Missing Soil

[Austrian Fish]

Hi,

I've noticed that the soil is going missing from the plants i have in the pond.

They are all in containers of differing sizes, but each container is a typical black plant container with the 2mm holes in it. I've noticed that the soil is disappearing from around the outside of the container, and in some cases i've been left with just a root ball in the middle of the container.

I've also noticed that the fish are constantly around the containers. I'd assumed that they were eating algae, but maybe not....

Has anyone else noticed this, and if the fish are the culprits foes anyone have any ideas how to stop them? My best idea at the moment is to use two containers - one inside the other - so the fish can't get to the soil, but this doesn't seem that elegant.

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[DrDave]

I quit using soil years ago and went to pea gravel from my driveway. Plants love it.

 

[DrCase]

My plants are just giant roots held down with big rocks

 

[DrDave]

That is what I have done for Parotts Feather, Hyssop and Taro.

 

[koikeepr]

My plants are just giant roots held down with big rocks

ditto for me. no soil or pea gravel. Just put in a pot/plant basket, grab a few black river rock stones so they can't be seen and that holds down the plant. That's it.

 

[oldmarine]

Same here, no longre use soil. Mostly pea gravel with marble size or bigger stones on the surface. My shubunkins love to spread the pea gravel all over the bottum, so I went to topping off the water plants with tones marble size or bigger. I found if the fish can't pick it up with their mouth, they can't move (so far).

 

[Austrian Fish]

Thanks for the replies guys.

So no soil, just a bare root ball and pea gravel..... so the roots extract the nutriants direct from the water?

This sounds like a very good solution. It might even solve another problem i have with the plants blowing over in the wind. The reeds especially. If the pot is filled with gravel then the added weight might keep them in place better...

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[oldmarine]

Now your on to something. Your right, the weight will help. I have a local ponder friend that found by trial and error that by switching to the pea gravel in his potted water plants, his taller reeds and horse tail rush didn't tip over in the wind and dump the contents into his pond.

I learned about using pea gravel here at this forum, and I was exited about the idea of using pea gravel for potting pond plants, and I couldn't wait to share this great idea with my pond friend. Only to find that what he started using pea gravel because he needed the weight in his potted plants.

 

[pebcpa]

That's a great piece of information, using the pea gravel. Will it work with all types of pond plants including water lilies?

 

[Oldhead]

yes it will work for the lillies too

 

[koikeepr]

as the poster mentioned tho, you've gotta keep that pea gravel contained or it gets all over the pond...and koi love to muck around in stuff. I avoid pea gravel...stick to small river rocks that the koi can't move around and if it tips over you simply pick up a few stones versus a myriad of gravel.

Just my opinion.

 

[oldmarine]

Like I mentioned before, by putting a layer of stones over the pea gravel so that the fish can't play with it and spread it all over the bottum of your pond.

 

[Austrian Fish]

Hi Guys,

I've repotted all of my plants using black lava stone that i found in the local Garden centre.

This has the added benefit of not only weighting the plants down, but also giving the bacteria additional places to grow.

Also, during the repotting, i had to remove quite a lot of plant from the outside of the basket where it had grown through, and was able to repot that into additional baskets. I managed to get 4 additional baskets from that alone.

The end result is a much cleaner looking pond, and baskets that don't blow over in the wind...

Thanks for all the tips.

cheers,

Andy.

 

[koikeepr]

nice job! Glad to hear that all worked out for you.

 

[DrDave]

I love a good success story. More plants to boot! That is how I got into the water plants business, they grow faster than I can get rid of them now.