Ive been trying to clear my pond since the convention last year with zero success.This weekend a custumer came over to pick up some parts and we got to talking ponds and land care.Seems as though he new his stuff pretty darn good.Instead of chemicals,he told me to sink 5 lbs of cornmeal in the pond and it would clear it up narurally in 1-3 weeks.He also said more is better,so I sunk 5 lbs in each end of the pond.Anyone else ever heard of this?I did this Sat. afternoon,so the experiment is on.
Tom, I never heard of that so I looked it up and found this.
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=18
Hey,Thanks A P.Naturally,I screwed up again,and bought mine at the grocery store.But at least it will still work,just take a little longer.He did tell me the same thing though,that its the algea keeping the clay suspended in the water.
I'm not so sure about the cornmeal trick, but I did hear that you can hook up a homade hydrogen generator to an aeration system and expect a 50% improvement in Perch-per-gallon.
I would like a report on what happens Tom. Not sure what the dirt doctor is selling. First as a fertilizer then as a FA suppressant and even as a pond clearing device. I have to be missing something here.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=115324&fpart=1
Just last week I had a customer tell me that his neighbor had glaring success using cornmeal to control FA in his pond. I had never heard of this before so it is quite the coincidence that it showed up here today.
My main concern is that you are adding organic material to your pond. If the cellulose does bind up the P, what happens to the cornmeal and the biproducts when they decompose at the bottom of the pond?
Please let us know how it works Tom.
As I said,I put it in Sat.Have been checking the pond dailey but if anything it seems to have clouded a little at first but now it looks the same.I will keep everyone posted at the results.It just dawned on me that I should have taken a secci disc reading and PH BEFORE I started.Ill try to ck those tonite and dailey here after.2-3 weeks never took so long to go by.
Well nuts.Its a good thing cause I need the water bad,but it screwed up my test too.Got a little rain yesterday and the pond caught about 2-21/2 ft of water and clouded up some more from the runoff.Guess Ill wait a little longer now.Sigh
Update...I havent noticed any clearing,but just learned it doesnt work if the PH isnt around 7.Too many irons in the fire.If I can get the foundation for the new barn down this week-end I'll test the water and post back.