Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? A hunting Pond

It's going to cost a ton planting prime rib this season.

I would be very interested to hear the outcome of planting smart weed from seed. Here in Texas, I tried once and the results were very poor at best. I have had a lot more success digging naturally grown/volunteer clumps and primitively planting in areas where I want it.

One problem may have been that I could only find Pennsylvania Smart Weed seeds (purple bloom) in lieu of our natural variety which has white blooms. Does anyone know where I can get the white bloom variety seeds? As stated above, there is no doubt the ducks love it!

We have also started working with bamboo and/or switch cane to create natural blinds. However, you must be very careful because, as you probably know, either species can become very evasive. We only do it in areas where we can control it. It is much easier/cheaper than (re)building and (re)covering a duck blind every year.

Blast in the winter, cast in the spring!

I'm going to follow duckdudes advice like gospel this season. I have a client who really has a money is no object attitude towards his duck club. He hunted 25 days out of 31 in January. It is in dd's normal territory and I know from meeting him in person he is a standup guy who knows his sheet. I have already backed off of jap and chipawa millet to the grasses. I'll buy whatever equipment needed to do this, and seeds. As duckdude might attest to, when I say I am going to get something done, I do.

We have a lot of bamboo growing everywhere up there. But that gets way to tall. We prefer cattails. I can use bulrushes also. Whatever I do end up doing, probably in June and July I'll try to find this thread and report back. Just like I do with my clients, I need my duck ponds looked at in person first.

Big Gulp,

Have you seen this company? They have two types of smartweed near the bottom of the page.

http://www.turnerseed.com/site/SpringWildLifeSeed.asp

Chris, Thanks for the reference. I am not aware of this company. I will contact them in the future.

Since smartweed and watergrass are rice field weeds and most of my wetland projects are on previous rice, I don't typically plant anything. Because of the huge seed bank in the soil, all we have to do is target a Spring (mid-March to late April) drawdown to get a good germination. Follow this up with an irrigation 6 weeks later or so and you'll have all the smartweed and watergrass that you want. If smartweed is you goal, go with a drawdown on the earlier side (March in our area). Smartweed germs on a cooler soil temp than watergrass. This is why you'll notice smartweed growing around the perimeter edge of a wetland. This area is the first to go to mud flat when soil temps are typically cooler. With that said, I have planted smartweed and had good success the following year when we timed our drawdown.

Not sure about the Pennsylvania smartweed but the smartweed that we have in our area is called Lady's Thumb. It has a dark purple/black mark on the middle of the leaf, a pink and/or white flower and it's an annual. We also have another perennial variety that produces less seed and more stalk.

As for bamboo or arundo, it is on the top 10 most noxious and invasive weed list for all of my surrounding counties. I'd be tarred and feathered for planting it. Actually I've spent lots of project dollars trying to eradicate it. You want to make darn sure that it's dead if you use it. It's nasty stuff.

This advice may be relevent only to my area, so take it for what it's worth.

DD