.First of all, I want to thank everyone so far for the great pieces of advice to my request for help. You folks are the best!.
I just took some depth and Secchi readings of my newly acquired pond to get to know it better. So, I am hoping this information may help with any additional advice you can offer
First of all, except for the edges of the pond, it ranges in depth from 4.0 to 8.5 feet deep. Its Sechhi (I think I have that right) is approximately four feet. The only submerged weed of any dominance is coontail. Surface weeds are confined to a few patches of cattail and scrub willow. The coontail is located primatily in a humped-up area of the pond (around 25' X 60'in area, near its center, where the water ranges from 4.0 to 4.5 feet. Otherwise, the coontail is somewhat scattered here and there and not thick. There is very little, if any, noticeable algae.
The pond bottom has a black muck for the most part, except for near the shorelines where it is more of a gravel/mud. The pond is at least 30-35 years old. It is L-shaped and is 415 feet long and 180 feet wide (average)or about 1.71 surface acres.
The pond is situated in the middle of a 12 acre field where no crops are grown nearby. There are also no trees around it so the pond gets a lot of wind when it blows. Horses used to occupy the area about 10 years ago or longer
I have chopped down the cattails for the most part. I am also working on getting rid of as much creeping willow as I can and a few other scrub trees and shrubs along the shorline.
Given these conditions, how do I prepare my pond early next spring, and beyond, to keep the weeds down and perhaps reduce the muck, which I'm sure is from years of weed die-off? If I can avoid herbicides, I'd like to. But, I will follow the consensus of advice I may be fortunate to receive, especially from you more experienced Ponders and weed control veterens. Has anyone bit on this BIO stuff that you throw into a pond to eliminate muck? Any advice of my shoreline maintenance? Will the Aquashade work (I realize it's no good for areas less than two feet deep).
Again, I hope my new and better information can allow you to give me more specific advice. By the way, I think I am getting PondBoss for Christmas from my bride. The Penn State Cooperative Extension has also been giving me some good stuff. But, I'd like to here from you folks who have been there, done that, even if you responded to me earlier. Thanks guys!!
