"Derek Broughton" wrote in message
...
Reel McKoi wrote:


"Derek Broughton" wrote in message
...

brevity snip

But I tend to agree with you, anyway. I haven't fertilized since my
very
early water-gardening days, and I get more blooms than ever.
===============================
This fascinates me and has since you first mentioned it. Your lilies are
feeding on something. How often do you clean your pond?
I mean pump it out and refill it

Ye gods! I wouldn't dream of doing that. There's a pump on the bottom
that
pumps the mulm up into the veggie filter. Pretty well all the maintenance
is in the veggie filter.

The bottom of my rubber lined ponds have a very gradual slope where I was
told mulm, if any, would collect. But that's not the case. In the
troublesome pond (which is actually 880g) the mulm collects all over the
bottom and shelves. The pump, at the lowest point and in a prefilter of 2
black plant baskets clam-shelled together, only sucks in what's real close
and pumps it to the filter. The mulm around it is left undisturbed. We
have to drain them down every year to remove the fry. Since we have only a
few inches of water left, we hose down the sides and use a shop vac to get
the last of the dark green odorless "glop" mulm from the bottom. This glop
makes excellent fertalizer for the flowers around the pond.

Is it just fish
waste feeding the lilies or is there runoff from the lawn?

The pond was built by digging a hole, and building up the sides with the
dirt from the hole, so there's no possibility of runoff from the lawn (and
I don't fertilize, anyway). There's some blown dirt - its on the edge of
a
farm, and come spring the ice is usually pretty dirty. However, very few
trees, so no leaf debris.

Are there other plants in your pond or just the lilies?

Not many. Anacharis, parrot feather and irises. A number of bog plants
in
the bog.

The "fertilizer" fueling them has to be coming from somewhere.

Fish, and bare-root lilies to maximize their ability to extract nutrients
from the water.

How do you remove the unwanted fry? Sorry but I don't remember why kind of
fish you're keeping.

--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
ISP: Hughes.net
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