Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment Hardy Water lilies gone wild?? Help

Pond 10 years old with neglected hardy waterlilies. Originally planted 4 in pots. Now 20 stringy lilies with few blooms grown out of pots. I removed by hand 25 feet of tubers from floor of pond. They grow between the rocks. Many of the tubers smell rotten. Pond is 20ft by 15ft with waterfall. There seems to be a mat of finer roots along with the tubers. Have you heard of water lilies behaving in this way. What should I do now to try and get a balance and some healthy water lilies that bloom.
I've just introduced some hornwort oxygenators.

Looking forward to your input. Thanks

Mary:

Welcome! I'm no expert, but there are quite a few pond meisters here that are. Is the pond dug into the ground without a liner or is there a liner? What else is in the pond (fish and plants)?
Again, welcome and happy reading!!

I think part of you problem is lack of regular division, thinning (maintenance), and possibly overcrowding and lack of space - too many in too small of space. It sort of sounds to me like they became similar to a pot bound lily or plant. I would do some divisions and repotting of your better varieties. Remove all others and sort of start over with new divisions.

I think hornwort and lilies will compete to some degree for nutrients and the lilies may need some annual pot specific fertilization to get optimum blooming.

The pond has a liner covered with rocks. I need to move some of the rocks to get at the Tuders. There are about 50 two inch goldfish. There were no other plants in the pond until recently when I put in oxygenators-hornwort-about 25 plants. These did improve water quality and smell of the pond.

Do you need to make sure that the lily remains in the pot and treat it as submerged potted plant??? If so how often do you fertilize and whats best to fill the pot with????
Thanks

Okay, I assumed you knew more about growing lilies. This is what I would do. You might want to do things differently. 1. Clean out all old lilies. 2. Save a couple or a few growing tips (last 6"-12" of root tips) of representatives of best varieties. 3. Clean root masses with gentle spray from hose. 4. Repot/replant at a slant or angle with growing tip slightly exposed above soil. 5. Use a heavy soil not potting soil. Potting soil will tend to float away, exit the pot, and not adequately hold the root in place. 6. Add a high phosphorus fertilizer stick 1-2 times per year to each pot similar to those for tomatoes. 7. Once lilies have established in 4 months to a year in the pot, they as a full root mass can be unpotted and placed in the pond bottom, OR divided and repotted every 2-4 years.
I don't use pots to repot lilies. I use larger containers with more space for root development. Cut off bottoms of 5 gallon buckets, old dish pans or cat litter pans work good.

Thank you the info was VERY helpful. Finally I am learning something about water lilies. I didn't realize that they had such a capacity to spread.

Mary - lilies filling a 15'x20' area after 10 years is IMO not rampant growth. Wild white water lilies could have filled the 15x20' area in 2-3 yrs. Some varieties fo hybrid lilies spread more slowly. If you want slow spreaders look into getting some of the dwarf lilies or the changables are also slower spreaders.

Thanks for additional info. By the way what is an IMO??
I have been removing many feet of lily tubers that cover the bottom of the pond. What do lily roots usually look like other than these tubers. Are there usually mates of small feeder roots?? I never really observed them. I have seen regular plants rootbound in a pot. I have now removed about 30 feet of tubers. Whats strange is that I had the pond emptied 2 years ago in the very very early spring and didn't see all these tubers?? Only a few. Thanks again

IMO=In My Opinion

Water lilies multiply FAST!

THANK YOU! Have a nice day!