My Small Pond With No Filter...

[waretrop]

This pond is far enough away from our house that we have no electric. I want a solor air pump this year so I don't have to move the 4 fish out to my larger pond. Everything is running so nicely for over 12 years... I love the little thing...so cute...and the froggie loves to visit with me....

 

[GBBUDD]

TWO THUMBS UP ON THE PITCHER PLANTS

 

[waretrop]

There are 2 floating post of them in there. I have allot of carnivorous plants in the greenhouse. I have made many rafts to use in summer. Otherwise they live in the greenhouse most of the year.

 

[Mgessert]

How do you make your rafts waretrop? I have some pitcher plants I’m about ready to add to my little pond.

 

[waretrop]

How do you make your rafts waretrop? I have some pitcher plants I’m about ready to add to my little pond.

Mgessert, My pond is not boggish depth... at all. so I needed to plant them so they were just where their feet were in water just a little. I used a styro from a cooler. cut it square or round. took some pitcher plants from my greenhouse right in the pots I have them in. Measured, roughly, on the white styro and used a knife to cut the hole. Tried the pot and maybe cut the hole a little bigger so it sat deeper in the styro. Then I used landscaping material covered the styro, all around it and roughly tied it all around to the styro. This all took about 3 minutes. Then I cut an X in the landscapping material where the hole is for each pot. This was my proto type...LOL I also used a string to ancher it to the side, putting the string just under a at the edge. Next year I will have many made and ready in spring but done very neatly and more secure...

 

[waretrop]

So here is what one looked like when i first finished it. It started as an idea. Each one i do is getting better. They pick up and move into the greenhouse perfectly. I have some dishpans, of sorts, to place each raft in. Some of the pots come out and are put back where i keep all my carnivorous plants.

 

[Mgessert]

Thanks waretrop! I think that will work for me.

 

[Mgessert]

Waretrop,
I‘m new to growing pitcher plants and have read that they shouldn’t be fertilized, since they get nutrients from their prey. Do I need to be concerned about the nitrates in my pond harming the pitcher plants if I float them like you do? I keep them in the 10-20 ppm range to feed my plants.

 

[waretrop]

Mgessert Wow. nitrates? I haven't had much of them in years. These plants don't get much nutrients by way of the roots. I never worry about their nutrients. I do look at what is in their pitchers to make sure there are things being digested in their. I just slowly dump them in my hand and look and poor it right back in...Works for me for years...​

 

[waretrop]

Close ups of my pitcher plants in my little upper pond. It has 4 common goldfish, a few mosquite fish, a few frogs, water iris and water lilies, and other floating plants. The pitcher plants will be headed to the greenhouse for the winter. Next year I will make a larger raft and better put together than this year. It has run very nicely without electricity or mechanical filtering. There was only the rain and overflow and that was sparse round here this summer.