What do you all use to pot your underwater babies in? I have seen a few brands online, but want to get everyone's opinion first. I want to make sure I have all the sullpies I have beofre the plants come in and I don't have anything to put them in. Thanks : )
Pond Plant Potting Soil
You can use most any pot or container available... plastic, clay, ceramic, old Tupperware, buckets...slotted or solid. The commercial ones are usually slotted or rigid mesh for water circulation, but I've had success with solid plastic ones left over from perennials and other plants I bought. Whatever works for the space you have. It's just to hold your planting medium and keep the plant contained.
Oops... I now realize you meant potting medium (soil)! I use kitty litter, the cheapest regular clay available. You can by fancier mediums, but it won't make much difference. I use Plant Tabs to fertilize the lilies and other plants.
This message was edited Jan 3, 2010 1:48 PM
Make sure if you use cat litter it does not have any scented stuff in it and make sure it isn't the clumping kind.
Ive just potted mine up with kitty litter. thanks guys!
the kitty litter works if u dont have fish tippers. then kitty litter is in the bottom of the pool, n some kitty litters turn to mush. roots need something to hold them into the plant medium, like clay, to keep them from floating to the surface, thus rocks on the litter. if u use a soil, just dont get the prefertilized, as this also goes into the water and add poisons to fish swimming.
I use a clay 99% pure kitty litter from Wal-Mart. I also add stones on top to add weight and to keep fish out. On one pot that goes very deep to the bottom that I have to literally toss into my pond I have a mesh netting around it with a drawstring that I made myself. Yeah, the clay comes out of the basket (it all does and it clouds the water up for 1/2 a day or so) but it settles on the bottom and the water goes clear.
I always wash my kitty litter used for potting water plants. I just pour it in a large bucket and use the hose to wash it, swirling it around and letting the cloudy water run over the edge of the bucket until clear(er). I know it wouldn't hurt the fish or plants if I didn't do this, but it prevents most of the cloudiness from happening.
Thanks guys!
I use the kitty litter from walmarts, but it has been clogging up my bottom drains and my filter. It turned to mush and settled in the bottom of the pond, then got sucked in and gummed up the works. I have 125 pounds of it in my potting shed.
Yuk. That's no good! Did koi or something else knock it out of your pots. I don't have a bottom filter, so have never had a problem. After a few weeks, the kitty litter does mush up in the pots, as it is granulated clay. That is probably the main difference between the branded medium sold for underwater plants. I think it's clay particles that have been baked to not disintegrate.
I have accelerator pots for my waterlilies. They have slices on the side of the pot. Here's the link: http://www.nurserysupplies.com/Products/Accelerator
So, some comes out the side and then the koi like to root around. I wonder if I could put the kitty litter in black garbage bags on the black top during the summer and bake it. Or maybe in the grill. I do like the accelerator pots for pond plants, but DH does not like cleaning clay goop out of the filter.
Does this supplier recommend a particular type of potting medium that is good with accelerator pots? If not, you could always use regular heavy clay loam, which was most recommended years and years ago.
I bet you could bake kitty litter in the oven or the grill though. 475º for an hour might be enough.
Anyone else with advice?
Diane
Is the plastic on these pots any heavier than the mesh 4 sided plastic waterlily pots? I could use some heavier duty ones than what I have.
Carolyn
Carolyn-
I'm not sure of the thickness of the walls. The lilies have poked their roots out with no damage to the pots. I use them for my brugmansias too - I put the accelerators into large pots during the spring and summer, then lift, whack off the roots and move the plants into the greenhouse. The pots are designed to be durable for repeated nursery use.
Hoosier-
I spoke to the NY rep about using the pots for water plants. It's not what they are designed for, so they don't have any recommendations for water applications. My goal is too stop material from leaching out of the pots into the filtration. I don't want to use gravel because it's not great for the plants and it's too heavy to move around.
I use AQUASOIL, you can find it at you local Walmart in the spring, or the local nursery that sells water plants, works great, and if your fish manage to tip the pots over it wond clog up any thing. It is like ganulated clay , doesn't soak up water, so it is not like kitty litter and you can reuse it as many times as you want.
I use the cheap plain old kitty litter that turns to mush. My pond plants thrive in it. Its cheap. If the koi do get into its good for them. If the kittly litter is more of a whiteish light grey/tan than a dark grey color then it is bentonite / montmorillonite - rich in minerals which are very, very good for koi. Same stuff in the expensive Koi Clay that many folks buy and use in their ponds. Clay is also a flocculant. As it settles to the pond bottom it pulls the finest of debris particls with it and and will greatly improve water clarity. l regularly treat my pond with Koi Clay. The pond will cloud for about an hour then it's crystal clear. Cheap, unadulterated kitty litter is a win, win in my pond.
Snapple- do you have bottom drains in your pond? How does the filtration handle the mush?
The pots don't get tipped, hence no mush gets to the bottom. No bottom drain. I have a skimmer and tub filter. I use enzymes to keep the bottom clean of any debris and don't have to deal with any debris accumulation of any kind. The twice weekly addition of Koi Clay is never a problem. It stays in circulation long enough for it to pick up small floating debris particles and then is filtered out - I guess - because I never see again it once the water clears.
Snapple
I don't have a bottom drain either and use a skimmer and a tub filter and recently put in a pressure filter as well .... we considered putting in a bottom drain and a friend down the street talked us out of it. He had fish continually get caught in his bottom drain, so he took it out. We also use enzymes to keep the bottom of the pond clear of debris.
I am currently looking at koi clay for next years ponding season. I had read that one of the causes for fish to have problems with cataracts was they did not receive enough of the trace elements. I also do not use any of the waterlily soils or clay litters in my waterlily pots as it makes too much of a mess. I use pea gravel with egg rock on the top of my pots to keep the koi from scattering the pea gravel and hence keeping it out of my filters. With the year long fertilizer stakes in each pot, I have not had any problems with my waterlilies....
Pea gravel is good. I too use fertilizer tab/stakes in all the pond plant pots. I found a new fertilizer last year for flowering water plants that is outstanding, better than the Laguna stakes and Pond Tabs I was using: Highland Rim. The high middle numer - 26, phosphorus - really increases flowering.
Here is some info on it, just for information only. I've never ordered from this particular web company.
http://www.pondkoi.com/pond_plant_fertilizer.htm
I keep the koi out of the pots by fastening 100% plastic mesh fencing over the pots. The holes in the mesh are 1" squares. The holes are large enough for stems and leaves to easily grow through but keep nosy koi from rooting around. Note, the fencing is 100% plastic, not plastic coated wire. It doesn't rust or leach anything into the pond. The pic is a lotus just breaking dormancy in the spring in a 24" lotus tub.
I used long plastic pot containers that are intended for window boxes (cheap ones from Wal-Mart). I drilled one hole on each side and threaded long pieces of cotton string through it and tied all four strings together and filled my pots with my plants and kitty litter and lowered it in by the strings. I then attached the secured strings to little stakes above the pond and well hidden by foliage. It made it easier to fertilize the plants, kept the window boxes secure from the koi tipping it over and made it a lot easier for me to pull the boxes up to transplant or divide the plants in spring and to trim away leaves in the fall. I also did this with round pots and homemade cloth ones that I attached to the ground beyond the liner and the rocks.
Nice idea. When your koi get to the 18" + size look out! They can root the soil, taking the plant with it, out of a pot literally in minutes. It's not so much the vegetation they're after as it is the minerals in the clay, although they will chew on anything green. Clay is to koi as catnip is to cats.
remember kitty litter swells so don't fill up your pots to much so you can leave room for the sand and rocks on top of it.
I really like the AQUASOIL also. Isn't it made by Shultz? I had to get something else last year that looked like pea gravel but very light weight. I don't care for it as much.
I tried the mesh over the pots to keep Koi out and did not care for it at all. When I tried to repot the next spring it was a job getting the plants out of the mesh and it made the repotting job take 3 times as long.
Last year I tried a couple of the cloth pots and so far they are working great for my lilies. They are a little pricey but if you only have small ponds and not many lilies they are ok. They can be rolled down if you have small plants. I like them.
Well all my lilies died but one. Not sure what im doing wrong. Thought my pond would be perfect. Lilies grow in the rivers/drains around here and i cant even grow them in a pond. hehe!
This is the one alive with tinny leaves coming up (photos taken with it under the water).
Pond went abit green cause our uv globe broke but clean again now. The lilies seem to have rotted, how can i rot water plants?
This message was edited May 3, 2010 7:17 PM
Snapple45 is the ultimate expert. I have been following her advice for 5 years.