Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations alternative uses for coontail

Does anyone know of composting coontail after you pull it out. It would seem to make an excellent mulch for gardens and flower beds. Does it have any nutrutional value.

There's little doubt that coontail would be of some benefit as a lawn fertilizer or addition to a compost heap. As would any organic material.

Trouble is, coontail is an aquatic plant. As such, it's mostly water. I found this out a few years back while serving as the secretary for a fishing club on ranch with two ponds and a 30-acre lake near San Antonio.

Try, as I did, to pull a mess of it from your pond and stack it on the shoreline. When you return in a few days, you will be stunned to find, not a giant stack of coontail, but a shriveled little clump of brown weeds. The longer you let it dry in the sun, the less product you will have in your pile.

You will be disappointed at the amount of benefit you derive from the effort.

Mark McDonald
Editor, Pond Boss

Mark, I second your comments from personal experience. A washtub full of aquatic veg dried and chopped could fit in a ziploc.

Here's another thought, though. Coontail is easy to harvest. Many plants, aquatic or terrestrial, are mostly water. But, water taken out still leaves nutrients. Coontail is rich in nitrogen, and will degrade quickly in a compost pile. Even though you don't get much quantity, quality of this compost is outstanding.