Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants South Texas plants

Can anyone tell me what these are in my pond. Very small pond but have a massive amount of this stuff in it. They are fully submerged.

Not sure but better pictures might help the pros tell you what it is

Live Target Frog Tail?

Look here: http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

That may help, if not, take a good close up picture of the undamaged plant.

I'd take a close look at alligator weed and smartweed to start with to see if the description of them matches what you have.

I've added some more files here. After looking at the Tamu site I think I have American pondweed. There is also another plant that is fully submerged that I think is baby pondweed.

What do y'all think?

Brand0,

Several of those pictures look like our American pond weed. We like it as it is very manageable and beneficial to our pond.

Brian,

I have some as well. Started out as 1 or 2 plants that apparently came from seed water fowl brought in a couple years ago. Looks like the patch is roughly 15 feet in diameter now. How do you "manage" it? I like it but want to keep it confined to maybe a 30 or 40 foot diameter patch. I would also like to move some to another location. Have you tried moving some?

Bill,

I would ask Kelly Duffie how to control it, but so far, I have left it alone as I want a little more. It has been here for four years and has spread a little at a time. Controlling it should be easy. Also, Bob and the guys at Athens like it, that is good enough for me.

So far, so good.

Thanks Brian. I started a new thread on controlling desirable vegetation.

Guess I missed this thread, but replied more in depth on Bill's new thread.
In short, the follow-up photos appear to be what many folks call American pond weed, but it is more widely known as "long-leaf pond weed", or Potamogeton nodosus among aqua-nerds.
I agree with leaving it alone, or modestly managing it if it becomes too unruly. It's generally well-behaved; being regulated by habitat depth, except perhaps in ponds with significantly fluctuating water-levels.
Possibly of greater concern is when a more invasive weed species appears and begins to out-compete the existing long-leaf pond weed. That's when it may become very difficult to target one species without negatively impacting the other; so avoid that scenario if at all possible.

Thanks for the input. Sooo here is my issue. I have some major leakage and literally 90%+ of my pond is engulfed in this pondweed. I have no idea how long the pond has been around I just bought this land.

I'm wanting to attempt soilfloc, but to do that I need to clear out some of this vegetation.

My pond is super small anyway I think it will do it good to remove some of this stuff. So any pointers as to how I might go about doing that would be appreciated.

Thank You

Define "super small".
Depending on the pond's size, and your budget; and since it has leakage issues, you might seriously consider draining, removing accumulations of detritus and then sealing the pond's re-established bottom with incorporated bentonite clay before restocking it with water and fish.
Leakage and "small pond" are never a good combination, especially when fish are involved - and especially in Texas' summertime heat and unpredictable rainfall patterns.

Pond is right at 1/8th of an acre in size. About 8 feet at its deepest, but it doesn't drop off very quick so right in the middle 8 feet but 4-6 makes up the majority of the pond.

This pond was not engineered well I can tell that, and I agree that draining and re-doing is probably the absolute best approach.

Unfortunately the funds just aren't there to do this, and I need the water for wildlife and livestock.

It's well fed and I'm able to keep it topped off, but that is costing me quite a bit in electricity to run the pump. That's why I'm interested in soilfloc.

90% of my pond is covered in this pondweed though so I need to clear quite a bit of it out for this soilfloc to work.

Not sure how much success you'll have in sealing the leakage without draining and reworking the bottom. You may want to verify the presence of a leak before attempting that option.
Take a 5-gal bucket, mostly filled with rocks or gravel, and place it partially submerged and firmly pressed into the pond's bottom so that the bucket's upper lip is only a couple of inches above the pond's water-level. Add water to the rock-filled bucket until the water-line inside of the bucket matches the pond's water-level on the outside of the bucket. With the bucket rigidly immobilized, monitor the water-levels on the inside AND outside of the bucket for several days - without pumping ANY makeup water into the pond. If the bucket's exterior water-level drops more rapidly than its interior water-level, then your pond probably has a leak - since water-temperature and evaporation's impact should otherwise be the same for both the water in the bucket and in the pond.
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If you decide to treat, AQUATHOL K (liquid) or AQUATHOL SUPER K (gran) are likely your best options at this stage of the season; applied in stages to avoid a massive plant die-off and hopefully "reduce" the risk of a fish-killing oxygen crash. An early-season treatment with fluridone would possibly offer season-long control, but that chemistry should be deployed long before weed-maturity.