Good morning! My pond renovation project was "finished" about a year ago.

From early on, I've had not-unusual FA issues all around the edges, which I've been treating with dye and raking as I have time (as Tilapia are not permitted in Louisiana). I've had a massive outbreak of BPW (Southern Naiad) to depths of 4-5ft due to frequently good water clarity.

And especially as of this spring I've got all kinds of new life sprouting around the pond. I think I've correctly identified some of these newcomers, using the Acquatic Vegetation Identification booklet sold on pondboss.com and the TAMU web-based plant ID page.

I want to make sure I know what is growing, and what I need to get ahead of before it becomes a problem (i.e. non-native / invasive species).

Please take a look if you're so inclined, and let me know if you have any ideas on the unknown plants, and if I've correctly identified the ones labeled by the file name.

Thanks!

A few more...

That's quite a variety. You ought to have a sauropod or two roaming around eating all of those.

Let’s hope not..... well it would get plenty interesting TG....

I'd say it's Pennywort, not lotus. In my experience, lotus comes up with much larger leaves right out of the water - a few to several inches across.

Your unknown #3 reminds me of some type of cone flower, but it's hard to tell without flowers on it.

I killed those off a long while back.

Dang you are OLD! Lol

Back in my day, velociraptors didn't have feathers yet.

Thanks! I guess you're probably right there. I just looked at some more photos and found ones with the round shape I'm seeing (the photos in the weed ID guide had more a clover-like or cloud-like shape).

Anything of concern aside from the Cattails (which I'll be treating with the glove of death in the next couple of days)?

Nah, although you might want to start treating the filamentous algae.....

When my pond first started growing things, like you, I was very interested in the types of plants they were. I pulled every cattail that popped up. I wish I had not pulled them because, I believe, they can be a benefit under certain circumstances. I may eat my words in a few years, but I have let them be this year with hopes that they consume the areas where my pond has very steep banks to help stabilize the shore. The water drops off fast in those areas and the cattails cannot grow very far from the bank. I will still pull them from the more shallow areas to keep them from hindering the bank fishing.

Any other cat tail sympathizers on the forums?

I am more of an advocate of raking the FA out compared to chemical treatments. I'm not well versed in algaecides, nor the type that thinks everything has to be all natural, but I hang my hat on removing the FA mats so that the nutrients that it represents is taken from the BOW so that it does not promote further FA growth. It is a bit more work than spraying chemical controls, but not bad once you get the right FA rake. RStringer started a recent thread that has some good conversation on FA control with a couple rake examples if your interested...

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=535131&page=1

You have to remove the FA from the pond area, so when it decomposes it doesn't wash back into the pond or the nutrients will wash back into the pond. I agree with you, that is a good plan if you have the time and energy to do it.

Not a cattail sympathizer. I would prefer to see rushes and sedges instead. Cattails can grow out to some amazing water depths.

Thanks! I've been using a homemade lake rake (landscaping rake with a pool noodle wire-tied to it) with great success. I rake it to the shore, and my 3yo and 5yo put it into a bucket with about 50 holes drilled in it.

On the marginal side of this, what do you all think about that yellow nutsedge (assuming I've correctly ID'd it)? I saw someone on here suggest it was a problem species.

On the submerged plants side of things, should I be worried about BPW growing out to 4-5ft depths?

QA, yes on cattail sympathizer here. I rarely need to effect any control on them around our 1/4 acre pond. Cattails, unmanaged, will only cover about 25% of our shoreline.

We also have some hard stem bulrush in places. I'll occasionally cut out a spot in the vegetation so I can fish without getting my line tangled. We have a bit of shallow water but the cattails don't seem to spread out into the 2 to 4 feet of water. The water level drops several feet during the winter and the ground freezes most years. I don't know if this is inhibiting cattail spread.

I totally get how cattails could become a serious problem is many BOWs. Fortunately, it doesn't happen here.

I have a feeling that cattails behave differently in CO and MO (zone 6) than they do in S. LA (zone 9).

I was at a customers pond the other day. The pond is down about 4 vertical feet and the cattails that were growing in the water are now growing this year on land that is not covered with water. They will get nuked shortly......