COUPLE OF NEWBIE QUESTIONS

[Mmathis]

POTTING: been reading. Sites say to use garden soil. Then I read where you guys use kitty litter. Please clarify for me. Is it a combo, like layering, or do you JUST use kitty litter? (we have 4 cats, but use the multi-cat, clumping litter -- I had a hard time finding plain old, nothing added to it kitty litter!)

Should I line the pot with anything such as burlap....? Should the pots have holes?

FEEDING: will I need to use plant food or will there be enough nutrients in the water to cover that? Will have goldfish and my box turtles -- will have plenty of poop

BUYING PLANTS ONLINE: just curious (Hubby asked me and I didn't know).... I have some plants ordered -- surface (floaters) and submergables. How are they shipped? Plastic baggies, wrapped in paper or peat???

LILIES: Do the leaves grow and adapt to the water depth? My 2 are in a pan outside, but will go into the pond once I have water in it. Just wondering if I'll need to acclimate them gradually to their final, deeper depth.

BOG: Plan to eventually have a bog, but for now wondering if it's possible to adapt an area into a temporary bog. Was thinking about placing a large basin (or something) and partially submerging it. It wouldn't have water flow, so wondering if I got creative with PVC pipe and ran some pieces through the basin (slits cut into the pipe), would that be of any help?

WOW! Can't believe I'm actually to the point of posting on the PLANTS section! Progress

 

[crsublette]

I just got a pot and drilled small 1/8 inch holes all around it so the plants roots would grow out and would not get root bound.

I am told the water needs to at least reach the top of the root ball for marginal / bog plants. For my little water feature, my marginal / bog plants are on a very shallow shelf where only half of the plant's root ball is submerged in water. For the other half, I got a 400 gph fountain pump that connects to a 1/4" irrigation tubing manifold that has 8 outlets for 1/4" tube to connect and each outlet has a flow valve. The manifold is actually sold so that people can convert a lawn/garden 1/2" sprinkler head into a drip irrigation manifold. I have 3 of these manifolds giving me 24 outlets. Each of my plants have a 1/4" tube staked on the top of each plant's root ball dribbling a very low, slow constant amount of water to keep the top half of the root ball wet. I did it in a way to hide the irrigation with the plants and rocks.

For potting medium, just use something that is clean and has no chemical additives. Ya are just using the potting medium to help anchor your plants in a location. Ya can line the pot with something if ya do not want the medium to escape. Regular garden soil can float around, make a mess. Kitty litter, really tight clay soil, pea gravel, stuff like this. Just make sure to rinse off the dust from the litter and gravel.

I am told there will be enough nutrient in the water, but supplemental fertilizing will help. Just be careful on the type of fertilizer since I have read some fertilizers will leach into the water causing all sorts of algae problems.

I have no idea about the "buying plants online"; I have not done it yet. This will be good to know for me as well.

 

[don't ask]

POTTING: been reading. Sites say to use garden soil. Then I read where you guys use kitty litter. Please clarify for me. Is it a combo, like layering, or do you JUST use kitty litter? (we have 4 cats, but use the multi-cat, clumping litter -- I had a hard time finding plain old, nothing added to it kitty litter!)
i use soil and sometimes put stones on top, depends on how far i submerse, never had issues with the few koi i have digging, could be because i don't have them deep..kitter litter is cheap, non harmful to fish and clumps which keeps it together, which is why i would guess people use it
Should I line the pot with anything such as burlap....? Should the pots have holes?
wouldn't think you'd need to line the pot, and imo, holes are for drainage..you're submersing so i would say no
FEEDING: will I need to use plant food or will there be enough nutrients in the water to cover that? Will have goldfish and my box turtles -- will have plenty of poop
pond should give enough nutrients, although some plants do and will require feeding as the pond alone may not be enough to get them to flourish
BUYING PLANTS ONLINE: just curious (Hubby asked me and I didn't know).... I have some plants ordered -- surface (floaters) and submergables. How are they shipped? Plastic baggies, wrapped in paper or peat???
plastic bag and either wrapped in newspaper or peat..isolate before putting in pond
LILIES: Do the leaves grow and adapt to the water depth? My 2 are in a pan outside, but will go into the pond once I have water in it. Just wondering if I'll need to acclimate them gradually to their final, deeper depth.
i believe lillies can go from 12-24 inches deep during growing season
BOG: Plan to eventually have a bog, but for now wondering if it's possible to adapt an area into a temporary bog. Was thinking about placing a large basin (or something) and partially submerging it. It wouldn't have water flow, so wondering if I got creative with PVC pipe and ran some pieces through the basin (slits cut into the pipe), would that be of any help?
ask addy...
WOW! Can't believe I'm actually to the point of posting on the PLANTS section! Progress

yea

 

[don't ask]

well i screwed that post up

 

[addy1]

POTTING: been reading. Sites say to use garden soil. Then I read where you guys use kitty litter. Please clarify for me. Is it a combo, like layering, or do you JUST use kitty litter? (we have 4 cats, but use the multi-cat, clumping litter -- I had a hard time finding plain old, nothing added to it kitty litter!)

Should I line the pot with anything such as burlap....? Should the pots have holes?

FEEDING: will I need to use plant food or will there be enough nutrients in the water to cover that? Will have goldfish and my box turtles -- will have plenty of poop

BUYING PLANTS ONLINE: just curious (Hubby asked me and I didn't know).... I have some plants ordered -- surface (floaters) and submergables. How are they shipped? Plastic baggies, wrapped in paper or peat???

LILIES: Do the leaves grow and adapt to the water depth? My 2 are in a pan outside, but will go into the pond once I have water in it. Just wondering if I'll need to acclimate them gradually to their final, deeper depth.

BOG: Plan to eventually have a bog, but for now wondering if it's possible to adapt an area into a temporary bog. Was thinking about placing a large basin (or something) and partially submerging it. It wouldn't have water flow, so wondering if I got creative with PVC pipe and ran some pieces through the basin (slits cut into the pipe), would that be of any help?

WOW! Can't believe I'm actually to the point of posting on the PLANTS section! Progress

walmart kitty litter, pure clay

I put 1/4 cup osmocote in the bottom of an oil pan then the clay, then the plant

I feed them a few tabs when I remember usually when grooming old flowers stems off.

Usually the leaves grow long stems even if in shallow water, mine do, If the stems are short, then slowly lower into the water.

A laundry basket type thing with some window door screening in the basket instant mini bog

 

[Mmathis]

I'm afraid my plants will arrive before I have water in the pond (things have been going more slowly than expected). What's the best way to keep them happy & healthy until then?

 

[crsublette]

Ya can get a 80 gallon or so stocktank or rubbermaid tub. Fill it up with water, pot your plants or whatever you were wanting to do and good to go. If they don't already have fertilizer in with the plant, then I don't know ... ya might need to add some fertilizer. I have heard tomato sticks and osmocote work but I have also heard this stuff is known to leach in to the water causing all sorts of alga. There are also little pond fertilizer tabs thats "supposed to not leach" too much into the water if the plants are in pots.

Then, when the tank has no plants in it, you may want to use this tank or tub as a quarantine tank for new or sick fish.

 

[fishin4cars]

LOL, an old cooler or anything that will hold water, For marginals/Bog plants Throw a little garden dirt in the bottom and keep about a inch or twom of water above the dirt and just place the plants in it. For water lilies the bottom 18" off of a 55/35 gallon drum works great, they also sell small tubs at Lowes that look like whisky barrels that work really good for starting water lilies and they cost between 10-20$ I like the post above as well. IF you can do that that's a really good idea, I like the idea of multi purpose and a Quarantine/hospital tank after the fact is a great idea!

 

[addy1]

I put osmocote in all of my pond plants, it not caused an issue, bottom of the pan then clay on top. During the summer when I groom the lillies I add tabs in the clay.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

POTTING: been reading. Sites say to use garden soil. Then I read where you guys use kitty litter. Please clarify for me. Is it a combo, like layering, or do you JUST use kitty litter? (we have 4 cats, but use the multi-cat, clumping litter -- I had a hard time finding plain old, nothing added to it kitty litter!)

Should I line the pot with anything such as burlap....? Should the pots have holes?

FEEDING: will I need to use plant food or will there be enough nutrients in the water to cover that? Will have goldfish and my box turtles -- will have plenty of poop

I have a few opinions about plants that I'll share.

Kitty litter works as a growing medium , but it has some downsides. It is easy for fish, especially koi, to dig in and once they start doing that it can be an ongoing mess in your pond that can be hard to filter out. Here is a thread about someone using kitty litter and it clouding their pond.
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/9070-deep-pond-plants/

If you do use kitty litter I would suggest you use it on the bottom and put a layer of clean sand and then a layer or rocks on the top. Some use pea gravel, but even that can be dug into by larger fish.

I have used garden soil in the past and not had any problems, but not everybody’s “garden soils” is the same.

This year I used some peat in my pots because I have an alkali water source and figure the acidic peat will help balance out the PH levels (for the plants, not the pond water).

Plants that are pot bound will generally do better with some fertilizer in the bottom of the pot, but they don't necessarily need it. If you have lilies and want great blooms, then you'll probably want to use some. Best to find some slow release fertilizer, and as has been mentioned, put it on the bottom of your pot (no holes in the pot) and that will help stop the fertilizer from being leached into the water.

One thing I have started doing is lining the pot with landscaping fabric so it overlaps the outside of the pot. This not only makes removing and re-potting easier, but if you leave some loose fabric over hanging the sides of the pot it hides the rim and looks more natural and once some algae get growing on the fabric it virtually disappears.

 

[taherrmann4]

For the plants I have used kitty liter for starting my lotus plants but like some people have said you need to put something over top of it like rocks or something to keep the fish from digging in it or it could cloud your water. For some plants I have used garden soil in my yard, it is clay so it worked out very well. I have never fertilized my plants just let the poo do that. For tuber plants you can also just tie them to a rock or brick and sink them to the bottom.

Buying plants online they will come wrapped in wet newspaper or paper towels then inside a bag. They will look a bit wilted but will quickly recover from their journey.

 

[Mmathis]

The plants came today! And they were as you said, Tmann: wrapped in wet newspaper and plastic bags. When I opened the box, my reaction was similar to what Hubby & I said when we brought our son home from the hospital as a newborn: "So, what now? I hope they came with instructions." I found a large tub for all of them (the plants, not my son) and hopefully they are all at or close to the depth they need to be. Had to look at the packing slip to ID each "bunch" based on how many I ordered, LOL! A couple were obvious, but the rest were a MYSTERY! We'll see how they do. I really hope to have water in the pond by this time next week.

 

[Mmathis]

When it's time to move the plants to the pond, do I need to let the water "settle" before I add them or can I add them straight to tap water? Is there anything special I need to do to acclimate them?

 

[fishin4cars]

Plants can be moved straight in AFTER declorinating. Chlorine or chlormine can effect plants, other than that PH, hardness and such will be balanced for fish as you go along, there are a very few aquatic plants that may be somewhat sensitive but most of the more common used plants really don't care and will adapt. moving is going to be stressful to plants no matter what you do. They may die back some but they will come back. Don't worry about them like you would fish.

 

[Mmathis]

Guess I'll wait a couple of days after the final fill. I can tell now that the temp. container I have them in isn't big enough to contain them for much longer, but I can take care of that with a 2nd container for the time being (the underwater plants are too crowded and not getting enough sun exposure - I have them all sort of crammed in there together). I can see where either situation will be stressful.

 

[fishin4cars]

A small kitty pool at wal mart / dollar store will work great for the submerged plants as well as some marginals and small lilys depending on depth. for $10-$20 its a cheap holding container that can be used later for other pond puposes as well.

 

[sissy]

I used oyster shells to plant my lilies with a topping of a few rocks so koi would not dig as much and used planting bags not pots so I can use fishing line to sew the basket together in a few spots .I also soak my plants a little so the water is not to cloudy but also found the cloudiness goes away in an hour or two and I would guess helps clarify the water .Seems the koi stay away from the oyster shells but go nuts over the kitty litter as they seem to like clay .

 

[Mmathis]

I got my 100 gal. Rubbermaid container and have it set up to hold my plants until the pond is ready. Have a small pump and added a few goldfish.

Using a crate and some flat rocks, I put my 2 little lilies in about 6 inches lower than what they were previously (since the tank is deeper than the other container I had them in) and put my 4-leaf clovers in (they're a couple of inches deeper than the stem length). It's been amazing to watch how the stems are growing in order for the leaves to reach the surface! I never knew water plants did that: adjust to water depth. And the lilie pad-leaves are getting larger, too!

Another interesting thing I did was put some water lettuce in the 2 plant saucers I'm using as water bowls for the turtles. The water bowls have to be emptied, rinsed,& refilled anywhere from 2-4 times a day (that's why I wanted a pond for the turtles!). I added the plants yesterday, and either the turtles are scared of the plants and haven't even been in the bowls, or the water lettuce is filtering the water already! I added some water this afternoon, but didn't have to empty them.....

 

[buckry]

When I dug out my pond the last foot was pure clay so I have a small mountain of the stuff next to my large mountain of top soil. I just get a trowel full of it and put this in the pot then get it wet and add my plant. I got a bottle of free plant tabs the last time I ordered lilies so I've been using those, so far no ill effects to the water and I guess it's working, not really sure about that.

 

[j.w]

Clay is fine to use for soil as long as the koi keep their mitts off of them. If they dig in the pots it might muck up the water a bit.