Just subscribed to magazine and joined forum. Had !urked in shadows a bit in the past. I have a 3/4 acre pond. Originally built as 1/2 acre pond in 2009 but leaked like a ... Rebuilt in 2014 and stocked in 2015. We are beekeepers which has guided us to use no pesticides/herbicides. We live on 83 acres of mostly woods. We have fruit trees. We collect maple sap when this screwy weather allows. Been called homesteaders and hipees but that's unfair. My hair won't grow like that anymore. 😀

Hawkeye,
Welcome to Pond Boss...tons of good info and helpful folks here. I've always been interested in beekeeping....sounds like you have a nice spread. Post pics of your pond when you have time.

Hey Hawkeye, glad to have you. Sounds like you probably know your way around the forum since you lurked for so long, you know what a great resource this is. You will love the magazine, quality stuff.

Is the pond stocked?

Welcome! I always tell folks that you can call me anything you like as long as you call me in time for supper.

Hawkeye, Buckeye, whatever, welcome aboard. We put up with Cody and that Ben Adachoochoo guy so guess another Buckeye is tolerable. There are a few others here that are saps err, aaah sap collectors. Bee keeping sounds interesting. Maybe when things get active you can introduce a thread about that.
Tell us more specifics about your pond. Types of fish, likes and aggravations, etc.
It ain't the hair that makes a hippie but the attitude. Sounds like yours is just fine.

My wife farms high-intensity vegetables and a friend keeps 8 or 9 hives on our place at all times. We don't need the bees for our farming since we have so many wild bees, but the hives make more honey for them than anywhere else they keep hives so we cannot see any good reason not to let them keep their hives of non-native honey bees on our land. European honey bees may compete with the native bees a little, but I think they do minimal harm (hopefully not spreading disease to the native bumble bees which has been a problem in some places). Of course we know how to use insecticides according to the label and almost all herbicides are not toxic to bees (so the concentrated livestock bees are pretty safe). If you do use insecticides, follow label directions and don't think that organic insecticides are safe to bees because many are very toxic to beneficials and need to be treated like any other pesticide (not used on flowering plants during pollination times). We are restoring a large chunk of our land to wildlife habitat so herbicides are critical in controlling invasive plants. Sounds like we have similar interests but may approach the situation differently.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Pond is stocked with bass, bluegill, redears, catfish, grass carp and a few stripers. It'll be 2 years in June. Caught a few fish last fall and was happy with the growth. Excited to see what this year brings. I'm not using fish good. Goal is for pond to support itself.

Pond is 3/4 acre and 10 feet deep. Fair amount of shallow areas. Weed control is a concern. Another is how many fish to harvest. I've already find some good info here.

Avoiding chemicals definitely has its challenges but I feel good about it. Controlling cattails is lots of work for an old guy to pull or cut them.

Since we built our ponds and wetlands, I kept up on pulling cattails until the planted emergent plants got well established. For willows, we use glyphosate and the "glove of death"? This also becomes rarely needed after desirable plants establish. Be sure to use a water-safe formulation near ponds.

If you always pull every cattail you see, they never get ahead of your efforts to keep them out. New ponds will only get a few new plants try to grow each year. When you ignore new cattail growths then the problem starts and quickly becomes a management mess.

I think that it depends on the seed bank and what's upwind. I pulled hundreds to thousands during the first year, but it quickly tailed off in subsequent years. It is pretty easy to pull seedlings.