Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization cotton wood trees

Do cotton wood trees cause your lake to darken like cotton seed meal? I have cotton woods all around my lake and since they have bloomed that crap all over my lake, My water have turned a very dark green and visability is down to 6". It was claer around the banks last week. I had a good algae bloom already going, but its alot darker now. Any relationship????

I dont think so, its easy to overfertilize a pond in the spring. most of the time folks dont give the first fertilizer application a chance to work before appling more. sometimes it can take a month before a fertilizer application will kick off. If you put down your fertilizer and nothing happened then applied another dose you are dealing with over fertilization. let the pond clear to about 24 inches before you apply again, then apply at 1/4 rate and see what happens. give it 10-14 days before fertilizing again. remeber you can always add more but you cant take it out.

i been having a simalar problem, first bud's from tree's , then cotton wood junk, now seed's from maple's, we call them helicopters. the pond was about 24" clear , now is real dark about 12" clear . will it clear back up or what. cut every tree in the area down lol

I did not fertilize this lake. The algae bloom had taken off on it's own. I can't figure out why the water got so dark. Thanks for the advice Shan.

I misunderstood when you said "I already had a good bloom going". sorry

I have seen a few ponds that seem to keep a bloom from leaves and other orgaic debris that falls into the lake. Dont know how much rain you have had up there, we have had a ton here. that can wash lots of nutrients that have been stored in the watershed during a drought.

Organic debris is a good form of nutrients. If there is enough of that cottnwood junk its possible it could kick off a bloom. watch for and limit other sources of nutrients around the pond like grass clippings. If your pond is normally clear I would expect it to return to normal, just ride it out. keep us posted

Updates to follow! Thanks.