Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization How to distribute phosphorus binder

I’m going to spread 200 pounds of phosphorus binder to my 3.5 acre pond. The label says to mix a slurry and distribute evenly around the pound edges.

How does one distribute that slurry? I have a tractor and a 50 gallon sprayer but I’m not sure if the slurry will just clog the pump and/or the sprayer nozzle. I also can not access about half the shoreline due to the topography.

I’m wondering if I really need to make a slurry before putting it into the water. I was hoping to motor around in my boat and simply spread the powder across the surface by hand. It seems like making a slurry is just an unnecessary step.

If it matters, the pond has an aeration system with three bottom diffusers.

The slurry is a necessary step or the powder could not dissolve and just sink to the bottom. If it does it's $$ thrown away.

What am I missing here? What’s the difference between adding water to the powder or adding powder to the water? Wouldn’t it dissolve when I put it in the pond?

How about distribution? Should I disperse it as much as possible or will it spread on its own if I dump it in at spots along the shoreline?

I'm guessing...haven't used the product but it might be more granular or have an ability to clump. It needs help to be absorbed into the water or will sink to the bottom.

I think you mentioned the directions were to spread evenly along the shore. If that's not doable, I'd go by boat and might risk it a little with the aeration to help distribute.

Never used it before....have no experience. Free advice and opinions are worth exactly what you pay for them :P

Curious....what product are you using?

The difference is that you are getting the powder dissolved in the water before adding it to the pond, then more of the dissolved powder can contact more of the pond water. If might dissolve if you just throw it into the pond, but the more you get it distributed over the volume of water in the pond, the more chances you have of binding P.

Sugar dissolves in water, right? If you pour sugar in a cup full of water does it dissolve or does it sink to the bottom? What happens when you pour water on top of the sugar in the cup? How is that different than having the water/sugar mix and stirring it up for a while? Does the same amount still dissolve in the water or does more dissolve?

It won't spread on it's own, not enough anyway. That's why you see companies mixing it in a tote in a boat then spraying the slurry around the BOW as they motor along.

I recommend getting a water test done pre and post application to see exactly how much P you locked up. That's the only way to tell for sure how well it is working, just looking at the water won't tell you enough information.

Could not agree more with esshup's post above.

I have mixed a lot of dry powders in my lifetime for a wide variety of applications. Almost all of them required agitation for mixing.

Maybe all you need is a 5-gallon bucket and a paint-stirring bit on your drill? However, at a pound of material/bucket that is still 200 buckets! Hopefully you can mix a thicker slurry and decrease your work load.

Can you walk the inaccessible areas of the shoreline with a 5-gallon bucket or backpack sprayer? If not, then distributing by boat is almost certainly going to give you a bigger bang for your buck.

Perhaps have a helper on shore mixing slurry for you, and your drive up to the dock and pick up a load of buckets and then go back to your shoreline distribution. If you can use a boat bigger than a jon boat, then have your mixer working in the boat while you drive and distribute.



esshup (and others), doesn't he need to keep the aerators running at full capacity during the treating phase to maximize the interaction between the slurry and his water column?

I would leave the aerators running.

Another way to mix it is to put a tote on a trailer behind an ATV. Fill it with water,dump in a bag or two of alum. Mix with a canoe paddle use a gas powered pump with a 1" suction hose and outlet hose that has a nozzle on the end. He can reach out quite a ways with that. They make brass "sweeper" nozzles that fit on a 1" hose. Repeat until the alum is gone.

Watch the pH of the water, if it drops too much, have a bag or three of hydrated lime to mix in the tote once you get all the alum out of it to spray on the pond.

Typically it's a 2:1 ratio for applying alum and hydrated lime. i.e. 300# alum to 150# hydrated lime per ac/ft water.