Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization ponds first spring. Fertilizer?

Hay Pond Guys I added 25 lbs of Fertilizer yesterday. Water clarity was 36" and Todd Overton said it's up to me now if I wanted to make this pond grow big fish. Walt Overton dropped some Fertilizer off with me the other day and to be honest I was a little worried about fertilizing because of what I had read here. I was thinking the fish food would cause a bloom and I did not want to have an excess Bloom by adding fertilizer, ( I have no idea what an excess is lol). But I took the advice of Todd and Walt and added the Fertilizer by sifting it in the prop wash of a trolling motor in the middle of this 3.5 acre pond. Water surface temps are in the high 60's and I am pretty sure it will stay in the mid to high 60's range in the near future. So what am I looking for? how will I know if a second bag will be needed or when? last fall I added some dehydrated alfalfa to the pond when 1/2 full pool, and shortly after the water turned to 18" + or - visibility and a pretty aqua green color. Was that a Bloom? So what to look for here? And where do I go from here? Todd also talks of organic and we did at one time discuss alfalfa pellets. is that in addition to the fertilizer? And I thought I knew about fish, I am finding out now, I knew very little

Tracy

Tracy,I will be watching this thread closely as I'm also lurking regarding my first spring with my pond and if I'm going to fertilize.My temps in North MS are a little cooler so I have a week more to wait.Feeding program is starting (little activity) and I have lots of woody debris coming from tree decay....good luck!

see these re fertilization from the archives.

General

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=96127#Post96127

Measuring

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92624#Post92624

Must see - a walk through the world of plankton - pics

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=321151&page=1

ewest Thank you for putting this information on fertilizing out there for me to look at. I had read this material back in the fall and forgot what I had read. But I reread it again and I think I understand what to look for and where fertilization is going to take me. I did an organic fertilization last November and I am sure I had a bloom because the water turned aqua green to an olive green with 18 + or -" of visibility. But it died back after our late winter storms in March. I am now at 28" of visibility with no vegetation and little FA so now is a good time for the fertilization. I will give it a couple of weeks and monitor the visibility before I fertilize again if needed.

Thanks
Tracy

I always advise caution re fertilizing a pond. If you need it, go ahead. However, if you overdo it, you can kill fish. Been there, done that and the bigger fish go first.

It's kinda like tequila.

Fertilization update. As per recommendations to fertilize from Todd and Walt @ Overtons fishery, I added 25 lbs of 12-46-0 to this 3.5 acre pond on 3/31/15 and on 4/4 I went from 36" and 28" to 24" of visibility. I read where Bob Lusk's definition of a bloom starts @ 24" and is considered a bloom. Water has a green color with the PH of a 7.5 with the alkalinity of 110 and a water harness of 45. I will continue to monitor and after losing a couple of inches of water, I have started the water well additions back to the pond @ or around 50 gpm. This is for food for thought and for the little ones

Tracy