6").  I also have 1 frog.  I don't feed very often (1-2 times per week), I assume they are getting plenty from insects, the plants, etc.  They are growing, so I know they are not starving.  I want to make it slightly bigger with a shallow pool area and put some smaller gold fish/koi in it, but don't want to take too much more room from my backyard. 

[ohioreef]

I've got plenty of room, it's just the thought of having to dig the hole!!!

[Viggen]

I want to make it slightly bigger with a shallow pool area and put some smaller gold fish/koi in it, but don't want to take too much more room from my backyard. 

I wouldn't go shallow   According to most koi/pond people, Koi ponds need to be 2ft deep as a min & preferably 3-6ft deep.  They claim koi like swimming vertically & when the water is shallow they cannot get their exercise.  Also, shallow water allows predators to drop in like crane's (sp), racoons etc.

There is a crane which stops by my ponds quite often especially during winter.  When I can finally redo my setup everything will be 2ft deep as the min & hopefully go to 4-6ft.   

[Joel]

THat's a blue hering that is visiting your pond.

A large shallow area is a great idea for your plants. Having a bog area and slowly moving your water thru it will make a great type of filtration for most ponds.

Viggen is correct about it needing to be deeper for fish though. THey will visit your shallow water area regularly but will prefer the deeper area most the time. It is also needed (a deep area) for them to over winter.

[Emily]

Grrrr....Blue Herons....Took two of our fish last summer:(        Yup, I agree that deeper is better.     We usually will keep Hyacinth and lillies as well as some other pond potted plants.  WE have a large filter that we put mint on top of.     It sure keeps our surface algae down (but we also have a UV Filter thingy).  We don't mind the string algae on the sides of it though...it hides the black vinyl as well as provides extra food for the fish/snails we put in there.  Tadpoles/frogs are fun too!  We have to have some way to annoy the neighbors so the bullfrogs are a way to go:)