Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants winterizing my farm pond

Hi: Just wanted to know if there was anything that I am suppose to do in order to help my pond during the winter. I have a terrible algae problem in the spring and throughout the summer. I VOW to do better next year. But I want to get a good start on it. When and where of pond management is what I am asking for. Not sure how else to put it. Thanks

Brian that depends a lot on location. There is a lot of basic info we can steer you to if we know what your question is and where you are. I found where your pond is north of dayton ohio.

See this link for sources of info. http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=000021


The best place to start is here. The PB mag. and basic books on pond mgt. along with state level pond mgt. publications are a good first step.

Common Pond Q&A (archives) overseen by Bill Cody is a good starting place.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=22


Ohio pond Mgt.

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/publications/pondmanagement/pondmgt.pdf

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b374/index.html

Brian, IN GENERAL, all vegetation, especially ponds, need 3 things. Sunlight, temperature and nutrients. Cut off one of the three and vegetation can't make it. We can't do much about temps. Some people use pond dyes to cut off light penetration and it does eliminate weeds. However, it also clobbers microscopic plants (phytoplankton) that are the base of the food chain. That ain't good.

So, we are left with nutrients to figure out. That usually comes from pond fertilizers, runoff from livestock or fertilized fields, or fish manure overload.

However, some years like last year, seem to generate a huge amount of algaes in certain geographic areas. That's the tough one when you really can't figure out just what was different this year.

Towards the algal nutrient control DD brought up, make any reductions of fertilizer sources in the watershed you are able to. In my situation, this would mean NOT using watershed fields for Winter pasture for our horses or cattle.

Theo, I'm aware of an East Texas private 80 acre lake, Lake Echo, that has a horrendous milfoil problem. It is a private community of lake front property owners and has produced double digit bass. One of the owners, my Dentist, got some guys together, called and asked what to do. I said to call Lusk. They decided, instead, to try fertilizing a couple of coves. The Jury is still out.

A guy upstream has a chicken farm. I believe that the nutrient overload could have started the vegetation assault. They were going to try to do something about that to stop the problem. I explained that it wouldn't work. As the salad dies, it creates its own nutrient or fertilizer. They next asked what to do about that. I said call Lusk. The Jury is still out.

Life can be more complicated when you don't own your watershed. I'm lucky - the half of mine I don't own is an unused field.

sounds like that 80 acre place could use a solar bee or something else big enough to aerate and circulate, help reduce muck and nutrient loading, and agitate enough surface area to reduce aquatic veg.