Water Gardening: What's in bloom today?, 1 by Carolyn22

Carolyn22 wrote:
Jim,

Do you have salt in your pond? That will make a big difference in your plants. Even if you have the salt at a level where the paper that comes with the kit states that you are at the right salt level for plants. Salt can make a big difference in a pond. We used to salt the pond and kept the salt levels at specific readings and we have come to the conclusion that we will only use salt when we are shutting down our pond in the winter. We are finding this is making a tremondous difference in all of our plants and also there are some medications for your fish that cannot be used in conjunction with salt.

Also, as the others have mentioned, koi are quite destructive with plants. We have found that it helps to keep a layer of egg rock on the top layer of the pot. It's harder for the koi to move the egg rock, however they are strong little buggers and have been known to move egg rock. We plant our waterlilies in pea gravel and have had a couple of pumps ruined becuase the koi have removed enough of the egg rock to allow the pea gravel to get out of the pots and into the bottom of the pond. We have recently started putting the pumps into the type of waterlily basket that is like a sieve in an effort to keep the pea gravel out of the pumps.

Best of luck to you - let us know how you do.
Carolyn