Composting Water Hyacinths?

[ginger]

I read an old post while googling, maybe DrDave's, about composting water hyacinths if they're covering too much of the pond. I started off with 12 in May and now I think I've counted about 75-80 and they're covering the entire pond, can't even feed the fish without moving them around.

Anyways, so is composting the water hyacinths a good idea? How does one go about this? Also, after removing all the plants tonight and putting them into a big storage bin I noticed a small baby goldfish (only one), is it typical for there to only be one that survives? I've got about 40 anacharis and obviously about 80 water hyacinths I would have guessed more than that would have made it.

 

[addy1]

Plant material makes great compost, and is great for your garden. Not sure about the fish ? unless the big guys just didn't do a good job procreating and ate the lil guys.

 

[DrDave]

15 years ago, I created a 10' X 3' X 18" deep framed, sifted, dirt box.

I then dig a trench the width of a shovel head the depth of the dirt pile.

As I remove plants from my pond or fruit and veggie cutting form the kitchen, we place it in the trench and put an inch of dirt over it. This continues until the trench is full.

Then I dig another trench next to it and repeat the process. Every few months, I sift the dirt to remove solids like avocado seeds and the like. This dirt becomes my planter mix for the Garden Pond Plants I sell to folks who want to decorate around their ponds.

We even put egg shells in the pile. large stuff like potatoes are cut into smaller pieces. Decomposition and worms love this pile and help make it work.

Of course, I also use it for my veggie garden and the bamboo and taro nursery.