Pond Boss
Posted By: Brand0 South Texas plants - 04/12/17 01:42 PM
Can anyone tell me what these are in my pond. Very small pond but have a massive amount of this stuff in it. They are fully submerged.



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Posted By: Pat Williamson Re: South Texas plants - 04/13/17 04:02 AM
Not sure but better pictures might help the pros tell you what it is
Posted By: esshup Re: South Texas plants - 04/15/17 04:13 AM
Live Target Frog Tail?

Look here: http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

That may help, if not, take a good close up picture of the undamaged plant.

I'd take a close look at alligator weed and smartweed to start with to see if the description of them matches what you have.
Posted By: Brand0 Re: South Texas plants - 05/22/17 08:06 PM
I've added some more files here. After looking at the Tamu site I think I have American pondweed. There is also another plant that is fully submerged that I think is baby pondweed.

What do y'all think?

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Posted By: highflyer Re: South Texas plants - 05/22/17 09:30 PM
Brand0,

Several of those pictures look like our American pond weed. We like it as it is very manageable and beneficial to our pond.
Posted By: Bill D. Re: South Texas plants - 05/22/17 09:42 PM
Brian,

I have some as well. Started out as 1 or 2 plants that apparently came from seed water fowl brought in a couple years ago. Looks like the patch is roughly 15 feet in diameter now. How do you "manage" it? I like it but want to keep it confined to maybe a 30 or 40 foot diameter patch. I would also like to move some to another location. Have you tried moving some?
Posted By: highflyer Re: South Texas plants - 05/22/17 10:27 PM
Bill,

I would ask Kelly Duffie how to control it, but so far, I have left it alone as I want a little more. It has been here for four years and has spread a little at a time. Controlling it should be easy. Also, Bob and the guys at Athens like it, that is good enough for me.

So far, so good.
Posted By: Bill D. Re: South Texas plants - 05/23/17 01:40 AM
Thanks Brian. I started a new thread on controlling desirable vegetation.
Posted By: Kelly Duffie Re: South Texas plants - 05/23/17 03:30 AM
Guess I missed this thread, but replied more in depth on Bill's new thread.
In short, the follow-up photos appear to be what many folks call American pond weed, but it is more widely known as "long-leaf pond weed", or Potamogeton nodosus among aqua-nerds. smile
I agree with leaving it alone, or modestly managing it if it becomes too unruly. It's generally well-behaved; being regulated by habitat depth, except perhaps in ponds with significantly fluctuating water-levels.
Possibly of greater concern is when a more invasive weed species appears and begins to out-compete the existing long-leaf pond weed. That's when it may become very difficult to target one species without negatively impacting the other; so avoid that scenario if at all possible.
Posted By: Brand0 Re: South Texas plants - 05/23/17 02:00 PM
Thanks for the input. Sooo here is my issue. I have some major leakage and literally 90%+ of my pond is engulfed in this pondweed. I have no idea how long the pond has been around I just bought this land.

I'm wanting to attempt soilfloc, but to do that I need to clear out some of this vegetation.

My pond is super small anyway I think it will do it good to remove some of this stuff. So any pointers as to how I might go about doing that would be appreciated.

Thank You
Posted By: Kelly Duffie Re: South Texas plants - 05/24/17 01:40 AM
Define "super small". smile
Depending on the pond's size, and your budget; and since it has leakage issues, you might seriously consider draining, removing accumulations of detritus and then sealing the pond's re-established bottom with incorporated bentonite clay before restocking it with water and fish.
Leakage and "small pond" are never a good combination, especially when fish are involved - and especially in Texas' summertime heat and unpredictable rainfall patterns.
Posted By: Brand0 Re: South Texas plants - 05/24/17 12:30 PM
Pond is right at 1/8th of an acre in size. About 8 feet at its deepest, but it doesn't drop off very quick so right in the middle 8 feet but 4-6 makes up the majority of the pond.

This pond was not engineered well I can tell that, and I agree that draining and re-doing is probably the absolute best approach.

Unfortunately the funds just aren't there to do this, and I need the water for wildlife and livestock.

It's well fed and I'm able to keep it topped off, but that is costing me quite a bit in electricity to run the pump. That's why I'm interested in soilfloc.

90% of my pond is covered in this pondweed though so I need to clear quite a bit of it out for this soilfloc to work.
Posted By: Kelly Duffie Re: South Texas plants - 05/27/17 04:42 AM
Not sure how much success you'll have in sealing the leakage without draining and reworking the bottom. You may want to verify the presence of a leak before attempting that option.
Take a 5-gal bucket, mostly filled with rocks or gravel, and place it partially submerged and firmly pressed into the pond's bottom so that the bucket's upper lip is only a couple of inches above the pond's water-level. Add water to the rock-filled bucket until the water-line inside of the bucket matches the pond's water-level on the outside of the bucket. With the bucket rigidly immobilized, monitor the water-levels on the inside AND outside of the bucket for several days - without pumping ANY makeup water into the pond. If the bucket's exterior water-level drops more rapidly than its interior water-level, then your pond probably has a leak - since water-temperature and evaporation's impact should otherwise be the same for both the water in the bucket and in the pond.
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If you decide to treat, AQUATHOL K (liquid) or AQUATHOL SUPER K (gran) are likely your best options at this stage of the season; applied in stages to avoid a massive plant die-off and hopefully "reduce" the risk of a fish-killing oxygen crash. An early-season treatment with fluridone would possibly offer season-long control, but that chemistry should be deployed long before weed-maturity.
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