Couple questions on submerged plants

[WaterLilly]

Hello,

I am getting lots of help in this forum. Thank you very much and forgive me for my newbie questions.

1- I have been researching submerged plants. I need a lot of, of them for my future baby fish. I guess the options are elodea, hornwort and cabomba. Seems like hornwort is easier to take care of , more hardy and most loved by gardenpond forum members. Do you agree?

2- I will put some small gravels, where there will be my lilies and submerged plants. I won't use containers to hold them down. Now, i am not sure what size the gravels should be.

3- What is the maximum depth these submerged plants can survive? I got some shallow parts but i want to plant these at 7-8 ft deep spots too.


Thank you.

 

[Mmathis]

I don't know of any plants for that depth. Maybe @addy1 could help, or @adavisus.

 

[adavisus]

Start them mid to shallow, see what they do

You might not like planting deeper than you can conveniently reach, paddling....

 

[Mmathis]

@WaterLilly have you ever mentioned what kind of fish you'll be keeping?

 

[moby]

Most water lilies will only tolerate a max depth of 4 foot or thereabouts as far as I'm aware. I've also not heard of cabomba being used as a pond plant having used in in my tropical tanks for years....it does need high light levels and I think higher temps than your pond would reach, someone will confirm or deny no doubt. You will have to anchor plants down well, their stems and leaves are full of air to get them to grow upwards towards the most light, that is what the plant will want to do if not weighted down. Water lilies are notorious floaters if the fish uproot them, gravel alone won't keep them in place IMHO. Elodea and hornwort will grow without planting, but would grow better if planted. I think most plants would struggle to get enough light if planted at that depth.

 

[WaterLilly]

Thanks guys. I will keep perch and sunfish there.

Moby, good points. So lilies definitely need potting. What about hornwort? Will gravel hold them in place? I don't understand how hornwort stays in place without having a root.

On internet it says hornwort can live down to 15 ft depth. But of course if the water is full of algae and sun not penetrating, that might be a problem.

 

[Usman]

ithink cabomba and hornwort will grow well , seen some thing similer to cabomba in natural lake that deep they grow very fast reaching surface but as u said was thinking same , water needs to be a bit clear, if u uv koi goldfish they will eat all , very difficult to anchor the planțs in start , u cán tie some weight and wrap filter fiber in roots ,once they start roots they will b good , if uhv shelves u can pot them in mid section

 

[moby]

I never plant my elodea or hornwort, it's just tied in a bunch and attached by the string to a smooth rock. Sometimes it roots into the goop at the bottom of the pond if there's enough of it to anchor in. Other times When I clear it out having got overgrown I find its just floating free, their roots don't actually need soil to obtain nourishment...just water!

 

[WaterLilly]

So , how do i get a wide hornwort colony spreading all over my pond? I thought they would reproduce and spread around by themselves but apparently i should be anchoring branches all over the pond to achieve this.


Check out this video. That plant is huge. How did she have it? Just tied a bunch of hornwort and anchor it?

 

[Mmathis]

Hey, @callingcolleen1 isn't that one of your videos?

 

[Usman]

I never plant my elodea or hornwort, it's just tied in a bunch and attached by the string to a smooth rock. Sometimes it roots into the goop at the bottom of the pond if there's enough of it to anchor in. Other times When I clear it out having got overgrown I find its just floating free, their roots don't actually need soil to obtain nourishment...just water!

ithink ur refering to floating while there roots are at bottom ,
but they will die aftersometime if roots are exposed floating at top its end will start roting and one end will grow but in few weeks months may become weak smaller or die i dono reason but they do need something to cover roots or touching ground , talking about if roots are at surface.

 

[Usman]

How come the koi in video is not eating plants? Do u all hv koi witth plants too?

 

[callingcolleen1]

Hey, @callingcolleen1 isn't that one of your videos?

Yes. It is a old video from couple years ago. After the extreme drought last year it seemed to all disapear from all my ponds! So I figure that the water PH changed lots last year as I had to fill ponds up with tap water, which is very high on here.
This year we had lots of rain and hornwort is coming back nice again. It will take a couple years to get nice big clumps again...

 

[callingcolleen1]

Thanks guys. I will keep perch and sunfish there.



On internet it says hornwort can live down to 15 ft depth. But of course if the water is full of algae and sun not penetrating, that might be a problem.

yes. Clear Water grows hornwort best. I had just let float in my ponds. Try to keep away from big filters that might suck it in..

 

[callingcolleen1]

So , how do i get a wide hornwort colony spreading all over my pond? I thought they would reproduce and spread around by themselves but apparently i should be anchoring branches all over the pond to achieve this.


Check out this video. That plant is huge. How did she have it? Just tied a bunch of hornwort and anchor it?

That is my old video from couple years ago. I had no pumps or filters in that pond as water just flowed three. I had good water movement as well so it could churn well. I just let it spin freely as it grows best that way.