Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Liming sediment ponds

Hello,
I'm a new member and have learned much recently from reading this forum.

I am in the process of building a 4-5 acre lake in Central-PA ..Cambria County. The area is at 2,000 ft elevation and surrounded by forest that contains significant Hemlocks. The soil in acidic and I know I will have to lime the pond before filling, but I was also considering building sediment ponds on the 3 small feeder creeks that run into the pond. My question is... would periodically putting a more reactive lime like Ag-lime pellets or similar into the sediment ponds be a good idea? This way I could treat the acidic water before it enters the lake. Plus the sediment ponds would be easy to drive up to with a truck.

Not sure if this would work...has anyone done anything similar?
Thanks

Hello, Randall.

I believe Ric Swaim posted an answer to you here by mistake.

Thanks Theo, .. I'm getting too old for computers! :rolleyes:
I would say it depends on how much sediment you're getting. If you lime the sediment ponds & a hard rain covers the lime with sediment well ...
If you have access to the watershed maybe you could lime it?

Randall :

Welcome to the PB forum. There is a lot of info here and people will help with your questions. One thing you will see repeated often is every pond is different. With that in mind it is good to have a baseline for your pond to work from. Have you had the soil (pond bottom) tested. These tests will let you know what and how much to add to the pond -- like lime if needed. I think the sediment ponds are a good idea to keep sediment load down as they can be cleaned out and thus keep it out of the main pond. I don't think they will add much to offset the acidity problem in the dirt in the main pond bottom. That is where the water will pick up most of its acidity. That is unless the rain run off is acid from some other source like a mine or underground source. The pond dirt tests are usually done by your county exten. agent( they are a good source of general info) but be sure to tell him to test if for a pond. If you have to much inflow from the creeks coupled with your average annual rainfall it may be hard to control the acidity. The place to start is with a soil test and get info on runoff amounts. You can also get water tests for the water in the creek to see what to expect from the runoff. With this info you can see how much lime to add. If it is in tons per acre then it will most likely need to be put in the pond as the sediment ponds won't be enough. I would put some there also however.

Thanks for the quick reply.
Last year I had the soil tested by Penn State Ag ext. Office and it was very acidic. I can't find the exact number but we put a food plot in nearby of rye/clover mix and it called for approx 4 tons lime/acre.
So I guess I'll lime everything...pond bottom, infeed creeks with limestone rip-rap and also the sediment ponds. My goal is to get the pH up near 7.0 so I can stock trout.. might not make it that high...
Would disking crushed limestone (small size) into the pond bottom soil a few inches be OK. That would be the cheapest as limestone in this area is cheap...main cost is hauling.

As long as it did not cause a leak in the pond bottom it would help in the long run. I think you are right lime it all if that acidic. I would put it in and spread it around and leave a few shallow areas covered with it ( for spawning) and not worry about disking it in. If it is that acid you will also need ag. lime. With the test results the agent can tell you how much per acre. My guess is the same as for the food plot , 4 tons per acre. Good luck and let us know what you do and how it works.