Help with aquatic plants

My husband made our med to large size pond last fall. I was give and purchase enough plants that should have filled it up. One year later and I have fewer plants than I started with.
I have 1 umbrella that is doing better than the other plants. 3 Iris that are barely hanging on. Lizards Tail that has all but died down. (I noticed what looks like new growth below the dead mushy black plant today.) 4 Water lilies that are barely hanging in, (although I did have 2 blooms this summer).
Everything else has died. (moneywort, elephant ears, pikeral, horsetail, cannas, ginger, and I can't remember any others names).

Everybody I was given plants from and everybody I bought plants from said "just stick them in the water and they will multiply". Hogwash. The first 2 water lilies I planted were in the aquatic soil with rocks on top. The other 2 water lilies I got later; one had spaghum moss around it in a net and I put spaghum moss around the other then surrounded both with aquatic soil and rocks to hold everything down.

I am repotting all tomorrow and need to know how to replant these so they don't completely die on me.
~~~ Carol

I don't have a good picture of the whole pond with plants in one picture.

Carol

Maybe you didn't get the plants under the water enough. I got water gardening pots at HD or Lowe's that aren't as tall as the ones you used. I used almost clay for the waterlilies.

But all my plants have an inch or two of water over the pot. Do you think that might be the problem. The horsetail grass is out of the pot just in the bottom of my shallow end of pond.

The 2 pots you see in the picture that look like they are way too high is after I pulled the pots up to the top shelf to pull them out. They did have about 2-3" of water over them. Initially last fall when I planted them and put them in the water I found out I had everything (except the waterlilies) too deep and had to raise the pots. The umbrella plant I think is at the right height, but I may still have the iris too low, but not too much to kill them. Even though I had a couple of waterliliy blooms, they are on the brink of death. My three large ones have about 3 or 4 leaves on them and the small Perry red has 1 leaf on it. My second dragons tail has now died (I am guessing to low?), moneywort, pickereral, elephant ears, cannas, gingers, horsetail; all have died (very quickly) and I am guessing I had them too low in the water. Another reason I wondered about is the possibility that the aquatic soil may have been too compacted and the roots were too restricted(?). The only other reason I can ponder is if the enclosed pots did not allow enough oxygen flow for them. Maybe the plants would exist better if they were all in the plastic mesh aquatic baskets?

Your waterlilies should be dying down about now Carol.

You used aquatic soil for everything? No regular potting soil was used or was left on the roots of any of the plants? How quickly they died lends me to think they had help rotting and potting soil will do that.

Tons of poeple pot their lilies in clay. I hate the stink that comes from pond plants myself, so I use large rocks (3-4") in black nursery pots with holes in the bottom to pot all my plants- it allows slightly more water flow than other things, I have far less stink which means healthier roots this way. On very young or small plants I use pea gravel. The mesh baskets aren't so great- pond plants are very invasive, but they might be good for you to get you started, plants do like them.

Almost everything was acquired bare root except for 4 plants I purchased from HD or Lowes that was in clay (I took as much as I could off the plants). I just remembered that the horsetails were in regular soil, which is sad; it was a huge pot (3 or 5 gal).
Everything I potted or repotted was put in aquatic soil (AS) some of the more recent plantings I put spaghum moss around the plant roots themselves and used more rock mixed with the AS.
You don't use the AS for anything and do the waterlilies the same way, with rock?
Do you use any kind of aquatic fertilizer in your plants (mainly the waterlilies) and if so, how do you get it in the pots at the bottom of the pond?
Do you have water iris? Any tips on getting them to stay alive and multiply other than using the rock instead of the AS?

Is it true that smaller plants should be at a shorter water line until they mature then the deeper type plants can be lowered? I am assuming that thats why some of mine died because I put the pots too deep before they were acclimated to the depth.

I would stay away from the moss in the future, any sort of organics will rot and become anaerobic and kill the plant. I still can't imagine why they would die so quickly. I always try to tell people to start plants off shallowly and move them deeper as they get bigger, so maybe it was the depth. Hey! I htink that answered your ? at the end LOL

I don't use AS, it's a HUGE ripoff. You can get the EXACT same product by using "special kitty" kitty litter from walmart- it has to be this kind, the exact kind, it's in a red bag. This is THE only kitty litter made from calcium bentonite which means it will not dissolve in your pond, every other cat littler will dissolve. I used this a lot in the beginning, but when you have a large pond with lots of plants it gets to be a huge chore to repot things. It's much easier to repot with rocks and they're much easier to reuse, the AS ends up with lots of roots in it and you pretty have to use all new every time or the rotting roots will spoil the repotting anyways. Yep I use the rocks for the lilies, too. IMO they like it much better, the pot does not get anaerobic nearly as fast, and when you have a long growing season that's important.

You should use fertilizer.......I've learned from other ponding forums to use osmocoat in a kneehi stocking, put it in when you pot it up and you can spike that occasionally with tomato spikes throughout the season if need be. The osmocoat (1/3 c per large lily, this is a guideline and not a science!) should get you through a whole season.

Water iris are pretty much weeds, I can't imagine why they didn't do well, did you have them pretty deep, too? They can handle a goodly depth, but like you said, things have to be acclimated. Those need to be repotted right now BTW, always iris in the fall, put them shallow after repotting, leave them there all winter. You can move them a little deeper in spring if you need to.

Hey Cag

Are you using any bological stuff in your pond to cut down on algee? This could be doing it for you also.

I use the aquantic tablets when I fertilize which is not often enough. I have a piece of PVC pipe that is big enough for the tablet to slide down. I punch the pipe down in the soil and then drop the fertilizer down the tube. It works for me.
Jeri

We use the "safe" stuff for everything, such as barley straw/extract. ANYTHING I put in the pond must be safe for fish AND waterlilies. (I've found after internet research that some that advertise waterlilies on the label are not waterlily friendly.)

Good idea with the pvc pipe.

Interesting thread. Thanks for starting it Carol!

I have a very small container pond. I use regular store bought sand (like for sandboxes) and a few small rocks.

I rinsed all the soil off of the plants I bought and just stuck them in the sand. That was back in July. They are still growing and blooming. I do fertilize them. And the vivip tropical lilies produced babies, so I must be doing something right. I like the sand so much better because it has less of the decaying smell. But it does tend to get more algae growing in it because of the white color of the sand. But the snails help keep that growth down and I scoop some of the algae out every month or so.

The container I have has shelves in it and I have been able to place some of the water plants such as redroot at the correct level in the water. I know some folks use upside down small buckets to put container water plants on top of to get the right height in the pond. I don't know if the sand would work for you? Was your pond getting full sun most of the day?

Yes, it's one of the 3 areas at my house that has full sun almost all day. Mostly I have shade and about half the pond has shade for a few hours a day.

caganimalover

Have you had the ph of the water tested?

Jeri

"Special Kitty" kitty litter is tons cheaper than AS from HD or Lowes!
"I've learned from other ponding forums to use osmocoat in a kneehi stocking": The knee-hi goes in the pot or in the pond floating around?
"you can spike that occasionally with tomato spikes throughout the season": How do you get it in the pot at the bottom of the pond?

I have strips to test the various elements/chemicals in the water. Actually I've only tested it twice, both times it had good numbers and showed normal ph.

The stocking goes in the pot. When you have a pond and you have lilies and they're deep, sometimes you have to bite the proverbial bullet and get in and do it, I'm in my pond a lot in the summer- it's about4.5' deep or so. The tomatoe spikes are narrow, I can usually manage to lift a rock and squeeze it in.