Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Facebook Live 6.27.18- TONIGHT

Tonight! Facebook Live broadcast. Bob’s topic, “Your Underwater Salad Bar”. A primer about aquatic plants and their role in your environment. He’ll even have some real plants to show you. 6:30-7:30 CST.
Comment to this post with questions or send them to info@pondboss.com

Thanks y'all!
LeighAnn

Management methods (see AQUAPLANT management options)

https://aquaplant.tamu.edu/ general site


https://aquaplant.tamu.edu/management-options/spatterdock/ how to manage spatterdock

How to manage FA, and is FA always bad?

Discuss the habitat benefits of various aquatic plants for fry, young fish, and adults.

My pond is steep sided & deep for the most part, so the chara (muskgrass with that unmistakable odor!) mostly keeps well behaved. However, toward the back the pond naturally gets shallower, and I see chara growing down to a good five or six feet. This means it blocks spawning beds and makes the back bays unfishable other than by topwater lures.

Overall, the chara covers no more than 20 percent of the pond. This, along with smaller patches of Am Pondweed, cattails, and duck potato, seems okay on an overall basis. Little fish need shelter, and now I've got it.

But the ratio of open water to plants isn't 80/20 around the pond. Instead it's 95/5 for most, and 30/70 for the back bays. Chara is already up to within a foot of the surface in most of the back bays.

Question: Should I be happy with overall 80/20 ratio, or take action to reduce the 70% chara in the back bays? Would grass carp be a reasonable solution? I really don't want to lose the plants in most of the pond, just the shallow water at the back. Grass carp don't reproduce, but they don't die off in the winter, either.

PS I have 150 lb of TP stocked.

+1

Excellent session, loads of questions kept Bob busy the entire time. He really helped with my BOW chara issue.

Bottom line: Know your plants before taking any action!