Matt

thinking about your plant problems,, when purchasing plants for the
pond look for plants that are native or near native to the natural
water sources in your area.
I hav had no luck introducing "non wild" plants into my pond system.

the ones that grow in the large man made fishing ponds around me seem to
be the best to adapt to my pond.
--





John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

John,

Hmmmmmm. Good idea. I live in Colorado so there isn't much water to have
native plants. I do see a bunch of cat tails so I might try that. Don't
know how they deal with the wind but I can try. New Mexico must have
similar problems. What grows in your pond? I've noticed the water
hyacinth are a great chew toy for my fish (I need to get a net for
them). Iris is weird. Young shoots look really good, but then sort of
get sad looking as they get taller. This repeats.

All this said, I've only had really clear water for 2 weeks. I'm
wondering if rather than "add plants to remove the algae" it's not more
like "get rid of the algae so your plants will grow." I.e., maybe now
things will improve. My anacharis has doubled in the past week and it
used to just die no matter how I babied it.

Anyway, thanks.

Matt

john rutz wrote:

Matt

thinking about your plant problems,, when purchasing plants for the
pond look for plants that are native or near native to the natural
water sources in your area.
I hav had no luck introducing "non wild" plants into my pond system.

the ones that grow in the large man made fishing ponds around me seem to
be the best to adapt to my pond.

MattR wrote:
John,

Hmmmmmm. Good idea. I live in Colorado

so your plant needs are quite similar to mine

here is what works for me
wild yellow Iris ( blue flag or louisiana dont die just dont grow )
Cattails both the wild ones and the miniatures
reeds ( not sure which they dont grow like the iris and cattails but do
hang in an d mass gets slightly bigger each year )

85% of my plants are iris and cattail with the miniature cattail and
reeds making up the rest

Taro, Hyacinth, Canna, horsetail rush dont last at all -- too cold at
night for them


John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

MattR wrote:
John,

Hmmmmmm. Good idea. I live in Colorado

so your plant needs are quite similar to mine

here is what works for me
wild yellow Iris ( blue flag or louisiana dont die just dont grow )
Cattails both the wild ones and the miniatures
reeds ( not sure which they dont grow like the iris and cattails but do
hang in an d mass gets slightly bigger each year )

85% of my plants are iris and cattail with the miniature cattail and
reeds making up the rest

Taro, Hyacinth, Canna, horsetail rush dont last at all -- too cold at
night for them arowhead and other "cold hardy" flowering plants last
about one season then die off in the following spring just after they
start growing


John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

Thanks for the ideas. I'll try the cat tails and yellow iris. Do you
grow them in dirt or do you use them to filter the water?

I do know some people around here that have had luck with some of these
other things, but their ponds are shaded. I kept a taro plant around
inside and it was doing great this spring but it's one foot in the grave
now. It's been hot here the past month. That, the extra uv, and cool
temps at night might be too much. I've seen great hyacinth but I
remember someone saying hyacinth prefered shade around here.

This makes me want to make that survey I talked about before.

Matt



john rutz wrote:


MattR wrote:

John,

Hmmmmmm. Good idea. I live in Colorado


so your plant needs are quite similar to mine

here is what works for me
wild yellow Iris ( blue flag or louisiana dont die just dont grow )
Cattails both the wild ones and the miniatures
reeds ( not sure which they dont grow like the iris and cattails but do
hang in an d mass gets slightly bigger each year )

85% of my plants are iris and cattail with the miniature cattail and
reeds making up the rest

Taro, Hyacinth, Canna, horsetail rush dont last at all -- too cold at
night for them arowhead and other "cold hardy" flowering plants last
about one season then die off in the following spring just after they
start growing


John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

MattR wrote:
Thanks for the ideas. I'll try the cat tails and yellow iris. Do you
grow them in dirt or do you use them to filter the water?

Ok what I use i make a pot out of burlap withe either dirt or gravel
depends o n size of plant as the plant grows it grows thrugh the
burlap, when it gets big enough to stand by itself the burlap has rotted
awway and I just let em go from there, some of the cattails have a root
mass over 6 ft in diameter




John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

john rutz wrote:

awway and I just let em go from there, some of the cattails have a root
mass over 6 ft in diameter


So what you're saying is get the dwarf variety

MattR wrote:


john rutz wrote:

awway and I just let em go from there, some of the cattails have a
root mass over 6 ft in diameter



So what you're saying is get the dwarf variety


depending on the space aloted you can prune out the oldergrowth and
leave just the newer shoots in the fall

I left out the water celery it does fairly well too, and starts growing
when water temps reach around 40-45 degrees well before the rest of the
plants wake up
--





John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com