Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Im about to pull out the few hairs I have left

I have a gorgeous pond in Missouri. Its about 3 1/2 acres, setting is almost park like back in a timber, deer, turky, great fishing...Bluegills, Channels, and Bass. Ive owned it 5 years and am reaching out to those who are smarter than a circus pony for some help.

Ive got Chara. Or it has me.

The first year I attempted to control it I used Cutrine plus and read the label and did it just right. ( I am a licenced commercial chemical applicator so I do read labels) This was my first go at anything aquatic related. After 4 applications, I gave up.

The second year I was told by a guy who seemed to know something that I needed to start earlier, apply more when I did spray. Well I did. I applied when I could see chara about 2 inches long and did it every 3 weeks till I had to be gone and it went maybe 6 weeks...Boom...chara wins round 2

Year three was last year. I had been told grass carp can help so I laid in 4 grass carp, I know thats way below the stocking rate but i have a bias against anything called a carp...and I went after the chara again with Cutrine plus. I seemed to slow it but by August, I was done and broke.

This year I switched to the granular, I have added 6 grass carp, and up till 3 weeks ago I thought I had this baby nailed. I went to the pond yesterday and lordy...I have chara It has absolutely exploded.

So...please....can anyone reach out to a fellow in need with some direction on what should I do I have not done?

LOL, I used to try the same thing.Had TONS of chara.Killed it off and it was replaced with naiad.
Then one day a much wiser man told me that you ARE going to have something in there:Better chara than something more noxious.Nature abhors a vacuum and if you have the nutrients there, and we do,SOMETHING is going to grow!

I learned to live with it in that pond, but do use a good bit of copper, both liquid and granular, in other ponds, and for other reasons.

good luck

Maybe if you decided what would be the most desirable plants species, and then planted them the chara wouldn't have the available nutrients to take over.

My pond is very new and I haven't had experience with plants yet, so I'm just guessing.

I'm not a plant whiz but have used grass carp several times on various weeds.

For 3.5 acres, you don't have enough carp. I generally use about 10 per acre. The first year you won't see a lot of results. However, they keep eating in Spring when the plants are getting started. In the second year, if stocked in proper numbers, you should see good results.

20 new Grass Carp moved into the pond yesterday...