Water lettuce

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My lettuce as you can see is thriving, along with my WH, I know they are fast growing but what drives the growth, thanks
D3D9F64B-4D35-4586-9684-0FBAD81274E2.jpeg
 

Jhn

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The nutrients in the pond water ie waste produced by fish and other wildlife as well as decaying plant matter..
 
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They look healthy! Be careful about letting them cover any more of the pond - you do want some open surface area.
 
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My lettuce as you can see is thriving, along with my WH, I know they are fast growing but what drives the growth, thanksView attachment 140965
Hi. If you have fish in your pond you should keep at least 50% of the surface area open. I would remove about a 1/3 rd of your floating plants right now. They are going to keep growing all summer so there will be no shortage of them! This is the first year I don’t have floating plants.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Hi. If you have fish in your pond you should keep at least 50% of the surface area open. I would remove about a 1/3 rd of your floating plants right now. They are going to keep growing all summer so there will be no shortage of them! This is the first year I don’t have floating plants.
Is that just as important if you only have small, livebearers in the pond?
 
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Is that just as important if you only have small, livebearers in the pond?
Hi. You want proper gas exchange to occur between the water and the air such as releasing gasses and oxygenating the water so it makes sense to have enough surface area to do that. Also some plants reverse the process at night and absorb O2 at night instead of producing it like they do during the day. It makes sense to leave at least half of the pond uncovered.
 
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Is that just as important if you only have small, livebearers in the pond?
Absolutely!

And I think you can see from your experience why water lettuce and water hyacinth can be nuisance plants and are banned in certain parts of the country. When we were in Florida one year we met a young man who's only job was to cruise the waterways and scoop them out before they got out of hand. He collected many many bushels of them every day.
 
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Absolutely!

And I think you can see from your experience why water lettuce and water hyacinth can be nuisance plants and are banned in certain parts of the country. When we were in Florida one year we met a young man who's only job was to cruise the waterways and scoop them out before they got out of hand. He collected many many bushels of them every day.
I have a picture saved somewhere in my photos from a small outdoor restaurant we ate lunch at a few years ago in the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam. I swear we saw 1 million water lettuces float by during the hour we ate lunch there!
 

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