Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Best Way To Remove Vegatation ?

I have a small 1/2 acre pond . Lots of milfoil and other underwater vegatation I want to remove . I have tried different chemicals with very poor results . Would any of you have suggestions as to the best type of rake or tool to remove the growth ? It is a shallow pond , 8 ft or so at the deepest . I have good access all around the edge of the pond . Thanks in advance !

If you have milfoil, a rake or any type of mechanical weed removal tool will end up making the problem worse.

Milfoil will grow from seed or from parts of the plant that are left in the pond, even pieces 1/2" long.

If you want to eliminate underwater vascular plants in the pond, treat it with a 90 ppb dose of Sonar A.S. Make sure that you do not have water flowing out of your pond during the 45 day treatment time period.

Once all the plants are killed, expect to battle Filamentous Algae starting around 60 days after initial treatment date of the Sonar A.S.

Mother nature abhors a vacuum, and will have something to grow in the weeds place to utilize all the nutrients in the pond.

By the way, welcome to the forum!!!

Thank you ! Glad I found it .

esshup you say 90 ppb is this the recommended dose to eliminate all plants? I read another post where it said 10 ppb for EWM. or was that just for control and not elimination?

10 ppb will control EWM, and not affect other plants except Curly Leaf Pondweed, other plants need 45 ppb for control, yet others need 90 ppb.

90 ppb gets 'em all.

I really can't say eliminate, because the plants will still regrow from any seeds in the pond bottom that get sunlight. BUT, if you can kill them (control) before they set seeds this year, and do that every year that you see them growing, you will eliminate all the viable seeds in the pond bottom after a number of years of control. It may be that you have to dose every other year and not every year.

I admit my math skills are not the greatest. but I got 0.5 fl oz per acre foot. That can't be right. is it?

willyw what concentration of SonarAS are you trying to calculate? 1.233 milliliters in every acre ft(325850gal) produces 1ppb. 0.5 fluid ounce = 14.8ml. 14.8ml(0.5oz) in 1 acft = 18.2ppb. To get 10ppb in one acft it requires 8.11 milliliters.

Yes I was working on 10 ppb but now I'm more confused if 1.233 ml gives me 1 ppb then would 10 ppb not be 12.33 ml . I'm just amazed at how little is required.

To my knowledge Eurasian watermilfoil rarely reproduces by seed. You are looking at fragmentation as the main spread for EWM. I'm sure by now the turions from Curlyleaf are moving around and its tough to get consecutive years of control with one treatment. I have worked on a lake in Michigan where we fluridoned a lake for multiple years before spring turion production and still had regrowth year after year. Second if you are treating a small 1/2 acre pond you really need to be careful at lower doses. Photodegredation, rain and plant uptake could drop those ppb's to nothing quick. We use lower ppb in lakes for EWM but when you are dealing with a pond and not sure on retention time and other factors you need to either split the treatments or go higher. 10ppb is just too risky IMO. If you need help just PM me with your questions.

Herbicide "treatment concentrations" are based upon mass rather than volumetric ratios. Therefore, the desired ppb concentration of fluridone for any given treatment-objective is based upon the mass of active-ingredient relative to the mass of the treated water. You'd better locate your slide-rule for this one

To further complicate matters, several formulations of fluridone are now marketed - such as Sonar A.S., Sonar Genesis, Sonar RTU, etc - with each formulation containing a different concentration of active-ingedient (a.i.).

One should generally discount the % of a.i. displayed on product labels since it simply represents the % of the fluid's mass that is comprised of active-ingredient. A much better indicator of the product's concentration is the footnoted "pounds of a.i. per gal" (or quart).

Sonar A.S. contains 4 lbs of fluridone per gallon; Sonar Genesis contains 1/2 lb of fluridone per gallon, and Sonar RTU contains almost 1/3 lb of fluridone per gallon. Therefore, one gallon of A.S. contains as much fluridone as 8 gallons of Genesis or 12.5 gal of RTU.

Put in other terms, it takes 12.5X more RTU or 8X more Genesis, in comparison to the A.S. formulation, to achieve the same "ppb-concentration" in any given treatment situation.

As with many things (pharmaceuticals included), the price per unit-of-measure (gal, oz, lb, pill) is often misleading unless you know what that unit contains.