Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Duck potato question

Our pond is down about 12-18 inches now, so lots of our duck potato plants that were in the water are now out of it.

Question: Will they survive this (hopefully) temporary condition? Anybody have them & observed their behavior?

My duck potato tends to live just fine whether it is 6 inches above the waterline or 10 inches below, maybe deeper. I am sure that the above waterline scenarios are contingent upon many soil factors, especially the soils ability to perform capillary action and draw the water up to the plant.

I am afraid I can not account for much more that 6 inches above the water level (good nor bad)as my pond is just over a year old and the water level has not fluctuated much since the arrowhead (duck potato) became established.

If I were you, I would keep an eye on the farthest plants from the water and if they start to fade then move some (faded and not) into the water for safe keeping. I would not move them all as the water level will come back up and they may not like that depth in the end.

Did you buy these plants and put them in your pond or did they show up on their own? I transplanted mine from a nearby catch basin and within a few days, hundreds popped up on their own. they are very prolific at my place, I don't think I could stop them if I wanted. Kinda like moles!

Thanks, Quarter. I had them deliberately planted from a place near Dallas, along with several other species. This is one that has really prospered. The chara, Am Pondweed, and cattails just showed up on their own.

My wife loves the blue flowers of the duck potato, so I'm anxious for it to do well. Only grows to a maximum about a foot deep that I can tell, so no worries it will do harm.

I originally blamed the beaver for eating them, but now suspect the deer.

Odd...I did not know duck potato / broadleaf arrowhead / wapato came in a variety with blue flowers. Mine are white with yellow centers.

Shows how much I know: I thought they only had blue flowers!

Sure that they are not pickerel weed?

You know, I think you're right. Checked pics last night and concluded that it was probably pickerel weed. They do have blue flowers, and they look similar to duck potato.

So maybe what I have growing around the pond is pickerel weed, not duck potato. Guess I'll have to wait for the flowers to find out. Either way, I'd be happy.

The deer love to chop the leaves off my pickerel weed too.

How do you discourage them? We have loads of deer...

Put up a deer stand!! Every time I find a good place for one they disappear!

We have a lot of deer (and deer stands), but to establish marginal plants, I lay thorny honey locust branches over the newly planted plants. Once established, they are hard to kill, and the honey locust branches rot away in a few years. Fencing works too, but kinda looks bad and needs to be removed in time. I did use fence this year to protect a young lotus that I planted because I was too lazy to search out a nicely branched honey locust and had used up all the branches that were close by. I harvest a lot of deer each year, but our deer herd remains strong. We have most of our place in wildlife habitat so they like to hang out on our land. Just part of it.

Has anyone harvested the duck potato tubers and eaten them? There is a pond next door that is covered in arrowhead

Good idea. We have lots of thorny stuff at our place, including blackberry bushes. Nice if we could find a good use for it all!

Not sure how well plants with shorter thorns will work.
If you try some, please let us know how they work.