Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat vegetation

I have a 10 acre pond. It is a pretty deep pond some of it is around 18-20 feet deep. The average depth is probably around 8 foot. It has limited coverage a decent amount of standing timber. I was wondering if there was any thoughts to adding any vegetation to the pond for oxygenation and cover for fish.

I'm sure the experts on here will chime in. From what I see on here they recommend around 20% coverage. So I would say yes lots of vegetation for a 10 acre pond around 2 acres.

Yea I guess I mainly need to know what to plant that won’t take over the pond. I’ve read up
Some on duck potato but that’s about it.

Corkscrew eelgrass, american or Illinois pondweed, dwarf hybrid lilies are all what we consider "good" macrophytes. Some periodic management might be necessary, but these respond to manual removal and herbicides readily.

Sedges, rushes, and arrowhead are good emergents welcome at my ponds, in fact, I propagate them every Spring to help with shoreline protection.

Chara is a macro algae that behaves and looks like vegetation [coontail] - it can get dense but I find it ok to manage and GC will also help manage it. It can appear on it's own whether you welcome it or not.

There are several other more dense types of pondweeds [sago, horned, brushy, etc.] that can get a bit trickier to manage but you should see several of these cultivars establish themselves naturally.


Is this a newly constructed pond?

It was a reconstructed pond. The old pond was approx 4 acres and 40 years old, the new pond was built by raising the damn 4 foot which created the “new” pond of about 10 acres 4 years ago.
The pond tends to have a green tint to it year round that gets darker in the summer. I haven’t tested it yet, so I’m unsure if it’s algae or plankton or what. I figured the pond needed some vegetation.[img]https://ibb.co/Fhxwy2n[/img]

The green tint is a algae bloom. Proceed carefully on fertilizers, etc. Plant life creates oxygen during the day but absorbs it at night and under heavy cloudy conditions.

I agree. Be very careful what you put in your pond. I find willows and bushes are better for they can be removed. My neighbor put in a "non invasive plant" and his pond is filled with the stuff. U do not want to risk bringing in un wanted plants like he by mistake did.

So, it’s not necessarily a bad thing then if it’s an algae bloom? Just seems strange that it lasts soooo long. I haven’t ever fertilized it, but I’m sure it gets some from run off. I was thinking of adding dwarf lily to an area that is 3-4 ft deep and has deep drop off all around it. The vast majority of the pond is deeper than 4ft so I would think they would be okay to maintain...

Lots of people fertilize to achieve a green algae bloom, including me. Not a bad thing unless you have a runaway blue green problem