Topic: Blanket Weed

[bluenose]

Can anybody recommend a good product to get rid of Blanket Weed?

[eileen]

I don't use any chemicals to get rid of blanket weed as my garden  as it's totally organic. What I do is attach a cheap, round hairbrush to a long garden cane and twizzle it around in the weed. Lifts it out in clumps and it can then be disposed of easily.  :D

[Anthony]

Hi Bluenose, and welcome to the site .

We've had many discussions on here about "The wretched stuff" as Margaret fondly refers to it as.  I think you'll probably find that different products/plants etc work differently for different people and that everyone seems to recommend a certain approach.

On the whole if a pond is heavily planted with the likes of Parrots Feather, Hornwort etc then this will certainly help - Water Lilies also help in reducing the amount of surface water which is exposed to the sun (One of the chief culprits in causing BW)

If you have done all of the above and are still struggling then adding products like Barley Straw and/or Montmorilinite clay on a regular basis will certainly help (This is my approach) Failing all this you might like to try adding a Grass carp. Apparently (I've been told) they consume BW in large quantities (Along with any other plants in your pond)  Be warned though as they grow very big very quickly.

Good luck

Anthony

[bluenose]

Cheers for the advise, i am collecting a few lillys this weekend.

[cliff_the_gardener]

One thing to note is that in planting a waterlilly now, this will have almost no impact on your blanket weed now, it will help later on in the season as its leaves cover the surface.
If you need to establish plants to cover the surface, then plants won't help this year, next - yes, but not this year.
So you need to attack on several fronts.  Go for removal and barley straw.  Plant up.
You need to think of plants that are active now - when as this is when the surface of the water is exposed most.  Later in the year you water lilys take over.  Iris are good as they are starting to grow now and are hungry feeders.  Bog beam is green and in flower now; parrots feather (although this is listed as an alien invader by English Nature and is on there hit list for removal); brooklime (Veronica beccabunga) grows well and has small blue flowers.   In my fish pond I have watercress (out of a pack of salad - just threw it in and away it went).  Can produce a huge blanket of cover, removed masses of it at the back end. 
If you go for something like Phragmites australis, the common reed.  This is used in reed beds and keeps cleaning right through the winter.  Whilst in the wild it can get up to 2-6m tall, in my ponds I have done well to see it get 1.8m.  Generally has only achieved 1.5m
Good luck
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

[Toadspawn]

Are there two types of blanket weed or are there different types of filamentous Algae?

I have what appears to be normal blanket weed that is fairly dark green in colour, is coarse to touch and is easily removed by hand.

However, I also have another type which is bright green in colour, slimy to touch, difficult to remove because it breaks up into small pieces. Tadpoles appear to eat this type.

Any ideas please and how can I get rid of it? Unfortunately because of a problem last year the stuff I was advised to put in the water killed most of the plants so I have to start again with new plants this year to get competition for nutrients and light.

[cliff_the_gardener]

The answer is that they are different types, both filamentous algae.
The dark green stuff is blanket weed, easily removed by hand or killed with barley straw/extract - Spirogyra
Spirogyra also forms, well erm - a mush floating on the top which is not easy to pick up.
As you said tadpoles are there, I would suggest that it is Spirogyra.  Barley straw/extract will not affect your plants.  Oase do a blanket weed control, not cheap but effective.  It hasn't affected plants too badly - some of the waterlillys weren't impressed - their leaved did suffer, they came back though.
There is light green stuff, that is like trying to pick up wet spaghetti, is a different algae.  Tough stuff, may ne more ligh bright green strands of nylon.  I don't know its name but it isn't affected by barley straw.  I also tried a product called Excell(?) in a red box.  Said to kill anything.  Left it untouched.
Good luck
Clifford