water hyacinth Question

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I moved my water hyacinth inside to my stock tank for the winter, Is it worth the effort to keep the plants. The tank is by the window and temp will be maintained 70 degrees. They are cheap enough and multiply rather easily. So I can get more in the spring when I move back outside. Live in ct pond is to shallow for fish . Currently enlarging pond now.
 

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I have a few tropical water plants that I bring in to overwinter, but I've never had any success with water hyacinth. I think they simply require a warmer, sunnier environment & more fertilizer than my stock tank in the sunroom could offer. And, like you said, they are cheap & easy to buy, so I just didn't feel like putting in the effort required.
 
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I have a few tropical water plants that I bring in to overwinter, but I've never had any success with water hyacinth. I think they simply require a warmer, sunnier environment & more fertilizer than my stock tank in the sunroom could offer. And, like you said, they are cheap & easy to buy, so I just didn't feel like putting in the effort required.
I was thinking the same I keep on pulling bulbs
Will let them nibble on for now
 
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Getting an earlier start is the main advantage of overwintering your pond plants. Many garden/pond stores don't start selling them in the spring until a little later than is often desired. Another advantage is having a larger plant to begin with in the spring than is usually available from suppliers. It is doubtful they will grow much in your stock tank given the amount of light available. Most likely, they will slowly shrink in size and wither away. I was successful keeping them going but it took a lot of effort. To keep them healthy and growing, I used a dedicated container (no fish), next to a western picture window and blasted the tank with high intensity plant lighting. I also had topsoil for a substrate and added fertilizer. The tank was heated. The hyacinth (and water lettuce) did fine. The real trick was reintroducing them back into the pond the next spring. While water temperature is important, interestingly, the biggest challenge was getting them acclimated to the bright, natural sunlight. They will become sunburned and die after all of your hard work so figure out some way to completely shade them and then gently increase the intensity, daily, for about a week to ten days depending upon the weather. I always waited until we had a few days of rain to bring them outside which helped.
 
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I second what Stephen has said; in the spring, I put my winterized pond plants on the east where the sun is less intense and then over a week or so, move them into the southern exposure, still a bit shaded. Lots of times, I keep some in my basement greenhouse and let the first batch be sacrificial in the pond (typically my water lettuce), hoping some make it.
 
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I kind of feel about floating pond plants like I do annuals - yes you COULD get an earlier start, but until it really gets warm they don't do anything outside anyway. So while all my neighbors are planting in the ground before Mothers Day (and then racing to cover everything because we invariably get one last frost), I wait until June 1st - and we all end up in the same place by mid to late June. Same with floaters - they arrive in the greenhouse right around the time it makes sense to put them in the pond, so I wait. The effort to save them over winter just isn't worth it to me.
 
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I actually started out this summer with the intention of not putting any water hyacinth in at all. I had (in previous years) been putting it in my upper pond area where there are no fish, and trying to keep it thinned out enough to keep it from causing problems was sort of a p.i.t.a. When I wanted to go in & remove the older, getting ratty ones, I had to completely rearrange/remove the new growth to access what I wanted to pull. It became more of a production number than I wanted to deal with.

So this Spring I didn't put any in, but by mid July I was sort of wishing the upper pool had *something* growing in that area, so... yeah - I went to a local pond supplier & bought a few. They did awesome! Bloomed (it had been years since I'd had a water hyacinth bloom) wonderfully & never got so thick they were a pain to deal with. Only twice since then have I had to pull any out & even then it was only a few.

So my new plan for the future is wait until the middle of summer before getting any water hyacinth, even if I can get it earlier!
 
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there is one advantage to trying to keep them alive through the winter in that you don't have to worry about bringing in unwanted pests from a nursery. The hyacinths are definitely one of the harder ones to keep alive but I figure I'm already keeping others, why not try. Last year, started with 4, ended up with one small piece. I think it needed warmer water so trying an aquarium heater and a fish tank this year. I've kept tropical lilies alive this way so giving it a shot...
 
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I know people talk about unwanted pests from nurseries - in my 30 years of gardening I've never had it happen with either pond or garden plants... knock wood! But it is possible. You can rinse the roots off if you're concerned, or let them chill in a bucket of water for a few days before you put them in the pond.
 
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I'm not concerned about bringing in unwanted pests from a nursery who has them growing in a fish-less stock tank. Could it happen? I guess... But honestly, it's an outdoor pond and there is a big, wide world of random critters that just naturally show up daily & they could (and most likely do) drag in unwanted "pests" as well.
Now, would I purchase water hyacinth (or other plants) sitting in a tank with sick looking (or dead) fish floating around in it? Well.....no! I'm not totally cavalier about the whole thing, but I can't allow myself to obsessively worry about controlling every little detail in an environment that is largely uncontrollable.
But, that's me. Everyone has to determine their own comfort level in whatever they do.
 

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