Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Nutrient Location

When a pond is said to have excessive nutrients, specifically phosphors, where are they located in a pond. Disolved throughout the entire water column, concentrated at the bottom, or a combination.

Been doing some reading...forget the first question. Boy did it show how little I know!!!!

I'm trying to design a way to use duckweed an a controlled location to up take the excess P in my pond then pump out the duckweed every 10-20 days to remove the P from the pond. Anybody ever tried anything like this?

Sounds like a potentially horrible experiment.. Good luck

We have not done it, but we've looked at something similar. I volunteer at an aquaculture research center. One of the ideas this year was to see if we could use tilapia to eat the duckweed, and then harvest the tailapia.

Unfortunately, the pond where we wanted to do this remains way too cold for tilapia. The pond is great for trout -- and duckweed.

Your pond may warm up a little more that our spring-fed pond. Secondly, I'm not sure if tilapia would be allowed in Minnesota. However, it maybe something to consider.

Ken

I love the potentialy horrible experiment outcome line, bluegill!

Your right Ken...Tilapia would be a no no here in Mn. Neat idea with the fish "eating" the excess P. One thing is for sure my ponds get warm and are very fertile.

I was just thinking maybe I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Less algae in my ponds and "free" fertilizer for my deer and turkey food plots. Not to mention the reduction of chemicals used in my ponds.

The other thought -- pump the duckweed out. I recently bought a 2-inch semi-trash pump. The pump was about $225, and the hoses and fittings were about another $175. I does a lot more than I had ever hoped for.

I believe it would efficiently pump duckweed or watermeal out of a pond by the ton.

Now that I see how well it works, I plan to use it to suck several inches of muck out of my 0.7 acre pond, and blow the water/muck onto about a half-acre area I plan to use for vegetables next year.

It's funny that you mention that about the trash pump. Rented one last weekend and have decided that is a tool I need for my ponds. Like you, I was very impressed on what it could do. I used a 4" trash pump and man could that thing push water.

How do you ensure that the duckweed seeds stay where the duckweed is and not spread in the pond?

Diatom based Periphyton will remove the P and feed your fish. Fillet the fish, soak the guts/heads etc. in water and spray on fields. Add enough surface area and start fishing.

Esssup - not sure yet how to control the location. Open to any ideas though! One of my ponds has duckweed in it already and I have been removing and chemically killing it as soon as it gets started. I am thinking about letting the duckweed grow across the pond then mechanically removing it and observing how much FA growth I have. If a significant reduction in FA occurs then see if I can control the DW or use another plant like wild rice to create a bio-filter.

Peepaw- sorry for my ignorance but what is Diatom based Periphyton?

DW is a most difficult plant to deal with. There are a number of threads here on the subject. Pumping the pond dry or removing just the surface plants alone is not the answer. See below.

Reproduces by seed and vegetatively, though during the growing season, nearly all plants arise by vegetative reproduction.
Unlike the ordinary leaves of most plants, each duckweed frond contains buds from which more fronds may grow. These buds are hidden in pouches along the center axis of older fronds. As they grow, new fronds emerge through slits in the side of their parent fronds. Until they mature, daughter fronds may remain attached to the parent frond. Rapidly growing plants often have three or four attached fronds

budding pouches produce smaller, rootless, dark green or brownish daughter plants called turions. These dense, dormant, starch filled structures settle to the bottom to overwinter.

When the water clears (top DW layer removed) the turions float to the surface and start growing. DW can live out of water for long periods of time and some species can double in volume every 24 hours.

Thank you for the info on DW. Another bad idea on my part

FWIW, my fish food supplier had a summerkill in their pond last week. Roughly 1,000 fish is what they said. LMB, CC and BG. Turns out that they normally have "some" DW on the pond, but since this summer has been so hot and dry, it's exploded, and it covered most of the pond. No aeration..............

Not a bad idea to remove the DW on top or draw down a pond to get most out. But those efforts will not alone result in a long term success. My approach is if you are going to go after DW it is all out war. Use every tool and tactic you have and be prepared to stay after it for a sustained period.