I know farmers that claim to feed out duckweed. Of course that is Saturday afternoon honky tonk chatter. A quick google search has various benefits but I don't see anything detrimental...
Romero...Welcome to the forums! I can not help you with your duckweed and watermeal infestation, but I can help you with your search efforts. The best way to search the Pondboss forums is to go to google search and type in...
site:forums.pondboss.com Duckweed watermeal
This will search the forums for any threads with the words duckweed and watermeal. This works much better than the forum search function and the above search yielded at least a couple pages of threads talking about the control of those plants.
No worries...I hope that helps. Do some reading and get back to this thread with some of your pond details...I'm sure those with some plant control experience will be glad to chime in.
I purchased a home with a one acre pond. It was totally covered edge to edge with Water Meal. Also I could not catch a single fish in it. I decided to us Clipper with a surfactant. I was not concerned of fish loss since I believe there were none so I hit it pretty hard with the sprayer. So far this year I've had no Water Meal or Duckweed. I put some fish in last year and also this year. I've only seen two floaters which were right after thaw.
I will keep you guys updated. The pond is in Mississippi on the family farm, and I live in TN. I intend to head that way tomorrow after work and get started. I have come up with a plan so hopefully I can get it taken care with little to none of the DW and WM returning.
Step 1 - I am going to clean out the overflow pipe that is clogged with sticks. The pond was built in the 80s and for some reason there were no screens placed on the pipe.
Step 2 - While the pond is draining down to where it needs to be then I plan to cut down a bunch of trees that are around the pond.
I sprayed mine from a paddle boat and waited for a day that had the wind in my favor. I also installed an aerator prior to spraying so that also helped push it towards the outside edge of the pond.
I sprayed mine from a paddle boat and waited for a day that had the wind in my favor. I also installed an aerator prior to spraying so that also helped push it towards the outside edge of the pond.
How long did it take your pond to clear? Also how did you dilute your Clipper? Did you add more than the instructions? And was 1 pound of Clipper enough for your acre pond? My pond is about 10 feet at its deepest point.
The Clipper comes in a granular form. I used a hand pump sprayer regular garden type. I put the clipper in about half a pound and added the surfactant ( sold seperatly...it keeps the sprayed mixture on the plant and on the surface its cheap about 15 bucks) added water slowly put the lid on and let it sit for about 5min so it soaks in then I shook the sprayer to mix. If I remember correctly I went through 2 lbs last year. I only did .5 lb at a time last year because of what I read about losing oxygen. I just kept an eye on it to see if it was helping and if I need to reapply. I'm no expert but I would go by pond acreage not depth. I have a one acre pond. This plant lives on the surface and this treatment is on the surface.
Yeah I just wanted to cover my bases. I sprayed this pond a couple of years ago using diquat with surfactant but it all came back. That was a silly question asking about depth which you're right about... it won't be important in this situation.
Here is one updated pic since I sprayed a few wks ago. Look at the before pics then check this one out. I believe I need to spray once more but it definitely is going away.
That was quite a transformation. What do you think is contributing to the infestation in the first place? Runoff? How can that be prevented from happening?
That was quite a transformation. What do you think is contributing to the infestation in the first place? Runoff? How can that be prevented from happening?
I believe it was a couple of things...
1) I believe ducks were the reason for it being there 2) The pond had the perfect environment for it to cultivate such as being nutrient rich, no aeration, and being calm waters esp since the drain pipe was clogged
I am hoping to prevent it from happening again by clearing as many trees surrounding the pond that I can, as well as keeping that drain pipe free.
These are just my guesses so I could be wrong in my assessment.