Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment I can't grow Arrowhead

Many, many years ago when Bob Lusk was still pulling a small boat around, he came here and did a pond assessment. Everything went well until we got to the north end of the pond, and looked at a pretty good sized patch of water primrose. What Bob saw though, was about a 1 foot square patch of pennywart right in the middle.

He then told me something I never forgot. " There's always one plant waiting to take the place of another plant, so be careful what you kill, because the alternative could be worse."

Heeding good solid info as I normally do, I proceeded to ignore Bob's advice, and treat the entire patch of primrose. It died, but the small patch of pennywart didn't. Within a year, the entire area was covered with pennywart, and multiple treatments over several years were required to completely eradicate it.

So over the last 2 years, I have eliminated over 4 acres of American Lotus, a 30' wide swath of waterleaf half way around my 11 acre pond, and most of 6-7 acres of coontail.

When all the above died, this is what's naturally taking it's place. I got lucky, and had all the shoreline cover I needed, but it was buried by true invasives. So looking back, Bob was 100% correct. I just had such a mess, the alternatives had to be better.

For reference, the pond is about two and a half feet low right now.

This is arrowhead and water primrose that was buried under coontail and lotus. Also, the 2 gravel filled kiddie pools were put out for CNBG years ago. With the coontail gone, this is the first year they were used.


American pondweed popping up all around the pond


Another pic of American pondweed and water primrose. This patch was under the lotus, and never thrived.

Great advice. I too learned the hard way. I got FA in place of the wp. Glad the good stuff is coming back for you. Did you have to re plant any of it? Or just naturally came back when the undesirables were gone?

CMM, all these in the pics came back on their own. The only transplants are on the dam, and mainly AP. All that takes is a shovel, and a heavy foot to step on the transplant. Very hardy pond plant, and too easy to move not too.

Thanks. I may try splitting some of my apw. I was afraid to disturb it, good to know its hard to kill.

CMM what is the "good stuff". I have no idea. Battling FA in two of our three BOW and sago pondweed in the third. What kind of plants grow in ponds that won't grow out of control or be considered "invasive"? Its a mystery to me. If there is "good stuff" out there what is it and can I buy it? Where do i buy it? Please let me know as I need help. Thanks. BM61

BM61,

I've also been fighting FA since I built my pond and think I might actually be making some headway on controlling it. I don't want to eliminate it as IMHO it offers unique habitat for a lot of the tiny pond critters and my smallest fish love to hangout at one of their favorite "burger joints," FA pockets.

Plants that I consider "good guys" and are working well for me to bring some control to the FA are:

Pickerelweed
Duck Potato
Creeping spike rush
Hard stem bulrush
Hardy Lilies
American pond weed
Small leaf pond weed
Redtip eel grass

My pond is a water table pond so the level fluctuates 5 feet or so during the year. These plants seem to handle it well. (First winter with the redtip coming up so the verdict is out on that one). I know you can buy at least the first 5 of these on the list online cause that's how I got my starts. I only bought 6 Duck Potato starts spring of 2015 and it is everywhere now.

Good luck,

Bill D.

Thanks Bill. I will do some reading on your suggestions. Our place is in Macoupin county Illinois so what works for you ought to work for us. Learning as I go but making slow progress. Very frustrating FA and sago pondweed situation this year. Going to try a new control strategy next year but would like to get some "good" plants going. I will read up to see what the effects of copper sulfate, Cutrine Plus and diquat are on the plants you listed. Copper sulfate seems to be pretty selective (FA) but i am not sure about CP and diquat. I don't have much experience with those two but was planning on trying those next year. BM61

I didn't realize your place was in Illinois. This link will lead you to a publication from the Illinois DNR on aquatic vegetation. Page 6 or 7 of the doc actually rates some of the plants with respect to invasiveness and habitat potential.

http://www.ifishillinois.org/publications/aquatic_plants.pdf

Bm61, I checked out native plants for my area and cross checked to see how quickly they spread and If they were considered invasive or not. I then went to an aquatic nursery and bought some pickerel weed and arrow root. I discouraged the FA with copper products. 3 or 4 years after planting, I now have some coon tail, americn pond weed, rushes of some sort, and water primrose along with the stuff I planted. Very little FA this year. So far, none of the vegetation has become even close to a problem. Looks like you are in the general geographic area of Bill D and me, so some of these suggestions might work for you too. Warning, be very carefull transplanting from one body of water to another. Stuff like water meal, duck weed and other nasties can hitch hike. Make sure you know what you are getting and putting in your water. Some times it is way harder to get out than it was to put in.

Good luck

Here in Missouri we have the "Water Plants for Missouri Ponds" book that answers all of these questions. Each plant contains a "Suitability for Ponds" section that makes the call on desirability in a pond and each plant section in the book is roughly sorted in order of desirability in a pond. Of course, the recommended plants are only accurate for this part of the country - there are plants listed as desirable for Missouri that would go crazy in other climates. Still, it is only $6 and may help you making decisions.

All good information. Gives me quite a bit to study and consider. These are definitely ideas I can put to work in our ponds this coming spring. Thanks to all of you. BM61.

BM61, I see you're in my neck of the woods so I will mention that I got my Pickerel Weed, Arrow Arum, & Soft Rushes from Missouri Wild Flowers .

Arrowhead, Sweet Flag, Southern Blue Flag Iris, & Great Bur Reed from Agrecol.

Odorata White Hardy Lily & Variegated Sweet Flag from Pond Plants Online.

Wild Celery (eel-grass) from AquariumPlants.com .

As a bonus I got Mud Plantain which snuck in on some of the plants. It's the coolest little plant though and I'm glad I got it and it has spread nicely. I try to stick with plants that are native to Missouri only, other than the Variegated Sweet Flag & some lilies that somebody gave me.



My emergency spillway that was naturally seeded by other plants in the pond except for the six Southern Blue Flag Iris in front. You see a mix of Mud Plantain & Pickerel Weed. It is very shallow here.



Closeup of the six Southern Blue Flag Iris in front. Planted 05/15 & picture taken on 07/15. They bloomed this year and spread some plus generated an enormous amount of seeds.

Thanks for the source info Jimmi. Gives me a lot to go on. Have you had to battle any FA or invasive weeds in your pond? If so what did you use that was selective enough to not harm those beneficial and very nice looking plants? BM61.

BM61, don't think I can be of much help to you there because, unfortunately, I am cursed with both a leak (.5"/day) and suspended colloid clay turbidity which has produced a pretty weird ecosystem. There's not been much opportunity for either desirable or undesirable plants to get established under these condition up to now. However, the last 2 seasons the water level has been stable as we have had enough runoff to pretty much keep the pond topped and this has enabled the desirable plants to take over before anything else could. I've only had to wade in a couple of times a year to pull up the cattails and willows before they can get established.

This year, though, like many others, I was hit with a blue-green algae problem. Couldn't make sense of it until I read this post from Bill Cody. Bill states: "It grows because the bottom is bare and fertile." This perfectly describes what is happening underneath my turbid waters, where there's not enough light for anything else to grow, as I observed big patches of algae on barren bottom that had let go and floated to the surface. Thankfully, with the changing weather, it seems to have abated.

I does make me wonder if simulating my situation using controlled draw-downs and temporarily using dyes might do you better than the chemical controls. Draw-downs are a well documented method of knocking out plants with a low tolerance for being high-and-dry. BTW, most of the plants that I named have proven to be quite tolerant of, or even adapted to, changing water levels - exceptions are the eel grass and lilies. Anyway, just a thought.