Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Coontail?

Our three year old pond is an acre in size and runs 15’-20’ deep with a large swimming area that starts off the beach from 1’-5’ deep with a bottom of 2” pea gravel covered with 3” of sand.

Was cleaning up in the swim area of our pond today and noticed some coontail. When I got to the 4’ deep area there was plenty that I raked of the bottom.
Coontail really doesn’t bother me that much, but I don’t want it in the swim area. I like it better than filamentous algae that grows because of leaf litter getting in the water. I think the coontail is a progression from the algae and better for the fish and am not worried about it in the deeper water.
We treat the water with Aqaushade about a gallon every two or three months in the warmer weather.

Question is;
How can I keep the coontail out of the swim area?
I really don’t want to put any copper anything in the pond, it’s bad for crawdads and PK shrimp.

Has anyone at PondBass just tried putting a strip of pond liner in the swimming area to thwart bottom-rooted plants?

You would probably have to start at x? depth (or place a buoy rope) so non-swimmers cannot wade to the slippery liner and slide into water over their head!

I would not use landscape material, because I think the mesh would trap silt and organics from the pond, and plants would start growing on that substrate and then fine roots might be able to reach through to your bottom sediments.

If you started to get sediment accumulations on the liner after several flooding events, maybe you could sweep it clear with a trolling motor, or even your big outboard motor?

Theory is good. My experience with doing this has not been good. Bottom sediments create lots of gases that will usually quickly collect under the pond liner. Liner bubbling, floation and big bouyancy problems then occur.

Bill,

Thanks for adding your real world experience to the discussion!

Protecting a pond liner from any and all punctures is our "normal operating procedure".

Since this liner material is purely to inhibit plant growth, do you think he could just stab it with a sheath knife every 10-20 sq. ft. to create gas vent holes?

Those cuts should easily release gas, but should be mostly closed the rest of the time so plants would not spot rooting areas without some serious effort.

Some creative PB Forum member should test this bottom sheet plant inhibiting idea. What I know is it did not work for me. I think it is even less likely to inhibit coontail that is classified as a non-rooted plant and can thrive without true normal root structure.

This type of weed control / management is discussed in a book titled "Lake Smarts The First Lake Maintenance Handbook" and 2nd edition Lake and Pond Management Guidebook. both by Steve McComas. He says the preferred and tested method is to use a woven fiberglass screen product. It can get gas bubbles under the barrier plus it has other concerns and limits. It is recommended to lift and clean the barrier each year. If the barrier is left in place sediment collects on top of it and new plant material eventually becomes established.

I'll chime in with my little bit of experience in the matter of plant inhibition barriers. 5 years ago I placed about 700 square feet of our old household carpeting in patches on the bottom of our pond, adding gravel and road base to hopefully provide spawning sites for our newly added BG.
The intent of the carpeting was to prevent the gravel from disappearing into the bottomless mud. The sunfish have been using some of the spots each year. No elodea has become established on top of the carpet. The elodea thrives on the plain mud bottom.