hi guys i was here the other day and read a post about some kind of aquatic roundup that has something in it (floculents) so it stick better to the cattails. does anyone know the name of this product. also, i have read some good articles on tilapia controlling abgae any feedback on this.
thanks
Shoreklear that already has the surfactant added.
Welcome to Pond Boss steelhead.... Like Shorty said "Rodeo". Never tried Shoreklear though.... Maybe next year!
Thanks for the welcome and the info. also, has anybody heard of using asian grass carp to eat algae in ponds and where to get them.
thanks
From Malone and Sons, who furnish a LOT of the Triploid Grass Carp in the U.S.
Grass carp prefer aquatic vegetation such as Duckweed, Chara, Naiad, Potamogeton, Eurasian Watermilfoil, Bladderwort, Hydrilla, Elodea, Coontail, Spikerush and Water Stargrass. Grass carp generally do not prefer filamentous algaes, watermeal, watersheild, spatterdock, waterlilly, arrowhead, water hyacinth and cattails. Plant preference is greatly linked to fish size. Smaller grass carp will readily eat filamentous algae and pithophora while larger grass carp do not prefer this species but will eventually eat it once they have eaten other available species. Emergent vegetation such as hyacinth and arrowhead are generally not preferred by grass carp, however once grass carp have reached large sizes they will eat these species.
But, for specific algae control, I'd use Tilapia instead of GC. Check with Mi. I don't know if GC are legal to stock in Mi. I know Tilapia are legal.
If you want to get rid of them permanently, try cutting them frequently enough that they don't re-surface within the same season. You can use the Jenson Lake MowerTM as it mounts on just about any boat, so you can go where you need to cut them. They in effect drown if you do that, and most won't regrow the next year. See lakemower.com
Sorry thought you weren't a pondboss friend, I like the mower..
Mowing cattails is more a maintenance approach as it provides a haircut, but I'm thinking their rhizomes continue to expand their colony's reach. For permanent control, I use any glyphosate product applied using the glove of death method per Esshup and Rah's book. Four days and they are brown and toasty and dead to the roots. If you spray use a surfactant.
add dawn dish soap that works great as a surfactant. it will make the round stick to them
I had a problem with cattails. I put a copper ground wire where I was having the problem, and no cattails.
Could you expand on this a bit John?... Never heard this mentioned before.
I killed them off and put the copper ground wire where they used to be. Just laying it in the area where they grew. Plants and trees have a hard time with copper. I figured if copper sulfate killed plants why not a copper wire. Its been years since I've had cattails. I heard of copper spikes for killing junk trees and poison ivy.
Interesting.... If I understand this correctly, you killed the cattails before doing this. May I ask what you used to do that and how long are you into this experiment?
Also please be sure to update us on this after a year or so.
The "copper nails - tree killing story" is a myth and has been disproved through scientific experiments. You likely did a good job with the herbicides.
Well I'll be damned! I had an area in my back yard replanted last year and one Bottle Bush kept dying, wife said I didn't water that one enough, it happened 3 times! When I dug it out the last time I found an old ground steak, old breaker box location. It was a pain in the arse to get out, about 10' long. I replanted again and watered like crazy, it started to look like it was going to die again but mad it! I bet it was the ground steak!
Rob C
After a lightning strike that finds a ground rod. The change in soil chemistry at that site will cause plants to do poorly for several years. Really, the copper myth is a just that, a myth. People have disproved it through direct experiments.
I hung a bird feeder one time with copper ground wire eventually the wire grew into the limb, the limb died I always figured it was the copper but maybe it just choked it off enough too kill it..
I checked this out when my dad told me to be sure that I did not use copper nails when I hung things on trees. I am a scientist, so I kind of trust experiments. I know that some folks feel differently, but his is my take on it. If you look around on Google Scholar there are several papers that explain why the toxicity of copper is too weak to kill plants by using metal objects. There are also experiments where researchers put copper nails around trees every 1.2" with no effect.
yes it is just like using copper sulfate. Lots of people in kansas throw copper wire in their lagoons to keep out the cattails
RAH --I work with wood for my profession. They make a product that has copper in it for a wood preservative and fungus killer. One of the best things out there right now for it's purpose. Then throw into the mix that the algae killers that are recommended here are copper based. So, if copper is bad for these things, why wouldn't it have a bearing on plant life further up the eco-chain?
I am not being argumentive in bringing this up, I am just trying to learn.
BGK -- Yes, it could have as much to do with that you girdled the tree. Some trees have a tougher resistance to that type of thing than others. We have all seen an example at one point or another where a tree grew around something and not die. So, possibly the copper did give that one last death blow.
I haven't needed my #8 copper "witchin' rods" recently. I guess I could rent them to people with cattail problems.
Yeh - why would copper fungicides be used on plant if they killed plants?
When my dad told me about the copper nail trick, I was hoping to kill off a bunch of honey locusts the "easy way". That is why I looked into the scientific literature on this. Sure would be easier than a chain saw followed by Tordon.
I remembered seeing a University of Nebraska study years ago that mentioned examples, and one was of a cattail stand that was first cut in August of the previous year. Then the water level was raised, and kept high through the winter. Less than 20 percent grew back the following year.
So we started recommending that people mow frequently enough to prevent the plants from emerging again. We have since bought back several of our customers' Lake MowersTM after a year or two when their cattails were gone and they had no more use for the cutters. They reported the trick to getting rid of the cattails was to keep the plants below the water surface for long enough that they drowned.