Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Pondweed

Should i kill off the pond weed that is quickly taking over or leave it to let my recent addition of CNBG have a place to hide?

I would only kill it off in the areas that you want to fish.

I thought if i applied poison it would spread through the entire pond?

That depends on what type of herbicide you use, how it's applied, and at what strength. Granular herbicides are easier to use to spot treat, but you can also subsurface inject with liquid herbicides. It also depends on the weed that you are treating too. Some are more susceptible to certain kinds of herbicides than others. That's why proper weed ID is important.

Pretty sure its called pond weed. Atleast thats what google told me.

ROFL. Do you know how many "pond weed" (s) there are and how many different species there are? Get google to give you the genus and species of that "pond weed". THAT is what I mean by the name of the plant.

It looks like American pondweed to me.

https://shop.naturalwaterscapes.com...8xDSgzv37YNQRSGN08njZOPsEKHyh6JgtNUw1rV7

I thought about pond dye but it so dang ugly and i think i may be past that point.

Ever use black pond die? Thoughts?

American Pondweed aka long leaf pond weed. Amer. pond weed is great pond plant and great habitat for fish as long as it does not cover more than 25%-30% of the pond shallow water areas (littoral zone).
How big is the pond???
As esshup says granular herbicide is good for spot treating some areas to kill back the pondweed so it is not so abundant to initially and quickly open some areas to fish.
If it were mine, I would this Spring add a low number of grass carp (white amur) to eat some of it and thin it out - reduce it - so not as much is present. Initially GC are slow to get it noticeably reduced the first year. GC are MUCH easier to add than remove!!. A good benefit of using GC instead of chemicals is they eat it to produce manure to feed the good phytoplankton and zooplankton community to create more plankton turbidity to help NATURALLY shade out the deeper growing pondweed. Go slow with adding extra GC as they need to be 1.5 - 2.5 yrs old to see their affects on effectively reducing the pondweed. I think 3 or 4 GC per acre can eat at least 3-5 pickup truck loads of Am pond weed per year converting it to plankton fertility depending on size of the GC. Ideally you don't want pondweed growing deeper than 6-7ft.

Pond dye can help reduce the depth that the pondweed grows. Remember you really DO want some pond weed present - due to its numerous benefits. Use according to label or slightly less. I would first start with blue dye then later blend in some black with the blue. Black dye is mostly blue with some red and yellow added to get the darker black shade.

I think the best way to start with your Amer. pond weed infestation is a good combination approach. Use some granular herbicide early in the program for some quick partial weed reduction, add an appropriate few GC, add some pond dye. ALL depending on the size of the pond, Initially for the first year, manually removing some of the pondweed is also a very good idea. Less chemical to mess with, give the GC time to eat and grow, dye shades the deeper growing weed, and ALSO manually removing some gives you good exercise, garden mulch and pond activity observing the status of the pond. Manual removal will better educate you on the extent of the problem so you see the success progress over the next few years. A Lake Rake with rope and a Weed Razor are very good tools for manual weed removal methods to have in the Pond Tool Box.

Again how big is the pond?
How deep is it? and
How clear is the water? Amer.pondweed tends to make the water clearer so it can grow deeper.
REMEMBER you always want some Amer pondweed to compete against Filamentous Algae and you have fewer problems with FA.. Actually the more pondweed you have the Happier the Water Quality is for growing fish.

Here's a good place to go to ID plants. TAMU Aquaplant

Pond size is about 80x45' 6ft at the deepest. Does have aeroration. I agree, i do want to keep some weed in the pond but its crowding my fishing spot. Looks like american pondweed but in the description it says the leaves are rather long, 7". The weed in my pond are about 2" long but it is early still.
Water is fairly clear. When the sun is shinig without cloud cover i can see the fish.
Thanks for the help guys.

I can take pictures but not sure how to post them here.

There's a tutorial in the archives I believe. You first have to post them on an on-kine image hosting site. I use Imgur. I have APW in my in my pond and the leaves aren't much over 3"-4" long at adult size, they start out about 1/2" long.

Hotbug - Your pond is small at 0.08 ac at about 3500 sqft.
As esshup says some AmPondweed varieties can have shorter leaves. IMO one grass carp might eat too much of the vegetation after about 2 years and all the pond weed is gone. Bad idea IMO. I don't think tilapia will eat the Am.Pondweed. TP don't eat what little pondweed that I have.

First thing to consider with your tiny pond is buy a Weed Razor or similar brand of weed cutter. Lake Rake type tools are not good for pulling out by the roots submerged rooted pond vegetation. The Weed Razor gets the pond weed stems cut and the plants then float and can be removed. Removing the cut weeds gets them out and does not result in accumulating dead weed bottom muck and nutrients that would occur with chemical treatment. – IMO a big plus in a little pond. The weed cutter is tossed out to cut at 3ft wide strips. You can cut a lot of pondweed in 30min - 1 hr and enough good widths to get one or two fishing spots. Then when you rest up after a few days,,,,, go out and cut out another couple spots for angling. If you cut the areas 2-3 times a few to several weeks apart the pondweed in those areas may die out until a couple years later it recolonizes those cut spots.

I like my weed razor. It is razor sharp, comes blade guards and with a sharpener. Handle it very CAREFULLY. I cut my finger with it. It is also good for cutting cattails and reeds.

Also consider using granular herbicide. Note the herbicide kills the weeds to sink, die, and create bottom muck.
Aquacide Pellets as a 2-4D is an option.
Aquathol Super K 1-2 lbs should treat the whole 0.08 ac pond if I read the label correctly.
You should be able to spray the surface pondweed leaves with a solution of Diquot liquid 37.3% sold in quarts such as Harvester, Tsunami, or Reward. As a test spot spray for the Am Pondweed,, Mix up 1 ounce per quart of water and spray a patch of the Am. pondweed leaves. You are testing to see it works,,, the leaves should be brown, dead in a week. If it did not work contact me via Private Message. What mixed up solution of Diquat you did not use on floating pondweeds, spray it on some land growing weeds you want to kill. It should also kill them to brown tops quickly. Note it does not kill the weed roots very good – just mainly the tops. Diquat is IMO a cheaper option than the granular specialty aquatic herbicides, plus you can use Diquat on killing land based grasses and weeds. Keep it far away from tomatoes. In water diquat breaks down quickly 1-2 days but diquat is slow to degrade in the land soil.

Diquat should turn the leaves brown in 24 hours or less - it works FAST. Especially if you mix in 1 fl. oz Cygnet Plus (surfactant) per gallon of tank mix. I can turn cattails brown in 3 hours. Diquat is a contact herbicide, NOT a systemic so it won't kill the roots - it just gives it a "haircut".

If you want to really keep an eye on what you spray, mix in super concentrated pond dye at the rate of 2-3 fl oz/gallon of tank mix.You will see where you sprayed because the leaves and plants will turn blue. If you aren't watching the wind when you spray, it will also show you why you should be wearing PPE when spraying too............

It is a small pond but i can fish in it. I need to get a exact mesurement so i know these things.
Im not getting in that pond to harvest weeds id sink to my knees in the heaviest dang clay soil you will see. Lol
I think herbicide is the way to go.

Thanks guys

One does not have have to get into the pond and get wet to manually get the weeds cut. I don't get wet to remove those types of cut floating vegetation out of my pond when you have the right tools. The floating cut weeds and wind moves the weeds to the shoreline where they can be easily removed with a rake. Dead sinking weeds contributes more to the depth of the bottom muck. Someday you will need to drain the pond and get all that deep bottom muck scooped/sucked out. Put that on your future capital appropriations list.

Bill, I have curly pond weed this year, first time. Should I be concerned?
We mostly have BG, YP and golden shiner(some black bullheads from somewhere).
And we are not fishing too much we are just geting old and kids and grandkids
all too busy to fish-thoughts? Thanks

I'd hit it with a low dose of Fluridone (@ 7-10 PPB). NOW before it has a chance to set seeds which it will do towards the end of June. That low of a dose will only kill that and any Eurasian Water Milfoil in the pond and not affect the other plants in the pond. The fluridone takes 30-45 days to work, so there is no need to worry about an O2 crash.

thanks so much!

esshup is giving accurate info. I would treat asap - the earlier the better. If it were mine I would definitely do as esshup says and importantly knock it out before it has a chance to set seeds by evidence of seed/flower heads at the surface and turtions at leaf axils. CLP is a pest and there are a lot better submerged weeds for a pond than curlyleaf. If you use a brand of Diquat (examples Harvester or Reward) it will knock it out plus other plants quickly before it reaches the surface.
I use Diquat to control my CLP. If you do not aerate the pond with bottom diffuser the Diquat may not be mixed to the bottom zone and will not kill the CLP in the deepest water. Thus regrowth happens again next year. The diquat when applied has to mix into all the CLP stems/leaves especially into the deepest growing plants or diquat does not contact and kill them. Diquat does not last more than a few days unlike Floridone (Sonar) that lasts 40-60 days. If you bottom aerate then what you apply the circulation currents will mix the diquat throughout all the pond depths. According to label 1 gal of Harvester will treat your 1/2 acre with average pond depth 7-8ft.