Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

For once, I made a non-dumb move at my place. Pumped extra water into the forage pond when water was abundant in the spring & overflowing the standpipe. If need be, I can replenish the main pond a little, maybe 500 - 600k gallons. Or raise fish in the forage pond with less danger of it getting too shallow & hot.

If what I'm hearing about the Hunga Tomba volcano is right, we might be seeing unusually warm winters & hot summers for a few years.

Did you throw in some FHM and some of your CNBG. One spawning cycle might give you some good forage to flush back into your big pond as needed!

Stocked a few CNBG, no FHM as I planned to feed. Then the feeder quit working.

Assuming I end up not selling the place, I want to stock some channel cats for my watchful good neighbors to catch. Will have to get another feeder, but at least the feed for cats is cheaper. But that means I can't just drain forage pond into main BOW, as I don't want CC there.

Looked over yet another fish kill. (sigh)

Sorry to hear that. Did heat/low DO get them?

Sorry, Theo.

Man, I'm sorry to hear that, Theo. My mom lives in southwest Ohio and complains about lack of rain, though it hasn't been especially hot like it has down here.

Sorry. I figure it is in my future for one of my Ponds.

I posted on another thread a few days ago that I was hoping to see the APW make a comeback in my pond now that the crayfish
numbers have been substantially reduced.

Was on the dam with the weed whacker Saturday and noticed several new patches of it growing. Looks like a few sprigs of
mud plantain in the pic too.

After a 2-1/2 year drought, we got over 10" of rain at the farm during July. We even got one nice rain in early August. However, it is now two weeks since the last rain so I had to go out and water trees.

Observations: One groundwater pond is now dry, and the other one has 1' of water - which matches the water level in the adjacent creek. Our main creek just quit flowing, but the pools are full. (It is a combination surface water/ground water creek.)

Despite the awesome rains we had in July, it clearly did not make up the long-term deficit in the groundwater aquifer. Our areas of tallgrass prairie are very tall and lush. My 2-4 year old tree plantings that are in good soil are also thriving. (I watered them during the early portion of the drought, but did not water them this summer.) Clearly our terrestrial plants are quite efficient at "intercepting" surface water that is percolating down through the soils above our sandy aquifer layer. Of course, the tallgrass prairie is adapted for drought. I have planted some drought-resistant trees appropriate for our area, and some fruit trees that I am trying to nurse along to maturity.

I am sending out good thoughts to everyone still in drought conditions! Hopefully everyone's ponds, fish, and land-based life forms can make it through this period of drought.

Rod, take a look at these. I've been setting mine out during our drought, and they last for years.

They're kinda sorta Ron Popeilish. Set it and forget it. Treegators

I haven't complained about our drought, but the continuous triple digit days, and temps still in the 90's after dark, are beating me down. I know I'll be whining in January/February when we get prolonged freezing temps, but I am looking forward to my wood store fired up in the shop, and listening to podcasts as I'm welding some project just because I can.

Thanks, Al. I may have to try those on my "isolated" trees.

I have set totes and drip irrigation in the locations where I have multiple trees. (Poly tubing and emitters are dirt cheap.) I run by with a tote on my trailer and can transfer 265 gallons in a few minutes with a bilge pump.

That worked great until the creek quit running! Now when I pull from the still pools, the algae in the water is so thick that it clogs my drip emitters.

Do the Treegators require "clean" water, or will they still do a slow release with water that is about 12" on the secchi disk? If so, can I open them up and scrub the fabric clean when I finally get too much build-up?

I'm not sure if they do, because I always use the water hose after I get half a dozen dirt dobbers nests out of it. The holes are really small, and that's what makes it drip so slow.

If I can make a suggestion, try one of these to filter the algae. I would probably pick a 200-300 micron sack, and maybe even an 800 sack. I always use them on the outlet when I'm moving coontail infested water to my hatchery pond. I've had zero algae or coontail remnants chopped up by the pump get through it.

Filter Bags

Pentair is like Grainger. They're expensive, but they have everything you might need.

I just had an afterthought, but if you ty the sacks, I would run some of that water into a white bucket, and make sure it doesn't let the algae through. That would be better than cleaning dozens of emitters.

I think the filter bags are an awesome idea.

I actually built a high water station (like the old elevated tanks to refill the steam trains) last year near my deepest pool. I can fill the water station and then gravity feed through a 2" hose to my trailer tank. The high station can then refill while I deliver that load of water.

I just suspend a 12v sump pump in the pool, so the water rate and velocity would be easily handled by a large filter bag! Easy peasy to just take the bag home and rinse it to get ready for the next irrigation day!

I usually only figure out that I have clogged emitters when I see one tree dropping its leaves. An ounce of prevention will definitely be worth a pound of cure!

Tree watering bags are the best thing since sliced bread.

I bought a bunch of 20 gallon bags to put on my baby chestnut trees. Makes watering much less of a chore.

Couple things to note... the bags require support... a 5' sapling isn't stout enough to keep a full bag from toppling over and
damaging the tree. A 5' sapling, grow tube, and 1/2" fiberglass tree stake won't hold a full bag if it isn't setting just right.
I wound up adding a second stake to solve that problem.

The filter bags are a good idea if you're not using hose water. The drip holes are quite small and easy to clog even then.

I agree 100%. I just recently took the supports off a 8' Shumard Oak because those bags are heavy. 20 gallon bags X 8.33 are a little over 160 pounds.

I have been using 3/4" Sch 40 PVC pipe to stake my tree tubes. They have just enough flex that the trunks of the saplings move sufficiently in our relentless Kansas winds to build up some strength.

I used to get 10' sticks for $2.19 in bulk and cut them to 5'. The current price is now exactly double!

I just pull them up and re-use them when it is time to pull the tree tube (or the d*mn gophers kill the tree).

Have you guys had better success with another option?

(I also think they would hold a Treegator well, but I have not yet used any of those saturation bags.)

Rod, since I only need a few, I probably spend more per tree than you do, or want to. I cage all my new shoreline Bald Cyprus because of beavers, and since their roots are touching the water table, I don't need to water them.

The trunk guard is only there to keep the goats from stripping the bark. Again. The t posts are 3' tall, and are cheap pressed steel. They're around $4 a piece. I use electric fence wire, and old water hose or chem hose if I have remnants. Electric fence wire is very easy to work with, and I have tons of it. I'll do another watering next week, then unzip the bag, and throw it in the back of the UTV. Since this tree is a little older, I want it to stress just a smidge. It should help the root spreads.

I've had fire ant problems during the drought, and they'll target the bags if they stay on. It provides shade and water for them. Maybe it's just a TX thing, so if you don't have problems with that, then leave them on. I've had the bags for years, and they have lasted very well.

Thanks for the close-up picture! I do have to go a little sturdier on my stakes. I bet we get at least 25 days/year with winds of 30 MPH with higher gusts.

We don't have fire ants in Kansas (that I know of), but I do have the same problem. During the drought, the pocket gophers would go through my little irrigation circles because those plants were the only ones available with succulent roots. Sometimes the killed my tree, sometimes they didn't.

Likewise, the armadillos would dig around the edges of my water circles because that is where the insect larva were thriving.

I guess no matter what humans are trying to grow, nature always throws a few "green sunfish" into the mixture to keep us on our toes!

Pond is lowest since it filled.. no rain in sight , almost 3 months without rain and over 100 degrees last two months… not looking good for the ponds

Spoke too soon …. A badly needed rain popped up and maybe will save some trees and help the wildlife….. God is good!

Rain prayer >>> rain dance?


I had to go to the farm and water trees again today. I am amazed at how many survived our 2-1/2 years of drought. I think the stupid pocket gophers got more than the drought did.

My surface water pond is now totally dry again. One groundwater pond is dry and the other groundwater pond is holding at about 2 feet. However, that one is well-connected to the regional groundwater aquifer, so it should be fairly stable at this point.

I kinda dread going to my place during this drought. Spring fed creek is dry for the second time in 40 years. Ponds were looking bad a week ago when I was there. One small pond is dry. 1/4 acre one was hurting when I was there a week ago. Big pond had dropped about 3 feet in 10 days. Now about 7 ft low.

Problem is hoping for the floods to restock.

We're just now starting to get a noticeable water level drop. What we are having is leafs already falling falling out of trees. Way to early for that to be happening.

Good deal Pat. I was looking at Todd's place, and thought you would get it too.