A brand of slow release fertilizer tablets, which are being used at Longwood
gardens (among others) for their aquatics.
Happy ponding,
Greg
--


"Mike Miller" wrote in message
. net...

I did the studies a few years back comparing lily growth and bloom in
pea
gravel vs. soil.
You need to be sure to use a slow release fertilizer that supplements
agents
soil usually contains (minerals, etc), not just the N, Phosph and
Potash.
I
use what Longwood gardens uses.. highland rim. if you fertilize there is
no
difference in plant vigor/blooms. if you forget to (as I have done),
there
seems to be less blooming, but no difference in leaf production.. that's
for
lilies.

Interesting - what is "highland rim"?

Not very much if you use "solid" plastic containers.. those without the mesh
openings.
Happy ponding,
Greg

--


"Mike Miller" wrote in message
news:Vbz2b.195190$cF.64280@rwcrnsc53...
Do you fertilize the liles in gravel? Doesn't the N and P leak out and
get
into the water this way? I'm just thinking of ways to avoid fertilizing
the
string algae.


"Karen Mullen" wrote in message
...
In article 5l62b.245009$YN5.164904@sccrnsc01, "Mike Miller"
writes:

So, how about a poll. Whose marginals are in gravel and whose are in
soil
of some type? How well do they grow?

all my plants are in pea gravel and do very well. I fertilize the
lilies
only,
but add potash regularly.

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

Forgot to mention. Many of the marginals I have in my pea gravel containing
pots are Louisiana irises, and not only do they jump the pots (one gallon),
if I don't transplant them every 2 seasons, but they consistently bloom
(which many up this way seem to have trouble in getting, why I am not sure)
I use no soil, for the reasons mentioned above. Plants certainly will do
great in soil, but my koi would get too nosey. They don't bother them at all
with the pea gravel/river rock combo, and they grow just as quickly, as they
did when I did use soil.
Happy ponding,
Greg
--


"jammer" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 02:01:25 GMT, "Mike Miller"
wrote:

So, how about a poll. Whose marginals are in gravel and whose are in
soil
of some type? How well do they grow?

Taro, primrose, lillies, doing well in soil covered with rock. Celery
never took off and parrot feather looked great until the primrose
strangled it to death.

This was my first year ponding, and I used gravel only. I only had some
grasses, and they did pretty food.

--

"Mike Miller" wrote in message
news:5l62b.245009$YN5.164904@sccrnsc01...
I'm planning an expansion of my pond next year to deal with some issues I
created. One of them is poor plant growth in marginals that are in clay
soil but with no additional fertilizer.

One one side of the argument is plants in clay/soil do better, but might
not
be able to get at nutrients present in the pond, thus allowing string
algae
to outcompete them as the clay "keeps" the nutrient flow away from the
roots. (BTW, I'm not presenting this as fact, just trying to figure
things
out!). I have to wonder about this when I see arrowroot growing huge in
the
natural ponds around here, yet my in-kitty-litter arrowroot is but a puny
shadow (well, it's also in a pot...). One could fertilize and they would
do
better, but why add nutrients here if the pond is already producing SA,
meaning there is excess N and P in the pond already? (I, like many of
you,
add K regularly)

On the other side is that plants in gravel or gravel beds, or just tossed
into the water can take up nutrients in the water faster or better,
allowing
them to grow better and (hopefully) out-compete the SA.

I suppose pot size per plant would also be a factor here - perhaps my
marginals need bigger pots? But I do know that the WH and other
toss-them-into-the-pond type plants (parrot feather, et al) do fine.

So, how about a poll. Whose marginals are in gravel and whose are in soil
of some type? How well do they grow? Do you fertilize, or add K at all
to
your pond? Maybe this could be a useful thread to collect some real life
data.