Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants treating chara

I just got a quote from a local pond guy to come in and treat my friend's ponds for Chara. The quote is about $1000.00 for the acre and 1/4 acre pond. I know that we can do it ourselves for less. Is this quote reasonable?

Bump

Personally I think it's high, but then again I try and do as much as I can myself because I'm cheap.

Okay. we are going to do it ourselves. My thought is that we take out some of it, but not all, because it provides nice cover for the little fish. Is there a problem with this approach? We though about taking out a section of 50 feet and then leaving a section of 50 feet, and so on. Will the cleared section just fill back in quickly? I don't know much about the habits of chara, since my own pond is only two years old and I don't have any.

Coach,

That is more than i would want to pay but on the other hand we need to understand that businesses have to pay employees, utilities, taxes, and all the overhead businesses need to deal with along with making a profit. Were they going to physically remove it or just apply a herbicide?

I have dealt with Chara and continue to do so. Depending on the nutrients available it can be very prolific or not so much. It is a valuable plant for invertebrates. On the other hand it has a tendency to periodically die and decompose as it gets covered by new growth. The part underneath becomes a muck layer.

My Chara was very prolific in the trout pond but the pond was only 1/10th acre but had up to 500 pounds of trout. Even though it was flow through I'm sure there were a lot of nutrients available. The Chara in my trout pond grew up to 3 feet thick. I manually raked it out of the pond twice a year. It was a lot of work but with trout herbicides were not an option.

I wouldn't even want to consider raking out a acre pond or even a 1/4 acre pond. The 1/10th acre was bad enough.

I believe that the quote was just for herbicide. That is why I suggested he not do it. I was afraid of all of that dead matter in his pond. I might experiment with raking this weekend and see how bad it is. One of the advantages of being a coach is that I have 40-60 men available who, on a given weekend, can man a rake.

Does it make sense to kill it first before raking, or just rake it out? Any advantages to either approach?

I would rake first and then apply a granular herbicide like Cutrine Plus if it was me but like I said I never applied a herbicide in the trout pond.

The reason for raking is the old thicker growth can be very resistant to the herbicide and by removing it first you can expose the bottom and what's left to the herbicide.

I am presently controlling my Chara in the non-trout and non- fish fry production ponds with a heavy dose of Aquashade early in the year.