Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Clipping catail seed heads

How much of an imact does clipping all of the seed heads off of catails have in preventing their spread? Has anybody tried this and had success?

Removing seed heads will help reduce new colonization in other parts of the pond. However in will not have much affect of slowing the increase in size of the main cattail bed.

Thanks Bill. I have five small patches of them approx. 10' X 4' on a 2 acre pond getting ready to enter it's 4th year. In my opinion, just the right amount. I have removed the seed heads and am in the process of cutting them all back to the ice line. Is there any maintenance that you could recommend me doing in order to hold the spread?

You can control the spread with an aquatic approved glyphosate product mixed with surfactant. Just spray the new growth as it pops up on the outskirts.

Cattails also use vegetative propogation to expand their presence.
This is achieved through stolens that radiate from the primary plant's root-system.

It might be possible to physically confine cattails by encircling an established patch with a root-proof barrier that penetrates several inches (12"?) into the hydrosoil (coupled with the practice of catkin clipping mentioned above). Sounds like a lot of work to me.
Another option is to cut 30-gal or 50-gal plastic drums in half; fill them with appropriate soil-material and bury them almost up to their edge in the pond's bottom. Then, sprig some cattails within the buried vessels - which should keep most stolen-growth contained. If any seedlings emerge outside of the drum-planters, pull or treat them before they become established.

Short answer: cutting the catkins will have little to no effect. The rhizomes spreading as the very nice photo shows is by far the largest form of spread.

Even if you cut all the catkins off, where is the nearest stand you are not doing this? General guidelines state there should be around 5% of shoreline for catails in your body of water. I have seen 100%. That is not good. I like 3% or less.

And if you get hungry, you can eat those catkins and the green shoots.

As far as remedies to prevent rhizome spread, I wish you luck.

There is no 100% guarantee on any method to containing cattails but the container idea is a good one.
One way that has worked for me is floating islands. The cattails have not spread anywhere else in the pond after almost 4 years but there is still that possibility.

Make floating islands. They control cattails and make a great cover for cool looking frogs. Do the islands prevent catkins from forming? One zillion seeds floating everywhere? Containerizing any rhizome plant is a temp fix at best. If the rhizomes don't break through the side, crawl out the bottom or over the top, it works well. I have a multitude of cattails, and lilies in containers right now. Let me know how that goes. Tell you one thing, those islands do look awesome.

The catkins form as you can see in the photo but the plants haven't spread to anywhere else in the pond, maybe it has to do with the soil or ph of the water, plus our sub arctic winters.(22 below this morning at the cabin)

The islands are floating in 4 to 5 ft. of water so the rhizomes haven't gone any further.