Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Millfoil

Hello Everyone this is my first post, I'm from Ontario Canada and I presently have a 1/2 acre pond with Walleye perch and blue gill. I just recently dug another 1/2 acre pond 30 feet from my existing pond. My game plan is to drain the existing pond next spring move all fish to the new pond and dig the existing pond deeper In hopes that 1) I can remove the Millfoil or 2) any milfoil missed would not survive the summer if I kept the pond empty. I don't want to remove all the rocks that I put around the pond they go down the sides approximately 10 feet My question is do you think that if I keep the pond empty that it will kill the milfoil that is growing out of the rocks or will it come back the next year?

Is there another use for the second 1/2 acre pond after you remove the weeds in the first pond? It would seem to be far simpler to kill the milfoil in the first pond with chemicals and save the cost, time, hassle of creating, filling a 2nd pond, moving fish, moving them back etc. An ounce of 'milfoil be gone' will do wonders and the milfoil will disappear in a few weeks.
But if your goal was to have 2 ponds anyway....

and Welcome to the Forum!

We would love to know how the walleye and perch due in the pond, its depth, bottom structure, water source and temperature year around, issues with winter kill, etc.

Pictures are great too

Canyoncreek I have looked into chemicals but Canada seems to be really restrictive, My goal is to have a 1 ac pond in the end with no Millfoil hopefully. my other problem is that my existing pond is 12 feet deep on one side but only 4 to 5 on the side closest to the house where the dock is located and the kids like to jump off. Im planning on digging it deeper and putting in a larger dock with a slide or diving board. The kids just love playing in the pond on a hot summer day As for the fish we put blue gill in 5 years ago and was over run in no time so we put in 40 walleye 2 years ago and now I can hardly catch a small blue gill in my minnow trap, actually the Walleye are really skinny.

I'm sorry, i can't help with the rules/regulations in ontario, but there are other members from ontario on the forum who may be able to help you.

I'm pretty sure you can source a small amount of chemicals online as long as it isn't illegal for you to put them in your own pond.

skinny walleye? I'm sure someone on the forum can address that as well.

I've had areas of my pond dry out and freeze overwinter, then fill back up with water in the spring. EWM sprouted like it never dried up.

I greatly reduced a massive amount of EMF using a combination of Diquat and Copper Sulfate mixed in a 25 gallon tank sprayer and spraying over the mats of the stuff on the surface. It looked like it killed it pretty well. It was towards the end of last year and too late in the season to use Sonar which I did use this year. But the Diquat and Copper Sulfate mix did a very good job. I had mats of the stuff all around a 3 acre pond out 30+' or so. Couldn't fish, couldn't swim, it was a mess. Now the pond is absolutely clean and I caught 15 bass and crappie in an hour the other evening.

Oh, my pond freezes over every year, that doesn't do a thing to the EMF, it just hangs out till the water warms again.

In My pond it seems to grow to about 4 to 5 feet deep so if I dig the pond so that the majority of it is deeper then that and the sides are pretty steep then worse case is I end up with a ring around the pond. Right? I'm going to look harder into what is available up here in the way of chemicals. I have done hours of pulling, that is a waste of time it just comes back twice as thick.

Muddy water last summer killed all of my milfoil last summer and it has not come back.

Shorty Why would that kill all your Millfoil, would it not still grow in the shallower areas

The water level was down, I then had two 4" gully washers 3 weeks apart that reduced visibility down to less than an inch. The milfoil never made it to the surface before it lost the light it needed to grow. The lack of sunlight over a prolonged period killed it off. Plants need light, nutrients, and the right temperature to grow, take away any one of those, and they won't thrive.

Have you thought about using pond dye right after ice out to choke out the light while the milfoil is still laying down on the bottom?

WW: I've conducted a lot of research for a project in one of the eastern provinces and found that the only aquatic herbicide available in Canada is REWARD (diquat). To say that that treatment-options are limited in Canada is an understatement!
REWARD is a potential option for Eurasian watermilfoil; but understand that the best outcome with its use is a "herbicide haircut". The milfoil will growth back - maybe even quickly - behind a REWARD treatment (via sub-surface injection).

I did consider dye but was unsure on the effects on my fish, Your pond must of been really dirty to kill it all.

That's what I found to Kelly.

Well I'm going to dig the pond deeper anyway so it sounds like I either have to remove everything and start fresh or be prepared to deal with this again in a couple years.

My pond was really dirty last year, we had 11-1/2" of rain in the month June which is more than a third of our average annual rainfall here. This included two separate 4" downpours that came down in a few hours, it was the wettest June on record here.

I kind of like milfoil for fish habitat but it is pain to fish and looks bad in late July and August.

If you decide to try pond dye at ice out go conservative and leave at least 20-24" of visibility.