In terms of keeping areas clear, my main concern is that I am maintaining a fairly large swimming area. My family swims several times per week in the summer, and more importantly, I host a couple large "events" with over 100 people at my home and many swimming. For that reason, I'd like to keep that large areas looking "clean" for my guests. The other small area (not a big deal at all) is near my feeder, so that all the fish food can make into the water and not get hung up on the 10-12 foot wide mat of pondweed.
I don't mind manually removing the weeds, but I have a couple concerns if I am relying strictly on manual removal:
1. Will it grow back repeatedly during the same year?
2. Will it grow back thicker each successive year?
3a. I have absolutely no time to pull pond weeds until summer (mid June). I live on 12 acres, and I rarely get to mow my lawn more than once April - June.
3b. I don't have much luck removing with the rake. It works best when I get in the water and spend a few hours doing it by hand. I don't mind this, but I can't stand cool water...gotta wait for 80 degree water or I'm freezing. By then, stuff is pretty well established.
If I need to rely on manual removal as my primary tool,then I'll live with that, but in situations where I need to take back control and decide to go with a herbicide, I'm still not sure of the answer to my first question...how long should I wait after application before plants are "dead" and can be removed with growing back from the roots.
I'm not sure if it's the clay on my pond bottom, but I am never able to pull up roots from this kind of pond weed. I just try to grab it as low as I can and pull up as much as I can.
Thanks for all the tips...and I will experiment with your fishing tips as well. I am admittedly a terrible fisherman, so every bit helps, especially as it relates to my pond setup.
