I was given 3 tiny water lettuce about a month ago.Without the beverage I
used the BV planting method and put them in my full sun pond. They are
multiplying at a ridiculous rate but even the mother plants are not more
than an inch or so tall. Any suggestions to get them to grow up and not
out?

Bill Brister

"Newbie Bill" wrote in message
m...
I was given 3 tiny water lettuce about a month ago.Without the beverage I
used the BV planting method and put them in my full sun pond. They are
multiplying at a ridiculous rate but even the mother plants are not more
than an inch or so tall. Any suggestions to get them to grow up and not
out?
======================
They don't grow upward. You can't change how they're genetically programmed
to grow. They're rosettes on the water surface and spread by runners,
making more rosettes.
--
Carol.... the frugal ponder...
"A new survey of online daters found that
47% of people believe that their online date will
go well... the other 53% are still missing."
~~~~~~{@
"They laugh because I'm different, I laugh because they're all the same."
http://www.heartoftn.net/users/windsong/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once the lettuce is confined in a cramped location, start thinning the
babies around the mother and she will grow larger. Mine didn't survive this
year, but in past years, the heads got to be about 10 or 15 pounds, over a
foot across and 6 or 8 inches tall. If they are allowed to continue to
spread out, they stay small.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/index.html

"Newbie Bill" wrote in message
m...
I was given 3 tiny water lettuce about a month ago.Without the beverage I
used the BV planting method and put them in my full sun pond. They are
multiplying at a ridiculous rate but even the mother plants are not more
than an inch or so tall. Any suggestions to get them to grow up and not
out?

Bill Brister

From: "Newbie Bill"
Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com
Newsgroups: rec.ponds
Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:01:39 GMT
Subject: water lettuce

I was given 3 tiny water lettuce about a month ago.Without the beverage I
used the BV planting method and put them in my full sun pond. They are
multiplying at a ridiculous rate but even the mother plants are not more
than an inch or so tall. Any suggestions to get them to grow up and not
out?

Bill Brister


You could have the dwarf variety of water hyacinth which will stay small,
about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of the regular ones. I never see them offered in
catalogs but they are offered at my local nursery every year.

You have probably pegged it Rich. I dont know how big these particular ones
can get but the 'mother' was considerably taller. Crowding them is probably
the trick. Lately I have been pretty much pinching and discarding
everything except the four biggest plants, but they're like doritos-they
just make more, almost daily. I will see if I can just trap two or three
behind some lily pads or plants. Thanxx
Bill Brister


"RichToyBox" wrote in message
news:6MtZc.84819$9d6.59732@attbi_s54...
Once the lettuce is confined in a cramped location, start thinning the
babies around the mother and she will grow larger. Mine didn't survive
this
year, but in past years, the heads got to be about 10 or 15 pounds, over a
foot across and 6 or 8 inches tall. If they are allowed to continue to
spread out, they stay small.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/index.html

"Newbie Bill" wrote in message
m...
I was given 3 tiny water lettuce about a month ago.Without the beverage
I
used the BV planting method and put them in my full sun pond. They are
multiplying at a ridiculous rate but even the mother plants are not more
than an inch or so tall. Any suggestions to get them to grow up and not
out?

Bill Brister

You have probably pegged it Rich. I dont know how big these particular ones
can get but the 'mother' was considerably taller. Crowding them is probably
the trick. Lately I have been pretty much pinching and discarding
everything except the four biggest plants, but they're like doritos-they
just make more, almost daily. I will see if I can just trap two or three
behind some lily pads or plants. Thanxx
Bill Brister


"RichToyBox" wrote in message
news:6MtZc.84819$9d6.59732@attbi_s54...
Once the lettuce is confined in a cramped location, start thinning the
babies around the mother and she will grow larger. Mine didn't survive
this
year, but in past years, the heads got to be about 10 or 15 pounds, over a
foot across and 6 or 8 inches tall. If they are allowed to continue to
spread out, they stay small.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/index.html

"Newbie Bill" wrote in message
m...
I was given 3 tiny water lettuce about a month ago.Without the beverage
I
used the BV planting method and put them in my full sun pond. They are
multiplying at a ridiculous rate but even the mother plants are not more
than an inch or so tall. Any suggestions to get them to grow up and not
out?

Bill Brister

My watter lettuce did the same thing. My cure was------------
I contain mine by taking fishing line and wrapping it around rocks from side to
side at the corner of the pond. you can't see the line, and they no longer
float all over the pond, and for the 1st time they grow to 6'' tall.
KathyKW

Once the lettuce is confined in a cramped location, start thinning the
babies around the mother and she will grow larger.

We start our lettuce out in rings so they are confined, and they get very large
that way. Once they grow out of the ring we take them out.
Jan
"Our Pond" Page
http://hometown.aol.com/pinkpggy/index.html