Good afternoon, all. I am new to the forum, but not to ponds having had Koi ponds for years. But this is my first encounter with a regular outdoor pond. I live in a development that has two ponds, the larger is about 0.45 acres and the smaller, about 0.17 acres. I have been advised to control weeds with Reward, which I purchased. Now the big question. Each pond has a fountain. I read that I should use about, say 0.4 gallon in the larger pond. Since there is a big fountain in the middle of each pond, can I just walk around the pond and pour 0.4 gallon in the larger pond, and correspondingly less for the smaller one, and presume that the fountain will disperse the product?

Thanks

Reward is a liquid diquat formulation that has been effective on many plants. It is a contact algaecide and herbicide. Contact herbicides act quickly and kill all plants cells that they contact. It is generally sprayed on the plants in question not used as a whole pond treatment.

What plants are you treating? See AquaPlant for info.

https://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

Thanks, ewest. I'll take a pic, and appreciate the help.

Here is a pic of the problem that I have. And I do appreciate the help. Thank you.

OK, sorry, but I have a pic of the pond on my computer. How do I get it into the post, and thanks. I thought I could select an image from my computer, but it wants something about floating images?

Here is a pic of the pond. What is it, and how do I get rid of it?

http://rs86.pbsrc.com/albums/k105/pantra...10&fit=crop

Ahhhh...
What a problem. Anyway, I went to photobucket and uploaded the foto there and got a hyperlink, but when I pasted here it only uploaded the hyperlink to the foto, and not the foto itself. However, if click on the hyperlink, you can see the foto, and thanks.

ewest, I was not able to get the pic in the post, but the link is in the post above. Could you please click on the link, and it will bring up the pic. This is what I would like to get rid of. I am in a development of 36 lots around a pond, and it is unsightly, and thanks.

Too small, need close up photos in order to identify. Looks like mats of decaying FA to me but photo is pretty small.

All aquatic weed species have various tolerances to herbicides and chemicals so it it very important to know the weed name for good results with herbicide. KNOW YOUR WEED SPECIES THEN USE THE APPROPRIATE CHEMICAL HERBICIDE TO KILL IT. Diquat, as a general pond application, can be used for submerged weeds in shallow water less than 4 ft deep. For submerged weeds in water deeper than 4ft a subsurface application as injection (drop tubes) to the bottom area and drug through the weeds where they are rooted to the bottom is needed for effective results. As mentioned the chemical has to get to where it surrounds the weeds (in contact) so it is absorbed to kill the weeds.

Another option is to use an appropriate granular herbicide that sinks to the bottom, dissolves and releases the herbicide to be absorbed by the plants. Granular herbicides work well for spot treatments.

Thanks, ewest and Bill Cody. I'll take better picture of the weed and post.

Ok. Let me give this another shot, with a bigger picture:



Hope someone has words of wisdom as to how to get rid of this, and thanks.

I raked deeper into the water, and pulled up this:

Teejjaeh57, could you go to the bottom of the forum and see a better pic. Thanks, and I'd appreciate any help to get rid of this ugly mess. Thanks

This is what I raked out of the pond:

Bill, what do you think is a good granular herbicide. I am using aquathol super k but it is
Expensive about $250 for 10 lbs. I a m using it for spot treatment of my pond with so/so results. Would like to have so ething cheaper.

This is a question for Kelly Duffie. I am not familiar with any of the lower cost granular herbicides that are as effective as Aquathol.

Boatman,

What species of vegetation are you trying to manage?

some of that floating is surely fa and cutrine will knock it out quickly. i am battling some of that weedy submerged plant also, with very little luck. pond dye is supposedly a good way to choke out light and keep weeds at bay. i don't have experience with it though.

Bill

It's called pond weed. Small petals with a thin stem to the pond bottom.

Boatman: There are a number of aquatic plants that qualify as XYZ "pond weed", such as Baby Pond Weed. Fortunately, most of members of the Potamogeton genus similarly respond to the various treatment-options; BUT in virtually every instance, the performance of ANY treatment is dependent upon achieving an adequate concentration and "contact-time" - which varies from one product-type to another.
That said, the success of "spot treatments" (a relative term) are inherently less successful - and sometimes complete failures - when the targeted area is too small to resist rapid diffusion/dispersion of the selected product, thereby failing to achieve and maintain the necessary concentration and contact-time.
The contact-time required by some products might be measured in hours, days OR weeks; so product-selection is especially critical when conducting "spot-treatments" OR when targeting areas that will or might experience undercurrents produced by wind or an assortment of other natural or mechanical influences.
Keep in mind that granular herbicides are rarely a solution for avoiding the effects of diffusion and dispersion. The granule is simply a "carrier" of the active-ingredient, and in that respect the granule replaces water as the "carrier" when conducting liquid-applied applications. Once the herbicide granule contacts the pond's water, it takes only a matter of seconds or minutes before the coated or integrated active-ingredient is released into the water-column where it is free to migrate with any existing currents.
Detrimental currents may not be visible to the naked eye, especially if they're only moving a foot or two per minute, yet their impact on a treatment's performance could prove significant. As a result, the smaller the "spot treatment", the greatly the chances that transient and virtually undetectable currents will diffuse and disperse the active-ingredient, yielding sub-lethal concentrations within the targeted treatment-area.

Kelly always provides excellent, very professional, well experienced advice. Thanks for checking in on the Forum.

If this were a pond I was managing... I'd start with a chelated copper (cutrine, et Al.), or copper sulfate treatment, for the FA. It's surrounding your target vegetation and will limit the effectiveness of the diquat. Once the FA is no longer a problem (2 weeks), yes proceed with the diquat. It looks like your a stone's throw from a larger body of water.... Is that salt water? In my experience, ponds so close to salt water can be tough. The salinity tends to "cancel out" or bind up chemical and limit their effectiveness. Your ponds are also small enough that you could rake them pretty quick. Then you would only need maintenance level of chemicals, as opposed to corrective levels. If your cost sensitive, go the rake route.

As for application, no don't just dump. The fountains won't work the way you're thinking for diquat. Mix the chemical in a backpack sprayer and swath it on top of the target. You could mix both diquat and cutrine in a single treatment, but you'd get better results with cutrine, wait two weeks, then diquat.

Picture also looks like the ponds close to a road... Might be a good candidate for dye/aesthetics, and the dye will shade the water to help inhibit regrowth.

Another option, since you're located in Florida, just get a lake management company on the job. I can give you a recommendation, even if it's not me (full disclosure, I run an aquatics company in NE Florida - Jax).