I have been battling Elodea for the 2 years that I've owned my pond. Like you Ron I am very leery of chemical solutions. I don't grow hay or have any animals (other that wild/native animals) so that is a significant difference between our situations. It has been my observation that Elodea (at least in Northern California) tends to die back in the winter time - it doesn't die off it just seems like it's growing cycle seems to slow way down. In the spring and most especially the summer it grows at an incredible rate. It's too bad the stuff doesn't taste like peaches or sweet corn or something - I'd be a zillionaire. Any way as I said I began a systematic approach to mechanically removing Elodea. I even went so far as to build a contraption that I could drag from a vehicle to pull it up. I thought I had a great system with manually raking it out then I used a 25' seine to pull through the water to remove as many fragments as I could. My pond looked fantastic for about 6 months. Winter came the pond got even clearer. I thought that I could whip it (whip it good). But the next spring/summer it was everywhere - it had rooted in places it never was before. I have created a real mess. From my observation, Elodea prefers sunny areas but will tolerate a fair amount of shade. There is one corner of my pond that stays pretty shady - probably only gets about 2 hours of sun a day and the Elodea grows fine there also.

I haven't tried any Aquashade or other similar products. After reading and re-reading threads on those types of treatments I am leary of this treatment also.

I also haven't tried any type of mechanical shade barrier. There is an article in a past Pond Boss about building submerged shade structures. My pond is 3 acres so it would take a heck of a lot of structures to effect any significant change.

I'm no expert, just a Jeff with a pond, but I've been struggling with Elodea for a couple of years now and I can tell you so far without chemicals I'm not winning the war. I too am reluctant to use chemicals but given that Reward breaks down fairly quickly (thanks for that info Shawn) and that it is fairly reasonable price wise that is the route I'm gonna take next year.

You might want to try and experiment with a shade structure as an alternative. Could be an interesting experiment.

The only real solid piece of advice that I can give you is do not try to manually remove it during it's active growth cycle (every season except winter in Northern California). Fragments of the stalks will break off and even if you try to net it you won't get them all and they will cause it to spread.

What I have been advised (Shawn I would welcome any suggestions) is to treat a portion of the pond at a time (so I don't have too much dead vegetation that could cause an oxygen crash) and let it die off for a few weeks then manually remove only the treated area. Continue with that around the pond until I've got it under control and the after that spot treat it where ever it rears it's ugly head. So that's my plan. I'm gonna keep a record with photos of my progress and I'll post it after I'm done but that'll be next year.

Anyway like I said I'm no expert, just your average every day pond monkey.

JHAP
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"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."
...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)