I have a small pond about 3/4 acre and 4 feet deep in the deepest portion. For the past few years it has had a significant watermeal problem. Last fall I bought some Reward and Cide-Kick, mixed it per the instructions, and sprayed thoroughly over the entire pond. The watermeal went away, but because of winter I think, not because of the Reward. It has recently reappeared but in relatively small amounts. I have spot sprayed 3 times now, twice at the recommended dosage and once at about twice the recommended concentration. I don't see any of it dying. If anything, it appears to have spread slightly.

Can anyone offer any tips or recommendations?

Thanks!
Mike

If it was my pond, I'd make sure the pH was below 8 (7.0 is even better) and use Clipper with a surfactant added to the tank mix.

Read the threads here on duckweed and or watermeal. They are very hard to get rid of on a long term basis with contact herbicides.

Im not sure if any other company on the market has a "Watermeal guarantee" using a combination of products but I do know that SePro, manf of Sonar, does. If your pond gets a lot of runoff then I would look into using Clipper because it does not require a long contact time but you may possibly have to do a couple of applications. Otherwise contact Sepro and talk to them about your situation. They have been helpful to me in the past.

mike

Thanks for the the tips. Just curious - how does pH factor into the equation when it comes to things like watermeal?

The Clipper label states you would want a pH below 8 for full effectiveness of the treatment. I don't recall any pH requirements for the SePro brand products used for Watermeal control that I've used in the past.

It looks like the pH is somewhere between 7.6 and 8.0. Has anyone had any luck with physical removal or any other alternatives and if so, what did you use?

I don't know if this would work for watermeal or not.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35787&fpart=1

Interesting idea - this would probably work for rounding all of the watermeal up into a small area. I'd still need a way to actually remove it from the water though. The problem with this is that the watermeal is so small that it's difficult to pick up with anything.

I've increased the frequency of my spraying, but it does not appear to have had an effect. I'm looking for advice on what the next step should be. I'm considering:

1. Physical removal - I think I can get the watermeal into a small area but still need a good way to actually remove it from the pond. Any ideas?

2. A different type of herbicide - what would be best without breaking the bank or killing all vegetation in the entire pond?

Thanks!

Have you tried any of the herbicides that were recommended above?

No, just Reward so far

I'm reluctant to try anything else - Reward is supposed to kill watermeal, but in my case, it isn't. So I'm hesitant to believe that anything else making the same claim would work.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I just double checked the Reward label and it is not labelled for watermeal control. Duckweed yes but not watermeal.

I used reward on a pond last year that had a watermeal and duckweed.. Did an okay job on the duckweed but didn't touch the watermeal..Ended up using Fluridone and all went well after that...So far this year it has a nice bloom going and the cattails are the only thing that appear to be coming back...

I have a few questions about Fluridone:

1. Is it selective, or will it kill all vegetation in the pond?

2. I looked at Whitecap and Sonar but they are extremely expensive. Are there any cheaper alternatives?

3. The Sonar literature says that it is not recommended for spot treatment. Does anyone know why this is?

In my experience fluridone is pretty non-selective, although it will not touch algae. It took care of my pondweed, cattails, and all the grass around the shoreline, however.

It's my understanding that Fluridone works by maintaining a specific ppm concentration over an extended period of time. Thats going to be hard, if not impossible, to accomplish by spot treatments. No way to maintain the required concentration without it dispersing throughout the entire BOW.

It's not a poison....it interferes with the plants ability to photosynthesize correctly.

If you want to concentrate on targeting the watermeal, use Clipper. You might have to treat a few times because it won't affect the seeds that are in the pond. Once those seeds germinate, re-treat before they can re-seed.

Clipper sounds promising - any success/failure stories and/or pointers?

Hints:

Make sure the water that is used to tank mix with Clipper is below 8.5 pH.

I'd use a surfactant that is designed and labeled for pond use.

Make sure you watch spray drift and follow the label for application directions.

Hello all, I have been reading this forum for three years and decided to join. It is amazing the amount of information that is available here. I have a 1/3 acre pond that is about ten foot deep in the center, located in Iowa. I recently purchased some Clipper herbicide to try and control some duck weed, watermeal, and coontail that is in my pond. It sounds like I need to add a surfactant to the mix and was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as to what type/brand to use? I plan on applying with a back pack sprayer early in the morning. I only have a little bit around the edges of the pond now and want to try and get it under control before it gets out of hand. I have tested PH only a couple of times late in the afternoon and it was around 8, so hopefully it will be lower in the early morning. Any advice would be appreciated.

Cide-Kick will work as a surfacant. There are others out there, but as hard as Watermeal is to control I wouldn't use something that wasn't formulated for pond use.

Thanks for the info. Do you by chance know what the shelf life is on the Cide-Kick? Is their a difference between Cide-Kick and Cide-Kick II ?

Has anyone had any issues with Clipper being toxic to fish?

No issues here. I apply according to the label.

Initial results with Clipper appear to be very good. I applied it about 10 days ago. At that time, our pond was completely covered by the watermeal on a calm day, thick enough so that you couldn't see through it. I waited for a windy day when the watermeal was blown to corner of the pond. It still occupied a fairly large area though. I mixed about 8 oz. of Clipper with some Cide Kick (surfactant) and about 3 gallons of water in a backpack sprayer. I sprayed from the shoreline as much as I could, then did the rest from a small paddle boat that we had.

I started noticing results within about 3 or 4 days. There was a noticeable reduction in the amount of watermeal present, which continued through the next several days. On day 7 or so I took the boat out again and noticed that most of the remaining watermeal (which was maybe 10% of what it had been), was brown. Some was still green though, so I think it is still in the process of dying. I'm going to wait a couple more days and then probably apply it again on the next windy day. I think I'll just use about 4 ounces, surfactant, and 1 gallon of water. That will leave me with enough Clipper left for another small application if needed.