I have too many crawdads in my pond and have had very little success with planting plants in my pond not to mention pretty muddy waters. I want to try some lilies this year and will be hanging them in special-made 5 gallon buckets due to the fear of the lilies becoming expensive crawfood. I tried this last year with American Pondweed and it worked very well. I hung a couple bucketfuls off my dock where the top of the bucket was about a foot under the water surface. This was done in 7 foot of water so the crawdads would have a hard time getting at them. They thrived all summer long and we'll see if they come back this spring. They should.
I hope to bucket grow the lilies and eventually propagate/transplant them to pots for putting closer to the shoreline.
Here's a quick link to my hanging basket thread...
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=39125&Number=509025#Post509025Not shown in the other thread is a swing arm that I cobbled up to hang the buckets out away from the dock.
The only native plants that I have in the pond that survive alongside the craws are...
Pickerel Weed,
Arrow Head/Duck Potato,
and Thalia dealbata.
I do not have but one LMB in my pond. I put it in to help reduce craw numbers for what is was worth and my decent population of HSB have not proven to control them even at 2 pound each or better.
I have though about using half of a 15 gallon barrel, potting the lilies in that, and setting it on the pond bottom...thinking that the craws would not be able get up into it on a regular occasion. This experiment may come next year if this year's hang lilies prosper. This thought process my not allow for ALOT of lilies in my pond, but a think a few would be better than none at all.
