Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization fowl vegetation

I read in the recent Pond Boss magazine I read that it is time to plant seeds for attracting water fowl. Local feed stores do not carry them. Any suggestions? Thanks

Contact JJ Tranzplant in Wild Rose Wisconsin. They specialize in aquatic plants, especially in waterfowl habitat. You can purchase bareroot plants or seeds for most plants. They also have seed mixtures available. I've been very happy with their products and service. Be sure to request a catalog because the website does not contain all stock. I believe their URL is www.tranzplant.com.

Bob now that you are back let's keep you working! Question - there were some post awhile back on a floating fertilizer tub - I think it is sold in Pond boss Mag - do you have any experience with it - sounds as though it works and is easy - it received some good comments on this site - Tim K

Tim,
That fertilizer is called, "Southern Excellence". It sells for around $29 a bucket.
I have used several kinds of fertilizers over the years. Some work well, some don't.
Southern Excellence fertilizer did an excellent job for me this year, for the applications I chose.
Several lakes under our care are difficult to maintain a plankton bloom. Not this year.
Here's what we did...several lakes we initiated a bloom with 10-34-0 liquid fertilizer, to get a rapid bloom, after flushing rains during the spring. Then, following label directions, we used Southern Excellence to maintain the blooms. It worked well, far into August, some lakes into September.
Other lakes, those that didn't flush, or have big rainfalls into them, we used Southern Excellence by itself. Those lakes did extremely well. I only had one lake this year which didn't keep a bloom using Southern Excellence. I fertilized a 10 acre lake in May with 10-34-0 liquid, and followed with Southern Excellence. This lake sits north of Fort Worth. You can see Texas Motor Speedway from the property. Each time a bloom started, it rained, flushed the lake. Flushed four times, and by then bushy pondweed was growing in shallow water. We fertilized one more time, to no avail, then we had to treat pondweed.
Overall, Southern Excellence has been everything advertised to be. Frankly, it costs a little more, but is so easy to put it, the cost offsets itself because of ease of application.

My local feed store has a great selection of game seeds. They ship but I don't know how expensive it is. www.cooperseeds.com

I don't know what part of the country you are in, but you need to contact your local Ducks Unlimited biologist for next year's waterfowl crop. There are better ways to attract waterfowl than planting food plots. A plan of disking in the late spring will enhance natural grasses, followed by shallow water flooding in late October through March, will create a variety of grasses that are more productive than rice, wheat, millet or other grains. I am in southern Louisiana, but if you contact me at jhackberry@aol.com I will try to help you get in touch with your DU biologist.

Last fall I noticed that Biologic now has Waterfowl Forage, which is basically just rice. I figured "Great, I'll get some this spring." Unfortunately, it all disappeared around February. Come to find out, some genius decided that it needed marketed with the deer food plot seeds, which are planted in the fall, not the spring. One Wal-Mart employee told me, "Yeah, we had tons of it, but it didn't sell so we practically gave it all away!" So I spent $80 (gulp!) to get a 50 lbs. bag sent from Seedland.com. This is my first attempt, so we shall see how it goes. So far, I haven't seen a lot of growth, and I think I really goofed it up. Next year I have plans for a proper rice paddy. Final point, Biologic has it if you can find it, but I can't report on how good it is.