Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Weed Identification and Treatment Steps

Guys, I have a 2 year old pond which is around 1.5 acres in size and 12 ft. deep at the dam. A few months ago I started noticing these weeds growing around the edges of the pond only in the shallow parts. I was told to purchase 3 grass carp for the size of the pond and they would take care of it. First, I want to know what is the weed I have by looking at the photos and secondly what do I need to do to treat my pond to get rid of it? Someone told me the geese travel from pond to pond and bring these delightful weeds. Don't know if it's true of not. Can someone please look at the photo's on the link below and help me out? Thanks a ton!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyjernigan

You will get my standard, I'd like to help you out but response. Take a stem or two or the greenest or most live sample you can. Place that on an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of copy paper for background and size reference. The two water photos are impossible, and the tangled mess is tough. Just one stem or two crossing the paper. Once Id'd, I can give you an action plan or treatment steps.

Ok, I can certainly get you some better photo's. Thanks for the quick response.

KJ

Ok, I have some better photo's for you on 8.5 x 11 white paper. Hope this helps to identify the weed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyjernigan

Take a look here, under submerged plants: http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

Does anything look familiar? Are those globs on the plants part of the plant or globs of algae?

Looks like Southern Naiad (Bushy Pondweed) the most. All of the globs are part of the plant.

Anybody got any ideas on what the weed is I have and how to treat it?

Thanks,
KJ

KJ,

Is the weed really delicate and almost falls apart when you touch it ?

Our weeds look very similar and grows in huge masses then when it breaks the surface it starts to die off and decay but only the portion that breaks the surface.

I have found that if I rake it I can remove enough to make the pond visually appealing still but it leaves enough cover for the forage fish to hide. I personally like having them in the pond but they become a little unsightly when they break the surface. They provide excellent cover for forage fish and they will only grow until they run out of sufficient nutrients.

Yes, you are correct. It is very delicate and some is really green and some is brown. I thought about raking it out of the pond and I also noticed the small fish love hiding and hanging out in it.

I'm gonna go with bladderwort. It is actually carnivorous. It uses the small bladders to trap and digest aquatic organisms. It can be tough to control. More info here:

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/floating_plants/bladderwort_mgmt.htm

I was thinking ours was Naiad but not sure if it grows in our region. It looks an aweful lot like KJ's clump masses. Ours does'nt flower once it breaks the surface and is rooted. I believe Bladder is freefloating and flowers ?

Yeah, it's doesn't look like bladderwort and doesn't bloom at all. The consistency is almost net like when you try to pull some out of the pond. It gets really thick and heavy to remove by hand. It is rooted and the closest picture I have seen yet is the Southern Naiad, but not 100% sure.

Pond Frog can you help?

Read this http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/submerged_plants/southern_naiad.htm and then look at these other pics here http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/submerged_plants/southern_naiad_pics.htm . Note the similar plants and baby pond weed.

Well I am in agreement that it is Southern Naiad (Bushy Pondweed)for the most part. Now the next step is how to get rid of it? What treatment option? Rake and manual labor, maybe?

That is a very good way even though labor intensive. The reason is it removes the excess nutrients trapped in the weeds while grass carp and chemicals do not. The web links above have treatment options.

Ok, thanks for all the good feedback. Looks like I have a fun weekend ahead of me. Sure beats being at work! LOL

As Bryan75 indicated, the specie shown in your pictures is definitely a bladderwort. Although similar in appearance, bladderworts are completely unrelated to, and differ considerably from southern naiad in regards to growth-habit and control-options.

Thanks Kelly !!! Glad you are watching over us.

Guys you can count on Kelly's advice. Here is a control options page.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/database/floating_plants/bladderwort_mgmt.htm

I thought bladderwort eventually produces little yellow flowers? There must be over 200 species but Ultricularia are flowering.

That is correct; small yellow blooms usually appear at some point in Utricularia's life-cycle. But, the bloom's presence may be short-lived - and often missed. The bladderwort specie shown below-right has a particularly unusual structure - which also displays the characteristic yellow-bloom; while the specie shown on the left is more commonly encountered (at least in my area).

But this guy says it never blooms. If there was that much of it I Would think he could not miss every single bloom. I'm not there of course, but from my experience, you see it bloom.

I am very curious and always wanting to learn new tricks of the trade. However I have learned identifying aquatic plants over the internet is not an exact science. How could you determine it is bladderwort for certain from those photos? I have a quickie pond dye and a turtle island resched to Sunday so I'll check back later.

KJernigan - please email to me your images identified as "IMG_2679", "IMG_2675", "Algae 2" and "Algae 4" (I'm unable to extract them from your Flickr site).