A Few Silly(?) Questions.....

[Mmathis]

These questions have been eating at me for some time, and I decided was time to ask:

1 -- For those of you who "net" the bottom of the pond, what about your oxygenator plants? How do you keep from scooping them all up and disrupting them? [especially those that are tied to rocks -- see #3 below]

2 -- For those of you who vacuum, how do you keep from sucking up the fish (as well as the submerged plants)?

3 -- For those of you who sink your oxy/submerged plants by tying them to a rock....how? When I tried that, didn't have much success so figure there is a trick to it.

4 -- For "marginals" that are potted in pots without any holes, what keeps the roots from rotting? Seems like there would need to be some kind of circulation in the soil (kitty litter, or whatever you use).

 

[Sunshine]

You can try using fishing weights to tie to your submerged plants with fishing line.

 

[addy1]

The fish run from the vacuum, just like they run from a net.

I net the bottom, if any plant is growing from the bottom, I just leave that area alone. Last year I had some plants growing from the bottom. This year just the lilies, where the lilies are I leave the cleaning until fall when I pull and groom them. That is when the pond gets a full netting. The build up is never that bad.

I have some marginals in no hole pots they do fine, prob enough water exchange with some o2 that they don't rot.

 

[Mmathis]

The fish run from the vacuum, just like they run from a net.

Oh, like my cats?

 

[don't ask]

-that is one of the reasons i didn't do submerged plants, didn't want to have to "work' around them as i have enough to deal with
-and yep the baby fish will run, swim, move away from vacuum
-as far as root rot, i guess some plants that can happen to, my thought would be if it looks like a plant is suffering from being in a no holed pot, put a hole in bottom or transplant sometime and just keep up with pruning roots as they emerge from bottom..only a couple of my plants don't have a hole in bottom(lotus and a lily0 but the rest have holes are the container from store they came in...roots grow out but i don't worry about it..if anything you'll have to repot sooner or later or divide

 

[j.w]

I don't have any plants on the bottom of my pond except some free floaters that sink down there. All my potted plants are on the plant ledges. The ones that are free floating on the bottom I just net out and put them in a tub while I net/clean the bottom. I don't do that job that often so it's not that big of a deal and there aren't that many plants down there anyways. When done netting then just throw them all back in. Makes it easier for me that way.

Tried that rock tying to some Anacharis once or twice and it would just break away from the rocks and float off w/ the rocks laying on the bottom. Made it too hard to net so now when I get some I think I will try it in pots on the ledge in kitty litter. I even tried putting the rock in a netted bag like you get for onions etc. and then stuck the plant ends in the bag and tied a string around them. Well that was a not go either. Now net w/ rock on bottom and plants broke off and escaped. The best thing might be to put the oxygenators in a floating ring w/ holes big enough to allow good circulation for them as the screen that I tried on the bottom of mine collected too much debris build up and muck and the plants couldn't breath..............at least that's what I think happened. Gonna make a trip to get some more of that Anacharis soon as the weather has improved greatly!

 

[addy1]

And the fish love that stuff jw! I had a huge beautiful growing clump, only 4 fish, well the fish grew had babies, plant gone, almost over night.

I don't have any plants on the bottom except the lilies. I have noticed the snowflake lily is growing from the bottom in a few places, will do my best to work around it, also have some coming back in one of the lily pots. I didn't think it survived.