Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Constant cycles of FA

To reinforce what teehjaeh57 said, in most cases you will get plants naturally within a few years. My pond was almost barren of weeds in 2016 and 2017, which really hurt CNBG reproduction and hence LMB forage. I had stuff planted in summer 2017, some of which did okay but some which did not.

This year it's the chara (not planted) and American Pondweed (planted & spreading) which are the backbone of my BOW cover. Shocking in plant areas frequently turned up dozens or hundreds of YOY fish, mostly CNBG at a guess. Cattail is also there (unplanted) but is less important.

If you really want to get BG reproduction a big boost right away, planting might be worthwhile. Good plants like Am Pondweed crowd out opportunities for bad stuff to grow. But rest assured, unless you have a very unusual situation you will get plants one way or another!