"John L" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

The blanket weed (and any other algae in the pond) is being fed by
nitrate in the water, just as any other green plant needs nitrate
fertiliser. As others have said, this can come from several sources.
One not mentioned is food given to goldfish. ....

No fish. It's a small pond (12' by 4', 2' deep max).

Maybe it's the considerable sludge in the I installed it perhaps 10
years ago,and I've never cleared it out (because I don't like the look
of the liner, and anyway I thought pond sludge was "good"). And also
you need to sort sludge from creatures, if you do clean it out.

useful advice so far though: thanks.


Our pond is quite small, about 6' x 4', but it's under a loquat tree so
quite shaded, and we have never had blanket weed. We have quite a few
Belfast sinks around the garden, some have blanket weed, some don't. Every
Belfast sink has its own ecology, I suppose. We have another small pond (4'
x 3') which was rehomed with us and is full of a water lily, and it has no
blanket weed. We also have a Chinese urn which was used for shipping aged
eggs, and this one, right next to the big pond, has blanket weed.

The 'big' (4' x 6') pond has about 14 fish and of course we do feed them
through the summer when the temp gets over 50F. It would seem that your
water is too full of nutrients which appeal to blanket weed. Or else it's
so light that it encourages blanket weed. This weed doesn't seem to like
shade. I found some celery-like plant in the stream on our local golf
course and brought a bit back, and it has cleared all the water, this plant
eats everything and keeps the water clear. If you want some, post here with
your munged email and I will send you some. It becomes a bit rampant but
does no harm, you can just yank it out.

someone