Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants What should I do about this?

Hello!

I'm new to this board. We recently moved and there is a small pond behind the house. We would like to know what to do about the "flowers" or "moss" spreading across it. It's not completely covered all the time. It just so happens that the day we took the pictures it was all the way across. We did catch some bass on Saturday.




Any help would be great!

Looks like mostly "duck weed" with with something else mixed in with it.

I am pretty sure that the darker plant in the middle of the first picture is water primrose.

This link will help you identify the plants and give you different ways to control them.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

Thanks for the help!

I would bet a coke it is water primrose. I have some but it stays in check. Lots of duckweed.

Try the below site, it has pictures and control methods.

Once my water primerose was getting out of hand and I just waded and swam around and gathered it. You won't get it all, but you will slow it down. I kind of like it in my pond. It will make a good ground cover as the pond drops. And next spring will make a good cover as it is flooded and grows upward to the top of the water. It usually only will root in pretty shallow water. And the roots are easy to pull up. It is the broke off pieces that keep it coming back.

Ahhh an edit because I didnt notice Chris' post, I should refresh more often.

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/

Thena I know the larger plant is primrose and the Eraser will take care of that. I'm not sure what will take care of the duckweed though, possibly the same although the active ingredient that the TAMU site recommends isn't the same. I'd try the Eraser on the primrose first and see if it kills the duckweed. Too bad you can't let the wind "congregate" it all at one end then have the wind die down so y'all can get it easy.

thena..welcome to PB.Where are you in Texas?If your close by I have a rope rake that works wonders on duckweed.Or you can make one yourself if someone smarter than me can put up the thread it was on.

Thena - I'm pretty knew at this too. But the duck weed rope works great! We also had a duck weed problem this summer. We used the rope to collect it all to one side of the pond, then used an old small window screen my husband attached a long handle on to scoop it up. Be sure to dispose of it somewhere away from the pond.
We used Sonar to kill what was left of the duck weed, it works great. Very expense though. We just wanted to get out as much as we could though because I didn't want the decaying duck weed to add any more nutrients. Here is the 'clever' rope.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35766&fpart=1

The other is water primrose. We had that too! It is pretty, but it did try to take over my small pond. I used a heavy duty rake to get a lot of it. But the plant is very brittle! You will have little pieces all over the pond. We sprayed what remained with Rodeo. It is not nearly as expensive as Sonar.
Hang in there!

Thanks for all the help guys! We did manage to get some of the duckweed out this weekend.