Planting pond plants in pea gravel??

[livetogarden]

How well will they do? We're tired of scooping dirt from tipped over pots out of our pond. Plus we had to repair a leak recently and our pond is so debri free now we don't want to muck it up with dirt. No matter how careful we try to be it seems we still end up with some pots that dump. So I was wondering who has tried pea gravel and how successful it was. Did you fertilize them just like you would have if they were in pots?
Thanks, Cath

[tranquility]

Cath,
 ALL marginals do just fine in pea gravel---the only thing I have found that needs soil to really thrive are the lotus and lilies...In pea gravel they should be able to get thier nutrients from the pond---if they start looking alittle pitiful---just take a teaspoon of osmocote and hollow a spot in the pea gravel with 2 fingers---drop the osmocote in the hole and cover it back up...
Lawanna

[Mikey]

Here are my results with soiless planting. I had three types of water irises in my pond, a tall blue iris, a short blue iris and a very tall yellow water iris. Sorry but I don't know their botanical names. The yellow iris grew a massive root system every year making it very difficult for me to remove from the pond to repot due to its weight. Since the roots of the yellow iris were growing so vigorously outside of the pot, I decided to go soiless and used nothing but lava rock. The plant grew even larger....and it was still difficult to remove from the pond for repotting. With the thought of reducing the weight even more, I took a bunch of 3/4" pvc irrigation pipes and used a bandsaw to cut them into small sections from 2" to 4" long and filled the pot with those. The plant grew even larger...and quicker....and was so rootbound that I couldn't even get it out of the pot to re-pot it.... I threw out the yellow iris as I was tired of having to repot it every year because it was such a vigorous plant.

I currently use the cut pvc (no soil) for both the blue irises and they do fine as they are not nearly as vigorous as the yellow iris. The short variety of blue iris does better without soil and the taller blue variety does about the same as it did with soil.

I also tried soiless planting with my dwarf cattails and found them to also do well just as well without soil. My lilies remain potted in soil because I've read of folks going soiless with mediocre results.

I don't use a biofilter, so if you have a good biofilter going, your results may differ from mine because more of the nutrients may be removed.

[happyoutsidegirl]

Hi Cath, I go and buy the brown reg. gravel for aqueariums. It works great. I cover it with biger rocks as my piggy Koi just remove the pea gravel and make a mess. I have had great luck with it. I have also used pea gravel but the other is more redily avaliable to me in smaller amounts. But Like Lawanna said, not for my lillies or Lotus. Good luck!

[livetogarden]

Well, bummer. I was hoping someone would say lilies do well like this too. I know some people have said they use cat litter for them. Would that work well for lilies? We're just trying to come up with a way to keep the pond cleaner since it was recently emptied, repaired and refilled.

[crazyfishlady]

My lilies are growing right in my river rock. They probably would do better in soil, but they do bloom. The Koi have taken to eating the blooms lately anyway. :'(

[kamala]

I don't have the greenest thumb, but my lilies seem to be doing fine in the ground up ceramic covered with rocks.  One has bloomed and two more are about to.  I just stick the fert. tabs about 2inches down in the ceramic.  Good Luck!

[karen J]

Well, bummer. I was hoping someone would say lilies do well like this too. I know some people have said they use cat litter for them. Would that work well for lilies? We're just trying to come up with a way to keep the pond cleaner since it was recently emptied, repaired and refilled.

I use cat litter, but if you're having a problem with tipped pots, the cat litter will incur the same problem you're already having. What I usually do is mix Wal Mart plain-clay cat litter with top soil and a little sand, osmocote on the bottom of the pot. After potting I use a layer of sand, then rocks on top. I try to use rocks that will not fit in the mouth of the largest fish in the pond. Usually flat rocks around 2" in diameter. This permits lily spread without encouraging fish damage. Our Raccoons don't go into the pond, so I don't know if this would work for you.
I just tuck marginals into the rocks around the edge.

Cath, I still have the cute "frog" you sent me. He's doing great out in the garden. 

[livetogarden]

Good news about the frog, Karen.  I love that frog!!
I think I'll give the pea gravel idea a try. If they don't do very well I will know not to do it next year.

[LeeAnne151]

I grow everything in pea gravel except waterlilies and lotus. I tried waterlilies in gravel but they did not perform and with my short summers I get so much less blooming time than everyone else so I switched to dirt. I tried that Shultz Aquatic Potting Mix but it is worse than mud to clean up.

I did just plant my new Japanese Iris in dirt, because everything I read about them said it needed mucky dirt.

[Cedric]

Well wouldn't a good compromise be, first a layer of good heavy loam and or crumbled clay covered by two thirds pea gravel? I tried this for awhile with the lilies and it works just fine in fact, but the pots are far too heavy to be very mobile. If this isn't a problem it's excellent. Another trick is to cover the top of the pot with a fine soft mosquito netting, neatly tucking in the sides or tying it on around the rim tightly, making just a slit cut in the centre to plant in.