Planning ahead...

[Deleted]

Each summer I get blanket weed returning to my pond. I've tried just about everything I can find - natural and not so natural.

The only ways I can keep it down are 1/ pull it out, and 2/ add barley straw bales to the water. The barley straw is only effective for a short time - a month - and then the blanket weed starts to return (sooner than you are meant to replace the straw, I think). All else in the pond seems rosey.

It seems to have happened ever since some ducks from the local lake decided my pond would make a great jacuzzi (although this could be coincidence!).

Am trying to plan ahead for this year's return of the pesky stuff. Any bright ideas?

[Deleted]

[in my wellies]

I tried hair clippings last year on the same principle as barley straw but it worked for a short time only, like yours. My weed came from a water lily bought from a WI sale - a bad 1.50 investment but the lily is prity.

[Margaret]

Dawn,what sort of pond do you have? Is it totally fish free and the plants planted into soil at the bottom.And no pump? Then the simple answer is to plant as much as is humanly possible into the mud,oxygenating weed,marginal plants at the edges and if you can pick up some hornwort,that doesn't even have roots you can just throw that in.All plants utilise the minerals that blanketweed needs to grow.But it is a simple plant form compared to the nice plants in a pond and therefore can easily be beaten,before it has chance to get a hold.If you can also plant a small lily whose leaves will shade the surface that will also help.The sooner the better.I have never found barley straw to be of any use .I do struggle at times in my fish ponds,as all of us do but i have had a nature pond now for 12 years and never suffered from blanketweed at all.

[in my wellies]

Margaret, I have introduced three goldfish to my pond in the hope that they might eat the blanket weed :-[, I also added water snails. This was last autumn. The fish have survived but I haven't seen snails yet. Should I have yet?
I have about 1/3 of the pond full of plants, plus a lily in the middle. Should I add more?

[Margaret]

Hi there.Is it meant to be  a fish pond or a nature pond? It always spells trouble when people try and mix the 2.If you have fish,then ideally a pump,filter and plants in baskets are the usual thing.Yes plenty of plants ,again on the same principle but not as many as you would cram into a nature pond.You should not have snails in a fish pond,and the goldfish will not eat blanketweed.Without a filter it is largely the fish food(if overfed) and their waste that causes the blanketweed to flourish.

If you are trying to make it a nature pond,then while the fish are small you may get away with it.The plants will grow but not quickly enough.Your best cure if you want to keep it natural is to find a home for the fish and concentrate on it being for amphibians only.Goldfish will actually eat snail eggs and tiny snails,plus any insect life trying to breed in the pond.They will also eat amphibians eggs so you will not get a lot of  tadpoles or newts surviving either.As i have said,and so do all the experts,fish and amphibians just do not mix.Sorry!

Now i feel a bit silly cos i have just read your  other posts.I see like me you have 2 ponds,one with fish and one without.So which pond did you put the fish in,the nature pond? Then simple,put them back in with their friends and stuff the nature pond as full as you can!The snails will come in time,but the blanketweed will just disappear when the plants get going! 

[Deleted]

Hi Margaret, and in my wellies,

Thanks for this. My Pond: Size about 9' x 5' x 2.5' deep, plus shallow edges for plants/wildlife. Fish: Approx 20 small minnows and a couple of rudd, plus plenty of water snails and some frogs (and tadpoles as of now!), no goldfish. Plants: Oxygenators, marginals, etc. etc. Water Lily, but it wasn't very showy last year. Pump and filter. Just the one pond, the set up is 5 years old. Its half sunny and half shady. All seems to be thriving fine and in harmony, except for this problem which raises its head now each summer. Think I may need to add more plants to see if that helps.