Eric,
The focus of the soil analysis was for crops, not ponds. On the day I picked up the soil test kit, the ag rep was not in the office. There was no place on the data sheet, that I saw, related to ponds. I questioned the gal, that gave me the test kit, about water testing and her recommendation was to call the NYSDEC. The next time I'm in town I'm going to swing by Cornell and hopefully the ag rep will be in the office.
On the question of plankton bloom I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know. Being a pond neophyte with the only exposure to blooms coming from words/pictures here on PB, I cannot look at my pond and say yes or no to a bloom. Since spring, I've been taking periodic secchi disk readings. Initial measurements were 39". Yesterday I measured 20". In early spring, the pond had a nice blue-green color that even my neighbors commented on. After a normal spring rain, that color changed overnight to what I have today. The water appears dark but when you pull a sample jar, it looks crystal clear. I recently installed a different compressor to experiment with, the pond is clear of FA, I see minnows/BG/LMB swimming about and the one resident muskrat appears happy. After pulling the water sample the other day and saw how clear it was, I started thinking about getting a microscope to see what is actually in the water. Bloom is as much color as content right??
