Ponds 2014

Read all the specs. and sounds like summer blend does about the same but recommends using it all through the summer. I put recommended dosage of Amquel into pond last night and today got a 0 reading. Was relieved and fish seemed peppy. Ammonia was too high yesterday.

Talked to fish farm owner today and he said it was old fashioned and not necessary to salt a pond. When I said to maintain a good slime coat he still didn't agree. Said would take 40 lbs. to accomplish anything. Well just so happens I just bought 2- 60 lb. bags. Do you use salt with the spring start up product? Or put it in between start up doses?

People with heart problems usually can't stand high heat. As I advance in age I don't stand it well either. When it gets near noon I quit working outside during our summers. My husb. is a hot house flower and can't stand any cold. We argue over thermostat setting all of time cause to me its too hot in the house. Don't think a hot house is really good for anybody. We lived here 18 years without AC and I'd NEVER do it again. Back then I was working but still at night it was miserable. We had box fans in all the windows. Since then we have had about 5 new units put in and if it's my last dime I'll never do without it.

Pond hasn't changed much since I planted along side. Got a new computer so don't know if I still have any but I can take a few easily and think I can upload them on this one.

Holly, 14* no wonder your not working outside. I just finished up most of my pruning today and hauled lots of branches to the dump. Think it was about 72. Good thing we have an old truck cause trash men don't like all the yard waste I create. They will take it but I feel guilty cause the amount I have isn't normal this time of year. Short clipping I put in garbage can and they take that.

Happy gardening and ponding all.

Bonnie

I salt in late fall and then do my water exchanges in the spring and have a 0 salt reading before the plants start coming. I do know that the subject of salting the pond is quite contraversial. (sp?). I have not had any problems with the fish in the winter since I have started doing this. We will see what happens this spring as I didn't get the normal amount of salt into the pond - and yes, it is give or take about 40#. Without looking, it may be closer to 50#.


I was in Southern Florida visiting my aunt and uncle during the month of July - I believe it was 1975. There was an airconditioner in my room, but I didn't turn it on, but once or twice and that because I was learning how to smoke. Not a good thing (I did finally get off the cigarettes quite a few years later). My point being that I enjoy the hot weather. Just wish it would find itself here.

Looking forward to your photos.

Took today off after church. Needed a lazy day. Did add first dose of summer blend to pond and of course netted out leaves but they are not falling so bad thank God.

Got a few pics. They aren't the best but I tried. Waterfall house needs scrubbing and repainted all ready. Water quality is improving and fish are swimming around more now. I watched them for a good while and they are eating just slowly.
Wish I could kick cigs.
Big fish are in larger pond and put in old pond with smaller ones also.

few more. 1 is floating isl. home made. 2 is old pond with smaller fish. 3, old smaller pond.4. old pond
5 is plant I can't ID. It's about 2" bloom, red and black with a cupped bottom that holds a little water. I didn't plant it but it showed up and is pretty. I put a piece of white paper behind it hoping it would show up better.

Addendum----third pic is cumquat he is 27 inches long and Jeff's pride and joy. 5th pic--
Tried to get a pic of my butterfly with beautiful tail and bright blue eyes. I call her blue eyes. She's primarily white with black spots that have little red spots inside of black spots. Jeff has a straight sided one that is just like her.
Floating isl. planter is primarily sweet flag & 1 brom. I filled it up with only a few rocks on top of sphagnum moss and it tipped right over as soon as it hit the water. Got to get rocks out of pond but plants stayed in cause I wired them to planter.
Hope you can figure the pics out. I'm not much of a photographer.

Bonnie

Oh gosh! The black and white butterfly is a dream! Wow! :)
I know the other pond is larger, but I just love your waterfall on the smaller one. I went to Leu Gardens today and just stared at the little stream they had through the woods going down to the lake. It reminded me of that. So serene.
:)

Beaufiul Bonnie. Love the pictures and your fish are so gorgeous. Thank you so much.

Keep trying with the cigs - you will get there. I think I quite a thousand times before it finally worked. I do wish my daughter would quit though.

MM I had forgotten all about that stream at Leu Gardens. It is beautiful and I love the sound.
Have you been to Kanapaha Gardens in Gainesville. Been there a few times. Once a year they have a sale of many of their plants. They keep adding to it all the time. If you ever want to go I would be glad to drive or go up with you. It's just off 75 on first exit road. Right now I can't think of the name. I have a sewing buddy that lives on same road.

Carolyn, Thanks for your encouragement and compliments. I think that white and black fish is the prettiest one we got as she has a beautiful tail.

Bonnie....no I haven't been to that one. I DO want to go to the butterfly exhibit at UF one of these days though, so maybe we can do a 2 part road trip? There's one south of Tampa I went to a few years ago that takes pride in their bromeliads, I just can't remember the name off the top of my head right now. I've also never been to the big botanical garden down by Miami (Fairchilds) nor the Caladium Festival. They're all on my bucket list. :)

M. Mary, I think we work too much and miss out on a lot of beautiful places Fl. has to offer.
Remember the koi show is next weekend at same place. Didn't even know UF had a butterfly exhibit. I don't get around much so a day road trip would be wonderful.
I looked at Fairchilds site once and it's just fantastic. A friend of mine went to Palatka to I think Happy Farms, caladium capitol of the world and came home with 250 bulbs, planted them in a hurry, lost most of them but the few that survived are really beautiful. Can't remember when Caladium Festival is but that would also be a great day trip. I dream a lot.

Sun is shining so time to get out into pool and scrap paint off tile. Tomorrow we are supposed to get a little rain but I usually can work right through it anyhow.

Have a good week and keep a Kanapaha-UF trip in mind.
Bonnie

When our daughter lived in Pembroke Pines we often took our granddaughter (in her stroller) to Fairchild Tropical Gardens. I loved the tram ride as the guide was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot about the beginnings of the gardens. Our granddaughter is now 18 so you know things have changed a lot. Another favorite place to visit is the Morikami Gardens in Delray Beach, a lot of walking but it is so beautiful. I don 't mind as there are lots of benches for resting.

Bonnie,
You work too much with the pond. Why cant you cover the pond in the fall when the leaves starts to fall?

I have a confession to make. I do not use any chemicals like microbelift. I used them when my pond was new and that was 15 years ago. I also does not test the water often.

Please post picture of the koi show. Tons of people go?

We are covered with 4 inch of snow. I made a big pot of hot n sour soup yesterday for a pot luck mtg but it was cancelled so we brought it to one of my friends house and with grilled marinated skirt steak we had fun. I still have a lot of left overs. Any takers.??? LOL!!!~

Think spring !!!

Belle

I will take it Belle. I love hot and sour soup - one of my favorites.

I would like to see photos of the koi show as well. They have a koi club about 3 hours from me in Rochester. It would be fun to go when they do their tours.

Belle, we did net pond but bricked it down and need to put netting on a wood frame so I can just drop it over pond and yet keep it off water. Had to keep pulling some back so fish could eat. Will make improved frame before next year hopefully.
You definitely should test your water at least once in a while. After water changes last week I had ammonia spike so put Amquel in immediately and next day reading was right. Also put in sludge away and summer blend. I like ponds crystal clear. I'm sure it makes the fish happier and healthier too. All the pond clarifiers I have ordered this year are natural which I'm glad for.

Never head of hot and sour soup. Sounds interesting.

Carolyn, I will try to remember to get some pics. Usually we are busy getting to know some of the fish farm owners and breeders. Jeff my son is my driver and he wants to take the big cooler just in case. He made a small hole in it just big enough for the air hose and we plug that into a 12V outlet in back of my SUV so they can have air all the way home. He will take his home and quarantine for couple of weeks. He knows well what can happen bringing new fish home and just putting them right into ponds. I've had enough of that for sure.
The men that were there from Japan had ridiculous prices on their fish and I didn't see anything to get excited about. We missed last year so don't want to miss it again. He will come straight here from work and grab an hours sleep and then go. He works all night at Disney. Got transferred to the jungle cruise so he is going to sneak some fish in there as they all died when the jerks drained the water out completely for cleaning one year. DUH Hopefully I don't buy any fish as my money is going into pool re-do right now.
Hope all your snow goes soon so you can re-open your pond. I know you miss it.
Take care all. Bonnie

Bonnie,
Try to order hot n sour soup the next time you go to a decent chinese restaurant. Do not try it in a all you can eat place.

I still have some for today since it is ash Wed , i gave most of it away.

I think I have microbe lift and will use some after water change.

We had 4 inch of snow but the roads are clear. No school for 2 days though.

Think spring!!!!!

Belle

I'll remember that about the soup. I like many Chinese dishes.

Geez the snow seems to be really hanging around this year. We are definitely in spring here.

Are you coming to Fl. to play golf any time around the 12 of April. We are having another roundup at my place.

Sure would be nice to meet you.

Bonnie

Goodness me! I certainly hope I can make the round up this year!!!!

I do have some small starts of the Tina water lily for you Bonnie....they're very small seedlings, but very healthy. I've been moving them aside to save, I know you said you wanted some in the past. You can put them in a water bowl on a table until they get really big. They'll bloom on the table once they get going. I don't do anything exciting with them. I just float them in a bowl, and eventually dust and tadpole poop make enough sludge in the bottom of the bowl to make them root and go crazy. :)

Sure hope you can make it MM. Also, hope you are going along with your pond. Couldn't believe it has been almost 2 years since we started digging larger pond. I wish you had all the help I had. Makes a great deal of difference having a piece of equipment also. I love my little Kuby. Has saved my back many times. I'm trying to hire help to scrap tiles on pool but no one will do it so I'm the only fool. I will persist and get it done hopefully before our hot season starts.
Jeff and I are going to fish show today as it's only day he can go. Got the cooler ready in case he buys something. I so enjoy gong with him as he is great company and always sees something funny in anything. Takes aftrer me in that respect.

Got to get my seeds planted for RU. Looked all over for wave petunias but didn't find not one packet. Oh well I bought some other stuff. If there is anything out front you want me to root for you just let me know. After all I know you don't have enough plants now. HaHa
Take care, Bonnie

Bonnie,

It would be nice to meet you too and see your ponds.

We are not golfing in Florida this year. DH and a group of men are going to Atlanta for 4 days . No one is bringing wives.

I need a break from him during spring, give me a chance to do my potting with help. He gives me a hard time hiring all the time. LOL!!! I have someone who will pot the alocasia which i have plenty of.They were all tagged but I might mix different varieties and not bother with tags. Too stressful!!! LOL!!!

It is raining here,high 40's and very windy .!!!

Thinkk spring!!

Belle

http://www.ebay.com/sch/sohappy64/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Bonnie, This person on ebay has flats of them! You can order (they only charge $7 for shipping for us) They are right around the corner from you, but don't allow pick up.
You can have hundreds of them for a small abount of money, and they usually show up around 3-4 inches tall and healthy. Ready to go into bigger pots.

Don't have pay pal acct. but maybe Jeff does. Do you know where near me they are. Beautiful and just about what I was looking for.

Thanks much for the info. I'll check about them.

Pics from koi show. #4 was quite large. I liked the coloration of the 2 in #5
Bonnie

This one has the water lilies and some smaller fish in tanks.

My dil got some real good pics but they are on facebook and I don't know how to get them here. Sorry

Those sure are beautiful fish.

Bonnie, I think they are off Avalon Rd. Great looking fish at the show! Hoping to make it out there while they close down today. You get good deals when they don't want to pack things back up.

Beautiful!

MM - what is the black and white fish in Bonnies' first photo called? He is like a black and white kohaku.

Bonnie - the 4th picture in the first batch - did that fish have red eyes? I have one that looks similar, but he has red eyes. Kind of neat looking.

Looks like you had a great time at the koi show.

Thank you for posting. (Wish we had a koi show here)

Traditional black and white is called shiro utsuri or shiro bekko (depends on if it's white with black color, or the white color shared with black. (sort of like is a zebra white and black, or black and white) That one doesn't have any scales, except for a ridge down it's back, so it would be preluded as doitsu, which came from the world deutsch, meaning origins from germany (like the Pennsylvania Deutsch) The lack or scales or larger altered scales first originated with German breeders.
Kumonryu is a term used specifically for koi that have a white or blueish white background, and black "billowing clouds" floating over the white doitsu skin. The black will migrate across it's body over time, looking like the cloud is moving.

Thank you MM. I knew you would know ^_^

I haven't seen my fish in months. I believe the last time I saw them was in December, because we have had such a thick layer of that white ice on the pond this year. I have tried to peer into the holes from the deicers and still cannot see anything. I am sure they are all ok, but it would be nice to see them to verify that. They are calling for the possibility of more snow, so I think it still going to be awhile before I see them.

The Germans saw an opportunity to make money but I don't hear of them breeding and shipping here like Japan & China. Mary I hope you got to see those Chinese high fin sharks. I think they are cool and they eat algae like crazy. Also inside hotel in atrium tank black, white & red with red dot right on its nose. That's the one Jeff's wife wanted and it was $1,500. I told her I wouldn't put it in my pond and be responsible for it. Don't think I'd ever pay that much for 1 fish. We waited at Black Water Creek tank in atrium for a long time so Jeff could buy a really cute gold fish that was bright red and white and he bought 1 other to but I don't remember what. Kid watching that tank said they have all blue from tiny to 3 feet long at their farm and i could call and make an appoinemtn to look at them. I intend to do just that tomrrow. I think he's full of poop. They don't sell retail that I know of. They are right in Eustis and Jacksonville. Curiosity killed the cat so I'll check it out. Jeff had to call the farm just to get him up to the tank.

Carolyn, Not sure but I think that fish you are talking about had eyes like the color of its body. Can't say I hung over the tanks much and looked them right in the eyes. When we were there many of the show tanks were empty cause exhibitors had not arrived yet. As MM said best day to go is Sun. but by the time I get out of church and drive an hr. to get there lots of them are packed up and ready to leave. I don't blame them some have a really long ride.

I can just picture a news flash from Pa. Women gets head stuck in pond ice checking her fish and needs EMT to get her out. Just kidding Carolyn. A funny picture just flashed in my humorous mind. LOL That is a long time to go without seeing your fish. Think spring!!! This has been a really rough year for snow.

I didn't get to the show today, the website said they start closing down at noon, so I just didn't have the time. Oh well.
Bonnie, have you ever gone to PondTastic over by Florida Mall? The little bitty fish are like 3 for 18, and although they're small, they do have a good selection of colors from Blackwater. The larger ones are a bit pricey and I can get some better bargains elsewhere. I also don't need a SINGLE fish, I'm overcrowded as is, and know that spring spawning is right around the corner. Unless I saw one that was amazing, I'm trying to keep my wallet shut, knowing there's so much needing to be done in the back yard. Hubby finally got the remaining siding put on the sunroom today, which was holding up everything else, so I was delighted.

Yes Mary been to Pondtastic. That's where Blondie, Goldie & Shamoo came from and were about 5" at the time and paid $20. ea. That won't happen again. 2 fish Jeff bought at koi show were from Blackwater. He treated them and now they are in my pond and I don't even know which 2 they are for sure. One I recognized. It's a very shiny type of goldfish and is brilliant red and white. Other one I don't know. Fish Farm (koi acres) in Dunnelin has much better pricing. Good thing we don't get over there very often. I seem to accumulate fish fairly often. My pool is costing me $$$ right now but I want to get it in top condition if possible and my energy holds up. I know your trying to get your fish a forever home built and I hope when you finish you have room for all you have.

Mary don't forget RU April 12. You have yet to make it to one so I'm hoping you make this one.

Carolyn, good thing you have a sense of humor. Just struck me funny. Wish you could pack up and come to RU too as it looks like we are going to have a good one this year.

I wish I could too Bonnie.

I think it's time to start a new thread. This one is too looooooooooong!

We just started this one! lol We DO tend to talk a lot, but I can start another if you want.

Here's the new thread requested! Send us your pics! We LOVE to see ponds, pond problems, pond plants, pond set ups, and fish!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1354035/