Water lettuce & anacharis

[taherrmann4]

I am going to be heading to Ft Myers florida for a vacation in april and was wondering if anyone knows if you can find this stuff growing naturally in the rivers and lakes? That way I could just get me some and bring it home.

 

[Bart]

I live in SE Tex close to the Gulf and here in the botanical gardens the water lettuce is starting to come out pretty good. If Fla has it growing over there then you ought to be able to find some.

 

[sissy]

The problem there would be making sure the plants are clean of any kind of bacteria and are cleaned well as you may end up with something that may harm fish

 

[addy1]

Put it in a tank/tub without fish, you might be hauling home snails etc. and check it out well.

 

[Bart]

I have read somewhere that you can sterilize plants by placing them in water contain some bleach, 1 tbls per gallon of water, and soaking them for a couple of minutes and then rinsing the thoroughly.

 

[DrDave]

I have just used tap water which is chlorinated and rinse several times over a few hours. It is crap shoot on your plants to add chlorine.

 

[CometKeith]

Taherrmann4, Water lettuce is considered an invasive species. There are a lot of laws on them in various States. I usually buy one and have a pond full of them by August. I only bought anacharis once because they will live through the winter.

 

[j.w]

I'm sure you can prolly find it at any lake or waterway in Florida as you can see by this link below. Just don't get caught w/ it cuz you will be in big trouble unless you have a permit.

http://myfwc.com/media/226492/InvasivePlants_waterlettuce.pdf

 

[shakaho]

I've never seen any. I'm not near Ft. Meyers though.

 

[sissy]

jeeze and it's something we have to buy and they cannot get rid of it a pesky weed to them

 

[pondbuilder13]

you can actually completely submerge the roots of the plants in full bleach for 10 secs and it will be fine then put it in a bucket of water for about 15 mins or so and it will live i know its surprising but it will! It kills all the bugs

 

[sissy]

thats amazing and to much salt in your pond kills them they just shrivel up and look rotten

 

[stroppy]

my tap water didnt kill bugs ...i put some of my plants in a bucket with tap water this winter and bought it indoors every time i changed the water there were bugs in it ... so bleach does sound a good idea but i would dilute it

 

[addy1]

some bugs are good! have a bunch of the water spiders zooming across the pond now.