Hal wrote:

On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 13:22:42 CST, Derek Broughton
wrote:

You do have a liner?

Yes. EPDM.

I've tried bare root lilies before, and I haven't given up completely,
just keep changing plans, because the last one didn't work. This year
I have a converted hot tub with three lilies, two bare root.

I had shubunkin in the tub, but couldn't keep the water quality up,
so I removed the fish and began adding fertilizer to feed the bare
root lilies. Ingrid is right, enough fertilizer turns the water
green.

Sometimes, that just means too much nitrogen. Increasing potassium and
phosphorus for the rooted plants helps them compete with the algae. And
note, that if you're not getting enough flowers, but the lilies are
otherwise growing well, you probably have an excess of nitrogen, too.

Goldfish can thrive in pretty poor water, so when you say you "couldn't keep
the water quality up", it suggests to me that fertilizer (at least
nitrogen) isn't your problem.

I used to have a bath-tub pond by my front door. Every spring, I'd pull
plants off the bottom of the big pond and replant the tub pond. One year I
must have either included a goldfish egg or small fry with the plants. I
never saw him until I dug up the pond in the fall. There had never been
more than two inches of water above the soil in that tub (it was being used
mostly for Lotus), and the goldfish was 8" long when I found him.
--
derek
- Unless otherwise noted, I speak for myself, not rec.ponds.moderated
moderators.