Again, I'm not an expert, but do have one pond that I renovated that was clay and the water was very low visibility. Did not notice much of a green cast to the water to indicate a healthy plankton bloom.

I had a spot in the pasture where cattle had been fed for years that I pushed up the hay and manure into a pile and let compost. The pile was probably two years old. I dumped a loader bucket full of this compost near the shore where the wave action would work it in slowly (did not spread it all over the pond). It wasn't but a few days I had a nice plankton bloom where the water was now a greenish clay color instead of just the clay color.

Plankton is the first food to start the food chain for everything else, as I understand it. So you might consider fertilization if your pond bottom does not have other sources of nutrients or run off nutrients.

I also put larger sized crushed rock around the shore line to keep the wave action from siring up the clay, but that is another story.

John

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