Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants 3 types of weeds that need to be identified.

New to the forum, didnt know it existed..... excellent!

I have a 2 acre pond that is about 20 years old and starting to get tons of vegetation.

I recently dredged about 500' of shoreline(the reason for all the disturbance in the pics) 10' out and came up with about a foot of muck.

The average depth of the pond is probably 6'-8' with a deep end of 10'.

Below are the 3 types of weeds I saw and a pictures of the pond. Any help in identifying them would be appreciated.

I plan to dredge the shore line 15' out with a bigger excavator soon.

5 diffusers are running 24/7 since spring.

I was wondering if a Fluridone treatment would kill the 3 weeds show below.

...Thanks!
The pond

The 3 types of weeds

Weed 1 close up

Weed 2 close up

Weed 3 close up

#2 & #3 look like American pond weed and coontail to me. Experts?

Fast response, thanks!
I was thinking curly leaf pond weed for #1, American pond weed #2 and coontail #3.

Just need confirmation on what the are and that Fluridone will kill them.

My opinion.
Curlyleaf pond weed
American pond weed
Milfoil

Milfoil will be rooted to the bottom of the pond, coontail won't. Too me it looks like you have a long bare portion of stem without leaves that likely runs to the bottom where it is probably rooted. The leaf stems also look paired rather circular.

Thanks, can Fluridone / sonar kill these 3 regardless if its milfoil or coontail?

Excellent point! Ah well, 1/3 aint bad for baseball.

Short answer is yes but the curlyleaf will likely be back next year.

I added the blue for clarification in what I think it is.

Yes, the Sonar/Fluridone will work. The Curlyleaf Pondweed needs to be treated earlier in the year, before it sets its "turions" or seeds in June/July. Then it dies back on it's own, and the seeds germinate in the late summer/early fall. It stays green under the ice and is the one of the first plants to start growing again in the spring.

Water levels in the pond have to be stable or dropping for treating with Fluridone. AND they have to be stable or dropping for at least 30 days in a row. A 10ppb dose will kill #1 and #3, I wouldn't kill #2, but if you do, a higher dose will be needed. SePRO recommends 45ppb dosage.

I wouldn't worry about the American pondweed, it should provide some shalllow cover for new hatched fry and likely won't be a nuisance. The curlyleaf and the milfoil on the other hand...

SK,
Welcome to Pond Boss and especially welcome from another pond owner in W Michigan. I'm glad you found the forum as there is a wealth of information here. What makes this forum so great is that there are many experts who are doing things in pond management that are way ahead of the curve so to speak and you really will learn if you search for answers to your questions.

Google search using your search term and the word pondboss is the best way to search for answers.

Tell us more about your ponds! You have 2 of them? How old are they? How were they dug? What is the soil like? Is it a lined pond or compacted clay? Do you have a way to add water in the dry weather we have been having this year so far? What is your depth like and your clarity?

Have you been watching the ponds long enough to remember a time when you didn't have these weeds?

Scott (esshup on the forum) has helped me a ton when I had my outbreak of eurasian milfoil and your picture looked exactly like mine. It took over half my pond 2 summers ago. I used Sonar to kill it with calculations at the lower PPB to leave the other pond weeds untouched.

I have some left over sonar that I have no use for. I would part with it for a significant discount. Esshup will probably be happy to help you calculate how much you need and you will likely need more than I have on hand but you can easily order a small amount (8 oz bottle is what I bought) from him via his online store.

I have a .2 - .25 acre pond and 1 oz was just about perfect. I ended up treating in August and after about 6 weeks could see a very good kill. I ended up retreating the next spring just in case...

I'd love to learn more about your ponds and share some things about my pond and what makes ponds in Michigan unique. I'm still at the stage of building forage as my pond was recently renovated and I had the joy of starting out stocking with a empty puddle...*(except the hardy goldfish which somehow made it through the drain down, excavation, and refill ....)

What fish do you have in your ponds?

Hope you check back here on the forum often.

Hi there,

Im in Zeeland/Holland West Michigan.

I have one pond, formerly 2 but they were connected 10 years ago and a spancrete bridge put over them.


They were dug in ~1990 by my dad with a large excavator. The spoils were used to make the banks.

Around 2000 the ponds were connected and a spancrete bridge placed over them.

We have 5 diffusers run off a 1hp pump to aerate the pond.

The ponds were originally ~12' deep at the deep end but have since filled with muck. I am not sure if its from dead organics or banks deteriorating from muskrats.

A few weeks ago I used a small excavator to remove the muck from about 500' of shoreline and will probably do the entire pond this coming 4th of July. You can see the pile of muck in the picture to the right of the grey pump house.

The pond has tons of large and small mouth bass, bluegill, sunfish and at one point Walleye (but no one has caught one in a while).

I have around 20 acreas of property, the pond is just under 2 acres


I will totally buy the sonar off you, just have to figure out how much I need.