pond plant help

[cheeseyfella]

hi all,
First off happy new year, and apologies fro not being on here for a long time. my wife was pregnant and there was a lot of work needed to get the house ready for the new arrival. he came on jan 10th and is very cute but a real handful.
Now I have a son, I am looking forward to a new year of pond life and hopefully spending some quality time in the garden with him this summer, but I want to add my pond.
I have put pictures up of my pond before, so hopefully people will know what it looks like, if not here is a reminder...

this year I want to add some greenary, I would like something to help with cleaning and with oxygen and somewhere for the little guys to hide out in if they want to. I really don't know where to start, a couple of places have said i can't put plants in the koi, but my koi are lazy. Plus i see other people with plants in their koi ponds.
I don't want to go crazy and would like to keep the plants in pots or storage baskets, so that i can keep them contained, move them around or, remove them in the winter if need be,
you guys have been so helpful and welcoming to me in the past i hope i get some good advice on what to buy, how much to get and where to buy from.
thanks in advance
jp

 

[cheeseyfella]

forgot to mention pond dimensions
12ft x 6ft
2ft above ground and 1ft below ground in the middle.
I have shelf around the front by the skimmer box and at the back by the waterfall.
if that helps.

 

[Mmathis]

Congratualtions!! My "baby" is 17 and just got his driver's license..... Children are such amazing miracles!

Your pond is nice, but you're right, it does need plants. Several of the members here have come up with very nice & effective "containment" systems and/or methods to keep the plants safe from Koi. I never have much luck when I try to search, but you might want to check some older posts in the DIY section. And I'm sure you'll get lots of replies.

 

[cheeseyfella]

Congratualtions!! My "baby" is 17 and just got his driver's license..... Children are such amazing miracles!

Your pond is nice, but you're right, it does need plants. Several of the members here have come up with very nice & effective "containment" systems and/or methods to keep the plants safe from Koi. I never have much luck when I try to search, but you might want to check some older posts in the DIY section. And I'm sure you'll get lots of replies.

I never knew how amazing kids were until my own came along. 4 weeks old today and i still can't believe he is real.
thanks for the pointer I will have a search through older threads for separation solutions, and hopefully find something to get my pond looking a bit greener.

 

[sissy]

congrats and remember to pace yourself with the new baby because he will be there for 18 years and you want to enjoy and remember every one of them.You can make plant pockets to hang over the side and a nice floating island with plants .I put fountain grass and other grasses in my plant pockets and grasses really suck up all the bad stuff .I also grow plants in my filters .

 

[adavisus]

Some plants are very well suited to ponds with koi in them, evolved well to cope with harsh root grazing,
The most obvious being Umbrella palm, aquatic iris, Thalia. The koi will enjoy trying to chobble on roots that tough
3 gallon size black buckets would anchor them well, while you consider what other aquatic plants might be added to complement the pond
Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[Waterbug]

Difficult to place plants in a straight sided deep pond. You can hang baskets over the side. I did that once with water clover, worked well. Most plants like to be a bit out of the water. When direction say 6" of water they mean that as the maximum, not the ideal.
Never able to tell how Koi will react. They may be lazy now but could just be bored and some plants to investigate could be their new hobby. Or they could just ignore them.
One small point, plants only produce O2 during daylight and consume it at night when O2 is already in most demand. So if you really needed the O2, which I assume isn't the case, plants would not be a good idea.

 

[sissy]

I use lots of floating plants in my filters because it seems to help keep the filter cleaner .Thats why my one filter is getting changed to a large oval tank so it can hold even more plants .I had the grasses hanging down on my straight sides in the plant pockets .All they are made from is window screening sewn with fishing line .I made more of them for this summer

 

[cheeseyfella]

thanks for the tips,
Where do you get the hanging baskets from?
The [color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]aquatic iris look nice I will get some of those and the buckets to contain them, but i do want[/color] to get some kind of submerged grass type greenery for the small fish to hide in and maybe lay eggs there (if that's what they do) and hopefully stop them going in the skimmer. would the basket type holders not protect the roots, what if I put a net over the top basket so the plants could grow out, but the fish could not get into the roots?
i believe the waterfall adds enough oxygen to the water so the plants would be a back up in case of power failure i guess.

 

[sissy]

thats why the screening is good ,I make them bigger and only the very finest roots can get through and i just take scissors and trim them off and fish cannot get through the screening material .

 

[cheeseyfella]

but would that work submerged, and what would be a good candidate for a submerged grassy type plant that a koi would struggle to destroy.

 

[sissy]

mine are submerged I just pulled it up to show how the plant pot sits in the basket .I am going to put elephant ear bulbs in one this year and gonna use combo of addys clay litter and crushed oyster shells as the plant medium .Going to use it for my lotus plants also .

 

[cheeseyfella]

mine are submerged I just pulled it up to show how the plant pot sits in the basket .I am going to put elephant ear bulbs in one this year and gonna use combo of addys clay litter and crushed oyster shells as the plant medium .Going to use it for my lotus plants also .

:redface: I feel silly now. i didn't realize they were submerged.
so what did you use to make the plant pockets it looks like some kind of mesh, but what gives it the shape,

 

[sissy]

It is just fiberglass window screening and sewn with fishing line .Easy to make any size you want and I just leave one long flap and put a heavy rock on the flap to weigh it down .You could also hook it to your wood some how .last pic shows how long I made the tails to hang them and you can make them as long as you want and make sure you triple them up so they are good and sturdy to hold the plant wait .

 

[sissy]

a piece of 2 inch foam with cut outs for pots and you have a floating island like pecan made or JW floating plant riing looks good and shades the water and keeps the pond cooler during summer months