no green thumb in the pond

[qclabrat]

I'm a sporadic feeder in the pots in my pond and they in return aren't coming back much this year.
Pond is about 3 years young and the first year had a combo of lilies, lotus, parrots feather, bog bean and few others I can't remember at the moment.
This year I'm left with a single lily plant, skinny parrots feather and a measly bog bean. What am I doing wrong? The plants are all in pots of Walmart kitty litter with pebbles on top to keep them down. I have about 20 pots and most are now barren and sadly need to start from scratch. Do plants need regularly feedings? if so, at what frequency? Going to get in the pond this weekend to do some work, the ledges are at 2 feet for all the plants, should I make changes while I'm in the pond?

 

[mrsclem]

Do you have fish in your pond? The fish poo is usually enough fertilizer for most plants. Lilies and lotus are heavy feeders and usually require extra.

 

[JRS]

Carbon dioxide can be a limiting factor also. The bunch plants I have had always did better when floating on the surface than when I had them in pots. Heavily planted aquariums often require CO2 injection to maintain good growth. Can you try moving the plants up? Make sure they stay wet but right near or at the surface to see if that helps; it did when I had parrots feather. My lilies never get going strong until they get those first surface leave also. This also assumes you have sufficient light levels.

 

[qclabrat]

Do you have fish in your pond? The fish poo is usually enough fertilizer for most plants. Lilies and lotus are heavy feeders and usually require extra.

I do, I raise GF and the occasional frogs which as finds its way in as well. I have about 30 fish in a 2000 gallon pond

 

[qclabrat]

Carbon dioxide can be a limiting factor also. The bunch plants I have had always did better when floating on the surface than when I had them in pots. Heavily planted aquariums often require CO2 injection to maintain good growth. Can you try moving the plants up? Make sure they stay wet but right near or at the surface to see if that helps; it did when I had parrots feather. My lilies never get going strong until they get those first surface leave also. This also assumes you have sufficient light levels.

I'll try to see what's still alive and get them raised up with blocks this weekend. The pond gets about 6 hrs of strong direct sunlight and another 2-3 hrs of filtered light in the summer. I'll try to move the live pots to a sunnier section and put in some Jobe spikes.