Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment Plants at pond edge / trees and algae

Hello Everyone, long time lurker, this is my first post. Great site y'all have here!

I have a brand new 1 acre pond in central Virginia, zone 7a. It's about 10 ft deep in the middle and the banks have a good steep angle. The pond was 100 years old, I just cleaned it out and expanded it a bit. I stocked it this last spring with Bass, Catfish, Bluegill, and Minnows. There is a solid 10" drain pipe and two drainage swales. The pond gets a fair amount of run off to feed it.

Two questions:

1. What can I plant on / in the water edge that won't grow super tall and won't be invasive. I like the idea of mixing up plants, and mixing in trees.
Currently grass grows in the shallow edge and it is kinda junky looking. I am also getting algae as there are not many trees. Just a pile on the west side.

2. I like the idea of trees along the edge. What are good trees that won't damage my dam and / or create other problems?
The dam is on the south side where I'm assuming I need to establish some shade to fight the algae, and of course for shade.

I don't mind spending the money to solve these problems, and also will put in the time and work. I want this pond to be a real legacy for my kids and family.

I also have Pekin Ducks and African Geese, but am not sure about putting them in the pond.

Thank you in advance.

Good marginal plants are Spike rush (several species in genus Eleocharis). Very good noninvasive shoreline plants are native water iris Iris versicolor & Iris fulva. Also plant some Louisiana Iris that have more showy color blooms. I like Lizard tail, and sweet flag both standard and varigated. The only cattail that I would plant is the dwarf cattail that stays short. After years of experience with tree leaves in a pond I would not plant any trees near the pond. I have had tree roots grow 3 times further out beyond the branches drip edge. Roots can transpire a lot of water from the pond. Roots also infiltrate the pond wall eventually causing leakage. Only tree that I like near the pond is the arborvitae and white cedar. If you have to have trees stay with short varieties and keep them on the down wind side of the pond. Tree leaves are an enemy to the pond due to producing excess organic matter that results in excess bottom muck / slop.
See this information from our Common Oond Q & A Questions Archives

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=440475#Post440475

The only trees that I would put around the pond are the trees that Bill listed and maybe some dwarf fruit trees. Leaves getting into the pond are a sure way to shorten the life of the pond.

As for the ducks and geese, that is a hard NO. Keep them out of the pond. If you let them in there the algae problem will be worse and your plants that you planted along the edge will get eaten.

Keep ALL trees off the dam. Period.

+100

Wow. Thanks, guys!!
I certainly appreciate the wisdom and experience.

but...
Why say you guys considering this:
Small trees: dogwoods, Japanese maples, Cherrys, etc. wouldn't have much of a root structure and would also shade out the algae. My Dam runs the whole south side of my pond. My dam is also crazy wide and tall compared to my pond. Like five feet from the top of the water to the top of the dam, and 100 ft wide, and 250 ft long.

If you think algae won't grow in a pond that is shaded, think again. The leaves from the trees will slowly make the algae problem worse over the years and turn the pond into an algae, duckweed and watermeal covered pond. You want to create a legacy pond, you have to think 50+ years in the future. With the dam on the South side of the pond, trees on it will have their leaves blow into the pond (South wind). Also, unless you have an unlimited supply of water, the trees will suck a lot of water out of the pond to live. Lastly, if roots of the trees die, their decomposition will leave a path through the ground for water to flow, and if they are on the dam, it could compromise the dam, resulting in a dam failure. A dam 100 feet wide isn't immune to that. Tree roots don't stay in a small spot under the tree. Tree roots at the bare minimum spread as wide or wider as the branches spread, and at the most can go over 3x the length of the branches. A large tree can have branches over 40 feet in length, so a large tree can have roots that go from the water to the opposite side of the dam.

I have a customer that LOVES his trees. He had a1 acre ponds dug, and had the contractor dig a 5' deep, 7' wide trench the length of his pond. He has trees surrounding the pond, and mature trees within 20 feet of the pond. 3 years after constructing the pond I did a contour map of the pond. That trench was nonexistent. When I probed the area it was full of black muck - organic matter from all the leaves that ended up in the trench and decaying. He has 4 ponds on the property all situated in the woods like that one. We did a 2 year test with bacteria, grid based aeration and windmill based aeration and no aeration. We found that bacteria and grid based aeration both showed a 1"-2" per year reduction in the amount of muck, windmill aeration basically kept up with the muck and no aeration allowed the muck to accumulate at the rate of 1"-2" per year.

So, while this isn't the answer that you want to hear (Sorry, I'm not politically correct, and I don't tell people what they want to hear - I tell people what they need to hear), but KEEP THE TREES AWAY FROM YOUR POND if you want to avoid having to dredge muck and accumulated debris out of the pond in 20 years. Last time I got a quote on dredging it was close to $50/cubic yard.....

You have been wisely advised. You have receive good advice from long term practical experience. Now how you proceed is your form of management.. If you use the trees for this new 1 ac pond, set aside or designate at least $5-$8K per year for leaf muck cleanout 20 to 30 years from now.

Bill, why do you like White Cedar vs. other coniferous trees?

White cedar and arborvitae have "leaves of flat scale like folage" that do not blow in the wind nearly as bad as other evergreen trees. I used spruce and pine trees around my pond at distances of 50-100ft. Strong winds blow lots of needles into the pond. I spend hours cleaning out bushels of needles before they sink. It is more work than I want to be doing and it could have been prevented if using the proper trees.

https://arborhilltrees.com/blog/arborvitae-trees-facts-care-omaha/

Best trees around the pond are ones that don't deposit lots of vegetation into the pond. Reasons are noted in above posts.