Having a pond is a luxury that many enjoy and others wish they had. There is calmness in the atmosphere of water as well as an appeal to aquatic plants and fish. The most deterring fact in maintaining a pond, however, is controlling weed growth. There are numerous weeds that can impede your pond’s clarity and beauty. There are also a number of ways to eliminate this problem for your pond.
What Type of Weeds Do You Have?
- Algae: Algae is the most common nuisance found in ponds. It is a lower form of weed, cellular in nature. It can appear scummy and overbearing towards other plants. Algae can create a carpet effect over your pond, preventing sunlight to reach life below the surface. Algae can have a furry appearance at times or even get so thick it looks soupy.
- Emersed: Emersed weeds can be identified, because they grow in the shallow area of your pond and have leaves above the water. There are numerous emersed weeds that can grow in your pond. American Lotus has circular leaves with a seedpod in the middle. Cattail, a very common weed, is very tall and has either a green top in the spring or a bushy brown top in the fall. Cattail is unfortunately very difficult to control, because it has an extensive root system.
Other emersed weeds include grass families such as Giant Cutgrass, Sawgrass, Foxtail, Paragrass and Maidencane. Grass families are distinguished by their leaves. They are alternatively arranged on the stem and are long and slender. Some emersed weeds can even appear similar to a flower such as water primrose and water chestnut. Water primrose has bright yellow flowers at the top of the stem. Water chestnut has white petals that grow at the upper portion of the weed.
- Submersed: Another weed that can fool many to be a flower is bladdwort. This weed grows below the surface but has yellow flowers that grow above the water. Coontail weed can often be confused with chara, which is common in algae. These weeds are bushy and long, similar to algae. The branches of coontail, however, are systematic and forklike. Hydrilla is also a very common weed found in ponds. Hyrdilla can be identified by its long, branchlike stem and pointed thorns along the length. Hydrilla can be very difficult to deter from continuous growth.
- Floating: Floating weeds vary. They do not have roots, but have ways of thriving in your pond. Duckweed, for example, has tiny roots that can be seen floating on the underside of the leaf. There is no visible stem. Intense growth of duckweed can at times be confused with algae. Water lilies, while some find appealing, are in fact weeds. The undersides of water lilies are often purple in color and their stem is below the water. They have white flowers that bud on top of the leave.
How to Control Different Species of Weed While there are a significant variety of weed species, there are products that diminish their presence quickly and efficiently. Herbicides offer a variety of solutions to control different species of weeds. Some are meant for more challenging weeds while other deters the easier to eradicate weeds.
Algaecide for ponds is also a beneficial product to introduce to your pond if your algae problem can not be solved with fish or plant life. All these products and more can be found at Living Water Aeration.
