Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Plants

I have a small Koi pond in my yard and am putting in submergable plants, it says I should weight them down but I don't know what with. If I use something metal will the rust hurt my fish? The pond ha a liner not a natural bottom.
Thanks!!

I would pot the plants and use round stones (aka washed gravel) covering the entire top of the pot as weight and in defense of the koi. It will be very difficult if no impossible to plant submerged plants directly in a lily pond with a dirt-clay bottom because the koi by nature is a bottom rooting digger with tenacity. If seen small 6" koi vigorously rooting up to their eyes into the bottom materials.

Use some landscaping fabric (or gunny sack) to enclose the soil and root ball then use shallow trays for pots (for mere structure to contain the siol, then use flat landscaping stones to build a protective layer over and around them.

This should minimize the damage from the koi, but may not eliminate due to their rooting nature.

Metal could work in your pond, but I would avoid it due to the rust coloration that it would add to the water. Use larger stones instead, or if you are creative enough, you could form up some concrete "containers" and concrete lids for them that had openings in the lid for the plante to emerge from.

Welcome to forums, btw!

We own a sheet metal company and regularly scrap stainless steel. High grade non-magnetic stainless will not rust. Even lower grad magnetic stainless can rust but it does so at a very, very slow rate and only the small amounts of ferrous inclusions will be what actually rust. Ask one of your local sheet metal shops if they would sell stainless from their scrap pile at a highly reduced price. We do this occasionally for "nice people" and we all know pond owners are "nice people." Just a thought.