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Home > Archive > UK gardening > March 2006 > Blanket Weed in Ponds
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Blanket Weed in Ponds
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| lostinsomerset@hotmail.co.uk 2006-03-27, 3:21 pm |
| Does anyone have any easy control for blanet weed / string weed in a
pond.
It is that time of year when it seems to be taking hold.
Any suggestions would be greatfully appreciated.
Thanks in anticipation.
| |
| June Hughes 2006-03-27, 4:21 pm |
| In message <1143484899.560010.210230@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
lostinsomerset@hotmail.co.uk writes
>Does anyone have any easy control for blanet weed / string weed in a
>pond.
>
>It is that time of year when it seems to be taking hold.
>
>Any suggestions would be greatfully appreciated.
>
>Thanks in anticipation.
>
Barley straw. It is also very satisfying to poke the end of your
pond-net into it and twist it, so that it forms a lump on the stick.
All you have to do then is slide it off - it provides very good
nutrients for your plants.
--
June Hughes
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| June Hughes <junehughes@theacct.demon.co.uk> writes
>In message <1143484899.560010.210230@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
>lostinsomerset@hotmail.co.uk writes
>Barley straw. It is also very satisfying to poke the end of your
>pond-net into it and twist it, so that it forms a lump on the stick.
>All you have to do then is slide it off - it provides very good
>nutrients for your plants.
But be careful you havn't caught any tadpoles, or even frogs, in it.
Blanket weed likes light and a high nutrient level - you need to reduce
both. You can reduce light by growing plants with floating leaves over
about half the surface of the pond. You can reduce nutrient by planting
something fast growing and harvesting it - watercress is one possibility
(don't eat it). Barley straw is another way of reducing nutrient level.
--
Kay
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| June Hughes 2006-03-27, 7:21 pm |
| In message <r4ytujFREFKEFwt1@scarboro.demon.co.uk>, K
<k@scarboro.demon.co.uk> writes
>June Hughes <junehughes@theacct.demon.co.uk> writes
>
>But be careful you havn't caught any tadpoles, or even frogs, in it.
>
It would have to be very dense for that to happen. If there were so
much of it, you would have a huge problem.
>Blanket weed likes light and a high nutrient level - you need to reduce
>both. You can reduce light by growing plants with floating leaves over
>about half the surface of the pond. You can reduce nutrient by planting
>something fast growing and harvesting it - watercress is one
>possibility (don't eat it). Barley straw is another way of reducing
>nutrient level.
Yes I agree about the barley straw. We use it. See my post. However,
if you have plants growing in the pond, the fish are likely to eat them,
as I have found to my cost.
--
June Hughes
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| cliff_the_gardener 2006-03-28, 3:21 am |
| Have to agree that improved surface cover helps reduce blaket weed.
However, I have a little wildlife pond at the top of the garden that is
packed full with iris, water hawthorn, acornus, typha australis,
brooklime, yet in the margins there it is!
I was told you can only control it, not eliminate blanket weed. There
is another algae, which produces long fillaments - spirogyra, which is
unaffected by barley. It doesn't grip when twirled with a stick. It
is a much brighter green than blanket weed; trying to pick it out of
the pond is like trying to pick up runny porrage.
I was intregued to learn last year that the barley straw works by
producing hydrogen peroxide which inturn bleaches the algae. That
suprised me, because I thought that once exposed to air hydrogen
peroxide broke down. However, that was the claim made which led to the
approval last year of the barley straw extracts.
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire
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| June Hughes <junehughes@theacct.demon.co.uk> writes
>In message <r4ytujFREFKEFwt1@scarboro.demon.co.uk>, K
><k@scarboro.demon.co.uk> writes
>It would have to be very dense for that to happen. If there were so
>much of it, you would have a huge problem.
It can very easily build up to that level early in the season before the
water lilies and other surface plants have developed full leaf cover.
It's not that the animals are caught to begin with, but the process of
pulling sheets of weed across the pond and wrapping around the stick can
catch them.
>
>Yes I agree about the barley straw. We use it. See my post.
Yes, that's why I quoted it ;-)
--
Kay
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| Janet Baraclough 2006-03-28, 10:21 am |
| The message <0ydWmjFHdGKEFw$$@theacct.demon.co.uk>
from June Hughes <junehughes@theacct.demon.co.uk> contains these words:
> In message <r4ytujFREFKEFwt1@scarboro.demon.co.uk>, K
> <k@scarboro.demon.co.uk> writes
You can reduce light by growing plants with floating leaves over
[color=darkred]
> However,
> if you have plants growing in the pond, the fish are likely to eat them,
> as I have found to my cost.
IIRC your fish are koi carp, iirc, which are notorious for that..
Other smaller less active kinds of fish can be chosen for a garden pond
which will not erase all plantlife.
Janet
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| cineman 2006-03-29, 5:21 pm |
| Hi,
If you mean filamentous algae, then this is better controlled than
iradicated.
Filamentous algae can be a nuisance but also beneficial to ponds.
This has the effect of taking nutrients out of the water and by filtering,
or cleaning the water as it flows over the fil. algae., it can assist in
halting the algal bloom known as , "pea soup" it can also be a haven for
aquatic insects which as they lossen their grip can provide food for fish.
So you see nature has a good side and a bad side.
work with nature, not against.
As another example, cow dung dropped on fields, is messy when dogs roll in
it during walkies, but it provides food for plants when it breaks down, it
provides a host for insect life, and the insects provide food for birds,
whose droppings provide food for plants, whose leaves provide food for cows,
whose dung provides food for plants, insect habitat, which ....... etc....
you get jiust by now...
I know i am ramnbling iots our 40th wedding anniversayr today and 40 years
ago today it snowed.... back to celebrations
night all.
regards
Cineman
<lostinsomerset@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1143484899.560010.210230@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Does anyone have any easy control for blanet weed / string weed in a
> pond.
>
> It is that time of year when it seems to be taking hold.
>
> Any suggestions would be greatfully appreciated.
>
> Thanks in anticipation.
>
| |
| Alan Holmes 2006-03-29, 7:21 pm |
|
"cineman" <oldwifey@midlands.dontwanadoo48.com> wrote in message
news:vtCWf.147625$zk4.39338@fe3.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> Hi,
> If you mean filamentous algae, then this is better controlled than
> iradicated.
The simplest way of controlling it, without going to the unnecessary expense
of filters, is to plant as much water plants such as lilies as you can
manage, which will screen off the light from the invasive weed and in time
will kill it off.
Alan
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