Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Winter Fertilization???

This may not make any sense, but I thought I would ask the experts. I have a 20 acre lake in North Miss. The lake is not very fertile. I am planning to stock threadfin shad this spring and fertilize when the water warms up. I will use water soluable fertilizer when the water warms, but I was wondering if it would help to increase the fertilization in the water by putting granular fertilizer at water's edge to slowly dissolve during the winter months?? It seems to me that it would give me a little jump start when the water warms in the spring. Any thoughts or am I just figuring out another way to waste a little money?
Bill

Bill this is not really a answer. I sort of did the same thing with granular fert around the pond. The answers I got was it wasnt gonna hurt, so I did it. After it was done, I took a water sample and sent it off to the state and it definatly showed up in the water sample. So like I said its not the answer your looking for but its more like a me to kinda thing.

Granular is not a time release so it will leach the phoshorus out now, and phyto does not form until probbly at least march in your area, so yep think it is a waste of money and time.

Just plan to start the water soulble a month or so b/f shad stocking. You might have to fertilize as often as every ten days to get the bloom started but once established easier to maintain. good luck.

Bill I would not do that. What would happen is the granular fertilizer at water's edge would not go into solution in the water but would dissolve, spread out nearby and affix (bond into)into the soil at that location and encourage emergent plant growth in the spring from the bottom. That is why all pond manuals I have seen say if you are going to use granular you must not let it come in contact with the pond bottom (use platforms or other methods). I will try to find a jump start method I provided Frank some time back when he was starting shad. It is a method that works for us along the lines of what Greg stated above.

What is your alkalinity? If low then add lime now.

Bill Here is the method EWest provided me. I chickened out this summer cause we had a bad drought with no water flowing in the pond for about 6 months. I plan to start it up next spring.

Frank

------from EWest follows---------

We use a combo of 0-46-0 on platforms and water sol. fert. (pro-sol) broadcast into water. An easy platform is to get a full sized pallet and some vinyl material and tack the vinyl over the top of the pallet then weight it down with blocks in about 2 ft of water where the runoff comes into the pond. You can also use a plastic tub from Wal-Mart like a busboy uses not a deep sided one. Put it on a couple cinder blocks ,put a brick or 2 in the tub and pour in fert. same location.

This is what I would try if I needed a bloom in 2 weeks and water temp was ok assuming alka is ok also:

1. Make a couple Wal-Mart tub platforms as above.
2. Add a mix of 0-46-0 and 20-20-5 to the tubs. That will insure that there is also enough N. see MSU link http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf
3. Add some water sol fert. over the lake (to cover a big area)
4. If alka. of runoff is low (pine lands) add a few bags of pelleted lime (not hydrated) in the pond around and upstream of tubs. So water as it comes in will pick up the lime and flow over the tubs. In the area of the tubs and after the fert is in the water, use the last bag of lime as follows. use a 5 gal bucket add a couple pounds of lime to bucket add some water stir around it will dissolve then pour it in water around the tub area , repeat until all of last bag of lime is used up covering the near by area.
---------end from EWest------

Thanks Frank I am glad you could find that email.

Thanks for the replies.
Bill

Here's another thought. Plankton blooms are not static. They change. Even if you were able to get a bloom now, it wouldn't be what you want.
If you fertilize now and don't get a bloom, most nutrients will leech out and settle into soils, or be flushed away with rain.
I wouldn't fertilize in the winter. Even if it does no harm, there is no gain. Waste of money.