Topics

1

Aquatic and Terrestrial Plant Exchange / Wanted- Dwarf Sagittaria

« on: March 17, 2011, 08:29:43 AM »

Does have (or expect to have) an abundance of dwarf sagittaria they are looking to thin out? Before I order some small starts from an aquarium place, I figured I'd ask here to see if I cold get more bang for my buck. . . I could also trade, too early to say for sure, but I should have extra of the following:

Unnamed pink hardy lily.
Attraction hardy lily.
Arc en Ciel hardy lily.
Helvola dwarf hardy lily.
Pickerel (blue flowering)*.
Pickerel (white flowering)*.
Horsetail rush.
Iris (purple)*.
Iris (yellow)*.
Stonecrop. This is a green sedum that puts out little yellow star shaped flowers. I picked a few pieces off a wall at a local park and tossed them on the rocks in/around the waterfall. They have spread nicely and I really am liking the look of them surrounding the water flow.

* plants are mixed up and I don't know which colors they are until they bloom.

Depending on how well they fared the winter, I may also have:
Spearmint.
Peppermint.
Variegated water celery.
Bob bean.

Thanks all!

2

Pond Chat / recommend a submerged plant

« on: March 16, 2011, 08:59:17 AM »

I am pretty much set with plants, but I just cant' resist the spring urge to hunt down the next pond addition. Last year I broke down and added UV which completely eliminated spring lag between suspended algae and plant growth, fuled an existing string algae problem. Without the small amount of platonic algae to help the plants tie up nutrients, the string algae was worse than ever. I usually don't have many underwater plants because they either don't thrive, clog my pump or get covered in string algae and look awful. Can anyone recommend an underwater plant that meets the below criteria:

- Low growing 6 to 8 inches or better yet less (I don't want any more plants that breach the surface and take away the visual appeal of the lily leaves.
- Not free floating.
- hardy to zone 5a 6b.
- hungry (hopefully give the SA a run for its money).
- small sample available here or locally to try it out.

Would be even better if:

- interesting color.
- gracefully flows in the water currents.
- low maintenance.

I would love something that I could "carpet" part of the bottom with.

3

Pond Chat / Attention Scott and Esther

« on: July 25, 2010, 01:40:27 PM »

I just wanted to let you both know the plants you sent me are settling in nicely.

Esther, all of the different marginals you sent died back a few days after I got them but have begun putting up new growth. I still plan to let them run wild the rest of the season and probably next until I decide which I like (where) then I will keep them better managed. Did you ever plant that little tropical start? How is it doing?

Scott, Helvola is doing great. I was leaving town last week and noticed that the first bloom would happen while I was away. Over the trip and the days following, I had some unexpected health problems and am just now getting a chance to look at the pond. What a charming tiny yellow flower; I love her!

Sorry no pics, in the confusion, I have misplaced the camera. . .

Thanks guys!

4

Pond Chat / Kepping neighbor's dog out of my pond?

« on: July 06, 2010, 02:40:04 PM »

I have been trying to figure out what has been disturbing my potted plants and generally messing up the pond. I thought it was raccoons, but recently the lily pots have been dumped and they are too deep for a raccoon to reach. Yesterday, I got my answer. The people a few houses down have an overweight Labrador that they let wander the neighborhood. To my surprise, I caught this dog in the pond. My guess is that he had been putting his front paws in to drink and was the weather got hotter he realized that he can just climb in to cool off.

So how do I keep him out? I have heard other neighbors yelling at them about letting this dog roam and they refuse to do anything about it. I know talking to them will be of no use (others have tried), so I don't want to bother. No sense in creating a feud if it won't solve the problem. I have been reading that sprinkling various peppers around the lawn will keep dogs away. This seems ideal. I would love for him to just walk around my yard and poop somewhere else. . . My question is/are does anyone have experience with this? Does it actually work? Will it keep other wildlife from visiting the pond (birds frogs. . .)?

5

Pond Chat / What did you name your fish?

« on: July 02, 2010, 09:51:23 AM »

Just for fun, let's post some of our fish names. I have only goldfish (common, comet, sarassa, shubunkin and fantails), I cannot tell them all apart but the ones I can recognize end up getting names. I haven't named any of this year's babies yet since the non-shubbies are still brown, but names will come. Believe it or not almost all of my names have some sort of meaning. Here is a list of fish that are currently living in my pond (It is hard to remember the names of those that have moved on):

Howard, Jack, Bessy, Hawk, Big Red, Fred, Annie, Fanny, Manny, Bert, Squirt, Chase, Ace and Tony Henderson.

Please share. . .

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Wakin, Shubunkins and Goldfish... / Shubunkin terminology

« on: June 23, 2010, 09:44:21 AM »

I have a few (poorly formed) questions about some terms I have read referring to shubunkins. I have seen terms like matte, pinky matte, nacreous, and others that are escaping me at the moment. I would also like to see pictures or a true description of the midnight blue shubunkin. I don't know enough about shubunkins to truly understand the terms.

I have several subbies in my pond and last year I only got one shubunkin baby. I am now questioning if it should truly be considered shubunkin or one of these other terms. Almost the entire fish is a dull (not shiny) transparent looking powder blue. It has some black speck and one eye is surrounded by a dark black/blue spot and there is a tiny section of orange  and black on the tail. Is this a matte or a pinkie? This year I am seeing flashes of small baby multicolored fish. I have not yet gotten a good look at most of them. The few I have seen look different from the adult shubbies I have (which were picked mostly for the large amount of blue). Some look like sarassas inasmcuh as they are mostly orange and white(ish) but there are some dark spots; unlike sarassas, the color (for lack of a better word) "texture" is different. The difference is difficult to describe. . . the color of the sarassas seems to be on the surface while the color on these fish appears somehow deeper. Almost like there is a clear coat (not glossy) over the colors. Does any of this make sense?

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Wakin, Shubunkins and Goldfish... / Double tailed commet (uh I mean interesting feeder fish)

« on: June 21, 2010, 12:35:11 PM »

I was at the PetSmart today and (as usual) was looking at the feeders to see if there were any interesting fish. In the $0.27 take I spotted a beauty that was too nice to resist (especially for $0.27). I know he is not a true bread "named" fish but I was wondering if some of the goldfish folks might tell me if he is a certain variety or just a mutant comet/cull fish.

Oops, I just noticed that I don't have my camera cable. We got a new computer Friday and my wife set it up. I'll post a description until I can get the photos up.

This is a long bodied orange and white fish with long flowing white comet length fins. His tail section bends down a bit before the tail fin starts (kinda' like a wakin) but the tail is much longer than a wakin (I think, I have only seen wakin in pictures). The tail fin is actually two separate tails (not joined at all) exiting out of the tail/body of the fish.  When viewed from above the two tail fins spread out/apart just a bit not really far like fantails or what I think of when I think of wakin and watonai.

I am assuming that I was just lucky and found a nice looking mutt. Hopefully this little guy or gall will be involved in the inevitable spawning next year.

8

Terrestrial Gardening / Recommend a "landscape" plant

« on: May 05, 2010, 08:20:28 AM »

I'll admit that I am not much of a land plant guy so bear with me.

The front of my house has short decorative retaining walls on both sides with river stones in them. On the non pond side (about 25 feet long and a few feet wide) there are/were daylights, lilirop, tall irises, holly bushes and some other type of bush I have always hated. This weekend I took out the mystery bushes and cut back the holly because I have let them go and they were encroaching on the other plants. I would like to get rid of the holly as well. This area collects tons of leaves. I wold like to only keep plants that I can cut back to ground level in the spring and blow the leaves out easily. Ascetically the area needs some bushy height as it now looks pretty bare. I'm looking to simplify the yard work in the front so here is what I would like:

Hardy in zone 5
dies back to the ground by spring or can be cut down each year.
Provides a little height to the area but not spindly height like the irises.


Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

9

Pond Chat / Covert ponding

« on: May 01, 2010, 06:40:14 PM »

Last year a building down the street from my office was torn down leaving a building sized crater of concrete and rubble. The hole promptly filled with water and has been that way ever since. The property was to be developed, but the developer lost the funding and I don't know how long we will have to look at this eyesore. I noticed that some cattails have shown up along the shore and thought it might be fun to toss some other water plants in. The problem is the lot is surrounded by a 6 foot fence and locked gate. The “pond” is within throwing distance from the sidewalk. Could I tie some rocks to bare root plants and throw them over and have a reasonable chance of them taking root and growing? What plants could work? I could spare a chunk of pickerel rush. I also have some aquarium plant bulbs that are really tropical lilies. I grew a few out to flowering size in my pond for fun last year, would they work without being planted? How about a section of hardy Lilly rhizome (with active growing tip)? It is hard to gauge the depth of the water but I estimate it to be about 2 feet deep in the middle. The bottom looks pretty muddy. It must be fairly fertile as it was recently covered in green slime but the water is now clearing. Is this a dumb idea? I would love to see some lily pads instead of submerged garbage. . .

10

Pond Chat / Starting tropical lily seeds

« on: April 07, 2010, 07:05:59 PM »

I got some N. Minuta seeds from Scott yesterday. I thought I would keep track of my attempt to bring up a full grown lily from seed.
4-7-10- I cut the bottom off a juice bottle and filled it with a couple of inches of soil from the yard. The soil here is clay but since I have been using organic fertilizer and mulch mowing it is fairly rich. I sprinkled the seeds over the wet soil and poured an inch or so of pond water over them. The seeds are currently floating (they were dry) along with the bits of organic matter that have floated out of the soil. I suspect, that the seeds will sink once they soak up some water. I placed the container in the green house window and will check it daily. I'll update this when something happens.

11

Aquatic and Terrestrial Plant Exchange / All spoken for--Have hardy water lily divisions for trade.

« on: April 06, 2010, 08:08:35 AM »

In the next week or so, I plan to divide my water lilies. My MIL will get two and she gets first pick; I don’t know how many divisions of each type I will have (I haven’t gotten a good look at the pots yet). I should have 2 or 3 left after MIL takes hers, but I don’t know yet which type will be left. . .  I have Arc En Ciel, a lily that was sold as Attraction (but could be a knock off. . .) and a medium unnamed pink (my favorite, I’ll post a pic of the bloom).
I would love to get my hands on Helvola and/or marsh marigold, but what else do you have to trade? I’m new to the whole plant trade thing, so let me know if I am breaching some etiquette here. I’ll update when I have a better idea of what is left. I can also send them for postage, but would really like to try trading.

12

Chit Chat / Little man in my yard

« on: March 20, 2010, 02:26:05 PM »

Shortly after my daughter was born, I met a little man about 3 1/2 inches tall; his name is Mr. Burroughs. He decided to come live in my yard. More accurately he built a home under/inside one of my oak trees (as his kind is wont to do. . .). I think he must have raided my workshope for some of his supplies, I see he braced his door with some of my guitar fretwire and I recognize some of the wood from my stash. I am the only one who has/will met him, but as my children grow up, they will hear many of the tales Mr. Burroughs has shared with me. Over time he will expand his range of my yard and slowly new traces of his existence will be discovered. Since these pictures were taken, he has already planted himself a front and back lawn of moss around his tree.

I would love for him to make his presence known near/around the pond. Any ideas. Keep in mind that he prefers subtlety, his traces should be "discovered" not hitting anyone over the head saying look at me. . .

 The front door is for visitors, most of his comings and goings are through the back leading straight down under the tree.

13

Pond Chat / Triops (AKA tadpole shrimp)

« on: March 01, 2010, 12:32:30 PM »

I was at the science center this weekend and saw these in the gift shop. They were next to the sea monkeys and were marketed as "living fossils" or some such. Like sea monkeys, the dried eggs remain viable until they are put back into water. Apparently they get to be about an inch and a half long, and are really cool looking (IMHO). They are found in the US but not as far East as I live. Has anyone had/seen these? I was thinking about putting some in a small aquarium that I have some baby goldies waiting to for summer. I'm afraid they (triops) would get eaten before they got big enough. . .  It would be neat to put them in the pond, but I can think of too many reasons not to.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triops_longicaudatus

14

Pond Chat / Can I limit water lily size?

« on: January 27, 2010, 02:00:46 PM »

I was going to wait until the doldrums of winter had passed hoping to get more responses to this, but the cold has me thinking about ponds and spring. I guess I can always commit the slight breach of netiquette and bump this come spring time.
Last year was the first year I had anything resembling success with water lilies. Until 2009, I had only one little lily that struggled to live and never flowered. Last year, I expanded the pond and knew I wanted/needed more lily leaves for cover. Convinced I had conditions that were not conducive to water lily health, I added two more lilies (my new pond is probably only big enough for 1 but certainly not 3). At the same time, I switched to the time release fertilizer (thanks Joyce) and bingo, all three plants thrived. Now I need to manage them. I just can’t bring myself to get rid of one or two but perhaps I should; but which one(s). . .

Is there a cultural/potting practice that can limit the size of these plants while still having blooms? What would be the best way to go about this? I will attempt to list in order of importance the characteristics I would like to curtail:
1-   Plant spread- the pond is not very deep (just under 2 feet) and the leaves seem to stretch out too much. It would be great if the leaf stems would not get so long that the leaves travel so far away from the crown. I doubt anything can be done (short of a deeper pond) to prevent this.
2-   Leaf size- can I dwarf the leaf size (I’d even be okay with smaller flowers) without reducing the number of blooms? The original lily had very small leaves and I thought it was a miniature of some sort; once I got it healthy, the pads got much bigger.
3-   Number of leaves- will removing many, most of the leaves deter flowering?

All are hardy lilies, one unnamed pink, one that was labeled as attraction but who knows and arc ‘en ciel (I got this one because I thought I was never going to get flowers so why not have interesting leaves).

15

Pond Chat / Chronicle your green water cycle here

« on: July 23, 2009, 02:56:31 PM »

I thought it would be beneficial to people setting up new ponds, if we started a thread where we could journal the process of achieving clear water in a new/rebuilt pond. No two pond are the same, and each ponder will take a different approach when dealing with green water. Rather than people offering advice on managing this cycle, here we would just house “case studies” filled with detailed information about what happened and how long it took. It would then be up to the readers to decide what may work best for him or her.

Often people are quick to assume a cause and effect relationship without considering all of the factors that may have been at play. Please try to include as much objective information as possible; if you are going to make a supposition, clearly indicate that “it is your feeling that X. . . “

Please use only one post to record the process for each pond and give your “case study” a unique or catchy name. Edit this message with new information as it is available. Forum members will want to have active discussions about a pond while observations are still being made. This is encouraged as it will help people think of new parameters to record and report. When you are asking and answering questions, please use the unique pond name in your post.  This will allow future readers to follow each pond without undue confusion and all the actual data will be kept in the original message.

I hope this catches on  and is helpful to others.

Bryan

16

Pond Chat / Green water is finaly gone!

« on: July 08, 2009, 09:58:22 AM »

It finally happened. . . I can see the bottom of my new pond (and my fish). I finished building/filling on May first, the water went green in less than a week and cleared (almost overnight) July 4th weekend. I was determined to wait it out and not add anything, but you know how that goes. I started having pond scum float up in the afternoons. After reading a bunch of references to koi clay / kitty liter for string algae, I tried it (so I guess I kind of cheated). That worked great for the scum not so much for the green water.

In past years I used Microbe-Lift and always had clear water. This year I played a hunch that I would have clear water without it. I started the pond up in the spring and never had any green. So when I re-built the pond, I knew I had a clean slate to experiment with (which is why I didn't want to add anything). The water would clear a bit and green up again each time getting a little better. After 9 weeks, I broke down and added Microbe-lift. Over the next two days the water cleared. Now I am left to wonder, is it possible that the first application would work that fast (doubtful) or was it just finally time? I wish I had waited. . .

The water is not crystal clear (like a pond with UV) there is a slight "whiteish" tint. I feel like i have read that this is part of the new pond cycle and will go away shortly, but don't remember where I saw that.

So I guess what I am saying is, if you are cycling a new pond, wait just a little bit longer. . .

17

Pond Chat / unnamed pink

« on: June 23, 2009, 08:22:59 PM »

My mother-in-law bought me this lily about three years ago. It has had a rough go (something was eating it as fast as it could grow) and limped along putting up a few puny leaves at a time. Last spring, while re-potting, I accidentally broke off the rhizome. I planted the growing tip and by the end of the summer, I was up to, count 'em, 10 leaves. This year it is finally healthy; it's like a totally different plant. At last I have blooms. I have been wondering for years what color it was, now I know. Does anybody want to take a stab identifying it? Of course, I will consider it unnamed, but thought it would be interesting to see what people thought.

18

Pond Chat / Several lily questions

« on: March 09, 2009, 12:23:56 PM »

Next year I plan to increase my pond size by 4 or 5 times. I would like to spend the summer building up a supply of hardy plants to fill it. Right now my pond is small (approximately 130 gallons) so I need to be mindful of space. I wanted to try the lily in a cup method until I have more space for regular sized pots. Serendipitously my neighbor brought over 4 sections of tuber this weekend (they have been untouched for almost 10 years in his pond and they were absolutely out of control) he doesn’t know what they  are. These tubers are too large for me to pot up in my current pond. They have no sign of new growth yet and are just floating in my pond until I decide what to do. With this in mind I have the following questions:

1)   I read the article on lilies in Dixie cups, it referred to tropicals, will this work for hardies?
2)   Once roots and leaves form on the tubers, can I pinch them off and pot them in cups or do they need the tuber?
3)   Will they begin to root out while they are free floating, or do I need to “plant” them?
4)   I’m not totally sure they are lily (as opposed to lotus) can you tell the difference from the tuber (I have never seen a lotus).

Thank you for any advice!
 
Bryan

I particularly like dwarf lilies, so if anyone has extra this season. . .

19

Wakin, Shubunkins and Goldfish... / goldfish dying one by one, HELP

« on: October 10, 2008, 04:51:46 PM »

Hello all I have a small pond (established 3 years) with commets and shubbies. Early this summer, I had a fish become very sluggish and stop eating/swimming. I looked around the internet and couldn't find a definitive disease that fit his symptoms. Since many of the common ailments seemed to have mild salt as a fist step, I move him/her inside with a 3%ish salt level. He still sat motionless and over the next day and a hald he died. By the time he died he had a swollen spot in the abdomen and it looked kinda' reddish (white fish) though I wouldn't really say dropsy. This was a baby from last summer and I figured "sometimes these things happen." 6-8 weeks later a second fish became sluggish; everything went pretty much the same as before.

fast forward a month, another fish fails to come when I wistle the dinner bell. I couldn't find him, as the plants were now well established. Several days later he floted up to the surface. Several weeks later (about 2 weeks ago) another fish disappeared. Today I wistled for dinner and my two biggest oldest fish did not come; both acting the same way the first two did.

My pond is small 150 gal. and with babies from last year and this year, I am pushing the max fish load. I do however, have way more filtration than I should need and all levels seem to have been fine all summer. The water test tonight registers nitrite, though barely any color change and definately not near the color that indicates caution (according to the label on the test strips.)

Please tell me what is wrong and what I can do.

Bryan