It will be a cold day in that hot, hot place when I pit my experience against that of Bob Lusk. However, to take one of his guiding principals, we do have to manage the conditions in our own ponds, not textbook situations. For my water, keeping a bloom healthy enough to reduce visibility to 18-24 inches is my goal through October. I start fertilizing when the dogwoods bloom, because the water is finally warm enough to begin to bloom as well. I actually quit fertilizing in May or early June because I generally have little run-through after that time, and the bloom will hold. A bloom limited to the early part of the warm season wouldn�t be ideal for me because I hope to be recruiting BG fry periodically all summer, and they benefit from the murkiness in both increased survival and increased food supply. For another thing, I want Tilapia production to continue until dying time.
A few factors that apply to my pond which may not apply to others are a complete lack of weeds of any kind, enough rainfall so that total water volume doesn�t fall very much even in a relatively dry summer, and a primary interest in BG fishing. I also suspect that having a relatively large body of water with much of it being fairly deep and open reduces overall biomass concentration sufficiently so that dangerously low DO is not much of a problem. At least so far, there has never been a fish kill in the pond.
Lou, 13.5
