What makes Water Hyacinth bloom?

[milhousebarks]

Hi all,

More questions! I started my pond back at the end of May with a bunch of plants including 2 water hyacinth. Both rosettes bloomed twice (early June I think). At the time they were growing moderately and put out new leaves and at least one new plant each. One started blooming while they were in my main pond and then both bloomed when I soon moved them to my bog (about 5 inches of water in the "deep end"), but other than moving them to the bog side I haven't made any other changes. And they seemed to bloom happily in both the pond and bog.

Since then I've given away at least a dozen rosettes and have about 4 or so still in the bog, but I haven't had a single additional bloom. Now one thought is that as the trees continued to leaf up I'm just getting less sun on my pond (I get sun from about 7:30am to 12:30pm and the bog side might loose it a bit earlier). The other thing is that since the time they bloomed when the pond was less than a month old and there were probably more nutrients in the water the string algae has come is now mostly gone, so I'm wondering if all my plants are just using up to much of the nutrients and I should feed my fish more. The water has a little tint from some oak leaves but is basically crystal clear otherwise. Right now I only fish once every other day or so, but the fish are pretty fat and happy.

But they are still growing strong. So what makes these things bloom and why have mine stopped? Here is a photo of the pond this morning. Any thoughts?

 

[C-Note]

I'm not sure where you live, but I've been trying to figure out when mine will bloom, and I read that based on my location, they will be more of a late-summer bloom into early fall. I read that more tropical or high-heat locations (like Southern Florida, for example) might bloom all summer long. Mine are thriving, growing, and expanding, but I'm still waiting patiently for any blooms. Good luck!

 

[milhousebarks]

Hmmm... that's interesting to hear. I'm in the northern Virginia area and the spring was actually a little on the cool side and they bloomed then. It's gotten warmer and they haven't bloomed, but maybe it was a Spring bloom and they'll bloom again for me later in the summer. My biggest fear is that I'm just not getting enough sun now that the trees have really filled out.

I hope yours bloom for you soon!

 

[bettasngoldfish]

example) Mine are thriving, growing, and expanding, but I'm still waiting patiently for any blooms. Good luck!

Same thing here.....growing and multiplying but no blooms. It has not been very hot here and my pond is in shade for much of the day.

 

[milhousebarks]

So after more research I see on another forum some talk about them needing a pH or 7.5 or more to bloom. I'm going to check my water tonight and see what it looks like. Anyone else with non-flowering WH know what your pH is?

 

[max384]

I'm on my fourth year of ponding and only found out this year that they even bloom at all. My old pond was about pH 7.8, and I had loads of hyacinths, but never a single bloom. My new pond was very low at about pH 6.4-6.6 when the hyacinth bloomed. Since getting my pH under control, my koi have eaten the roots down to almost nothing and my hyacinth are doing terribly, so I can't directly compare pHs with blooms in the same pond with the same plants.

 

[milhousebarks]

Thanks for sharing your info Max. So if I'm reading it right it seems to say that they bloomed in your new pond with lower pH but not in your old pond with the pH others seem to suggest will help them bloom.... I was a bit dubious of the pH theory and your info certainly doesn't support it.

I'm trying to think what else changed in my pond from when they bloomed and when they didn't and it did also correlate to when the pond was much newer and hadn't really settled in yet. So maybe the less than optimum water conditions triggered the blooming. I've seen at least one other person suggesting lower quality water could trigger blooms. The other thing is that they were a bit rough when I got them, so possibly other stresses cause blooming. I also moved them from the relatively spacious luxury of the pond into the more crowded bog and that was another possible source of stress. And I've seen still others suggest crowding helps force them to bloom.

All very interesting. I'm sure it can't be so simple, but it does seem that since they can multiply so easily vegetative reproduction that is what they do when conditions are good and there is room to grow. They only bother to set flowers (and therby create the possibility of being spread to other water bodies by seed) when there is a source of stress.

Maybe I'll try yelling at them.

 

[Priscilla]

Ahhhh, water hyacinth! The most frustrating plant on this site!!!!!!

Mine bloom all the time in my fishless pond, in full sun. The ones in my pond with the fish don't do as well.

I'm beginning to hate these plants!

 

[Lisak1]

It's magic. That's the only explanation. Or beginner's luck. My first hyacinth bloomed within a week of putting it in my pond. And I haven't been able to keep one alive since!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I haven't had much luck even keeping them alive, though I did have two bloom last year and one had an ugly bloom this year. Probably wont try them or Water Lettuce anymore.

 

[ZmanArt007]

Mine bloomed today. The leaves are dying but the flowers look good... stupid hyacinth

 

[adavisus]

Blooming willy nilly on a no fish, shallow clay pond, sometimes droughts to dry, no fertiliser, a tad over crowded...

Regards, andy
http://www.pinterest.com/adavisus/pondering/

 

[addy1]

The one time I had them, they were in a shallow, fish less, pond, very crowded, those bloomed, the ones in the big pond, very few blooms, I don't mess with them anymore not worth it.

 

[milhousebarks]

They were starting to run over things in my bog so I took a few more out to give away. A couple days later this bud shows up... a cry for help? Perhaps they do respond best to threats.

How many water hyacinth does it take to screw in a light bulb?

 

[michey1st]

I went back through some photos from 2 years ago (different house, different pond but same neighborhood here in Maryland) and in that pond, I had some decent blooms around July 23 (according to the date on the pic). That pond had sun from 10 until probably 2ish, and then was in shade for the rest of the afternoon. There were also small feeder fish in that pond, but the plant roots were able to persevere! In that pond, there was just a fountain. No filter or anything, so that water had to be nutrient rich for sure!

With my current pond, I have lots of WH, no blooms yet and it is in sun from 10 until probably 4ish. My PH usually hovers around 7.8. Everything is a bit slow this year, so I am hoping that blooms will come within the next few weeks. This pond has a bog, so perhaps the water isn't quite as tasty as they would like? Guess only time will tell...