Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Curly-leafed pond weed

I made a whoops when I added a pond lily last fall, some curly-leafed pond weed seed must have rode in on the media and have sprouted all around it. I have been manually pulling it around the lily, but am afraid it will be a loosing battle. It is tough as heck to snorkel in there and get to the base of the plants without harming the lily.

I only have a 20sq foot area I need to eradicate this stuff from, but it is intertwined with a beautiful dark-red lily I would like to keep which is a prolific bloomer.

What are my options? Should I nuke the lily and surrounding plants from orbit? Will I have a chance of eradicating it manually? Will grass carp eat it and leave the lily alone? I doubt it.

Seeing how much plant control costs makes me think the nuke from orbit may be my best option to stop it before it gets out of control.

Also we swim in the pond, so I would prefer something safe and ecologically sound.

Sidenote: Lots of baby cattails coming up all around the pond. It has been only a few months, so I can only assume there were fuzzies in the air from nearby swamps. I am planning on letting them grow in select areas of the pond but maintaining control.

Oh, and Mr. Yellow flag is going bye-bye.

esshup - That SeaGrant page does not even mention turions although it does show a turion. I think they consider the turion a plant fragment which technically it is a fragment of the plant. The wording on the page is general and it does not distinguish the growth activity or ability among stems, leaves, and turions. I defy anyone to show me how a leaf. stem or leaf & stem will sprout into a new plant for the specie CLPW. If we pin the author down to specific details I think they were referring to a turion as a plant fragment. I did not get an A+ in Aquatic Vascular Plants in grad school for being a dummy.

I don't think CLPW spreads from stems nor leaf fragments. CLPW is an annual plant. However CLPW does spread from its seeds in the seed head and the turions that develop in the axils of some of the leaves. The turions grow and develop as the plant matures. I think there is a point in time of growth or development where the turion becomes viable to produce a sprout of a new CLPW plant; similar to any plant that produces seeds. IMO not all newly developing seeds nor turions are active for new growth and it takes a stage of maturity for regrowth ability of a new plant. If the CLPW can be cut or removed before the turions are viable or mature or start to develop then non-turion parts of the plant will not re-sprout into a new plant. This assumes the seed head of the CLPW also has not fully developed.

A turion is a resistant plant bud that is found in certain aquatic plants, and can allow the plant to survive winter in the vegetative state (i.e., without setting seeds). The word “turio” is latin for a shoot or sprout (shoot in the sense of a plant stem and leaves), and is used in this case because a bud can develop into a shoot, as might happen with the turion in the late fall or spring after the ice has melted.

Lol on the last statement!

Having a heck of a time with the boat issue, then remembered I have a frikken fiberglass canoe unused hanging from the ceiling of my garage. May be a bit large for the purpose, but it will work. I am thinking I bonked my head on it one too many times, and that is why I forgot about it. I stopped using it as it was shedding fiberglass and my little guy has very sensitive skin. Went canoeing with him in that, and he became an itchy welt. It's been in the garage ever since.

Contacted a local pond service company, and it seems all they want to work on is wealthy people's ponds and water features. Outrageously expensive to treat paying someone else. Plus, they claimed you cannot get the herbicide in NY without a license while I was looking on a website for a pond supplier an hour drive from me with it for sale for NY residents. Trying to claim they were the only way to treat. Done with them.