Parrots' Feather infestation!

Hello all!

I'm very happy to see this newsgroup! I'm a moderately experienced
ponder with both earthen and lined ponds. My father in law, however,
has a large (1 acre plus) artificial lake that he dug and has stocked
for fishing. It's really very nice. But someone gave him some parrots'
feather because he commented that his pond didn't have a lot of plants
in it- and now all he has is a surface that is almost totally covered
with parrots' feather! All that is not is the deepest part of the pond.
He's tried pulling it out by boatload, alicides, and 'many other things'
and between the two of us we have no solution other than to pump the
pond out and bulldoze it all out. Does anyone else have any ideas
before he has to destroy his pond?

Thanks!
rik

Wish I could get that much, since it's cut down my algae growth.

Only thing I could think of, is adding more fish, to eat the stuff up.

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

First we're glad you found us!

Parrot's feather is a real pain to get rid of. I pulled all of mine
out of a small bog garden and the stuff was still
growing in the moist compost a year later!!

Go here -->
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/pl...s/aqua003.html
But you'll need to find what is legal in your state.
I would contact the county extension office.

good luck and we're happy to have you here!
k :-)
http://tinyurl.com/6bguh ~ new pond keeper info
http://tinyurl.com/yp64db ~ slide show of pond

Hmmmm from reading that web link, looks like you can just do cuttings of
parrot's feather, and it'll send out rhyzomes?

Always looking for ways to increase plants in my pond...


--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

Anyone have water hyacinths, water lettuce, and parrots feather they
are 'thinning'? I missed our pond societies plant sale last Saturday
and am needing those plants for my veggie filter and bio-mech
filters. I will pay the shipping!
Thanks!
Dale

My pond ...
http://home.pcisys.net/~muaddib/

"" wrote:

> Anyone have water hyacinths, water lettuce, and parrots feather they
> are 'thinning'? I missed our pond societies plant sale last Saturday
> and am needing those plants for my veggie filter and bio-mech
> filters. I will pay the shipping!
> Thanks!
> Dale
>
> My pond ...
> http://home.pcisys.net/~muaddib/
>

Hi Dale,

I have a bunch of water hyacinth I can send you. I can jam a lot into one of
those USPS priority mail things. I think it cost about $11 last time I did
it. Let me know: Joe___bizqwick.com, remove the dashes

San Diego Joe
4,000 - 5,000 Gallons.
Koi, Goldfish, and RES named Colombo.

I have had experience of parrots feather in quite large ponds - but not as
large as 1 acre.
We had to pump the water out then overlay with about 2" earth or black
polythene. After 18 months the parrot feather is gone - as has everything
else.
Upon refilling many former plants will regenerate from seed.

Sorry to give you the bad news,

Davy

"rmx256" <> wrote in message
news:r.rr.r-...
> Hello all!
>
> I'm very happy to see this newsgroup! I'm a moderately experienced
> ponder with both earthen and lined ponds. My father in law, however,
> has a large (1 acre plus) artificial lake that he dug and has stocked
> for fishing. It's really very nice. But someone gave him some parrots'
> feather because he commented that his pond didn't have a lot of plants
> in it- and now all he has is a surface that is almost totally covered
> with parrots' feather! All that is not is the deepest part of the pond.
> He's tried pulling it out by boatload, alicides, and 'many other things'
> and between the two of us we have no solution other than to pump the
> pond out and bulldoze it all out. Does anyone else have any ideas
> before he has to destroy his pond?
>
> Thanks!
> rik
>

I don't have any better advice than the others. Except to ask if
you could get anywhere with grass carp? They are pretty good as
cutting vegetation here in MS.

I am glad that our parrots feather is not in our acre pond! It is in
our cement pond and in out lined berm ponds. Never a problem.

Jim

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:23:06 CST, Phyllis and Jim
<> wrote:

>I don't have any better advice than the others. Except to ask if
>you could get anywhere with grass carp? They are pretty good as
>cutting vegetation here in MS.
>

The trouble with Grass Carp is they only eat Parrot's Feather after
eating everything else. They leave the roots intact so the Parrot's
Feather recovers. Maybe a balance could be established.

Steve