A pond full of rotting plants and things go
gangbusters. The frog bog has almost filled
itself in and this year's plants are growing
like crazy. Even a lily in six inches of water,
more or less, has glossy green pads and lots
of flowers. All plants have filled in everywhere
growing even out into the lawn.
I have no idea how weeding the thing will go
this fall... or we may have a wet meadow next
year.


k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

BTW, in planted aquariums nitrate does get limited. You dose nitrate at a
rate to hold it at 5PPM.

Sam

"Mike Miller" wrote in message
news:M4s_a.136000$Ho3.16961@sccrnsc03...
My 2 yr old pond still presents a conundrum. 500 gallons, full sun, z5,
readings always within range, ammonia and nitrate always read zero, never
any suspended algae, but SA, clear water, under my fish load, don't feed
them, lots of plants of all types, 75% coverage, K, iron and magnesium
(low
in my area) added regularly, the K weekly along w/BZT.

But...

The marginals never grow well. The lilies I fertilize, and the WH seem
fine, but the irises, arrowroot, blue pickerel, equisetum (dwarf
horsetail),
all in pots of clay + pebbles, never grow well. Leaves are puny, older
leaves yellow. I remember a thread a year or so ago about nitrate-limited
ponds and adding potassium nitrate, which can't be legally purchased in my
area. If these plants were in the soil, I'd say they're missing nitrogen.

Is there any other N source I could try out on the pond (carefully)? I
thought the growing goldfish population would change that this year, but
it
didn't. Any suggestions?

In article dxX_a.146199$o%2.62776@sccrnsc02, "RichToyBox"
writes:

I am having
problems this year with my iris, and a couple of years ago, I couldn't grow
pickerel, and for the last two years, parrots feather is weaker than it was.
I attribute this to the plants consuming some micronutrient from the pond,
until they won't grow anymore. This year the pickerel is doing fine. I
think it might be like the farmer having to rotate crops.

You may be onto something. I have a rather large golden rush that was growing
near my Pickeral and arrowhead. The golden rush was growing like mad while the
pickeral and arrowhead were struggling. I moved the golden rush to the other
end of the pond to improve appearances and the other 2 have perked up, the
pickeral even putting up 2 flowers. Maybe I'll try rotating other plants and
see if the improve too.
Karen
Zone 5
Ashland, OH
http://hometown.aol.com/kmam1/MyPond/MyPond.html
My Art Studio at
http://members.aol.com/kmmstudios/K....M.Studios.html
for email remove the extra extention