I have much to learn and I hope you guys don't mind if I keep asking stupid questions. I asked the 'Texas Water Lilies' company (mentioned here) as to what I should plant in (2) 150 gal bio-filters and they recommend floaters like: water hyacinth, parrots feather and sensitive plant, money wart baccopa.
Did I read somewhere that water hyacinths are illegal in FL? Will their seeds fly around to infect the neighborhood or what? I'm about 500 ft from the nearest open water. Can a Taro grow without anything holding it down like a pot? I'd really like to be able to see the plants in the filters grow above the rim. Floaters might be happy but I'll never know they are there. What can grow in water sitting on top of filter material and reach about a foot high?
Fred
what should I plant in my filters?
Here is some info on water hyacinths. : )
~Lucy
http://www.protectyourwaters.net/hitchhikers/plants_water_hyacinth.php
irises, elephants ear, pickerel, and water celery are good choices for height but for filtering the best of the 4 is water celery (also the shortest!).
OK,
I ordered the following marginal plants as were suggested to me:
Moneywort Bacopia 2 $10.00 USD
Parrot Feather 2 $10.00 USD
Sensitive Plant 2 $10.00 USD
Variegated Water Celery 2 $10.00 USD
Water Celery 2 $10.00 USD
Blue Pickerel Plant 1 $5.00 USD
Venezuelan Poppy 1 $5.00 USD
Blue Bells 1 $5.00 USD
Black Magic Taro 1 $5.00 USD
Now my question is planting them. Do I just set them in water or what? I have several shallow pools as part of my water flow where I can set some in pots. Since the above was $90 inclusive of shipping and I haven't even started to buy real plants for the pond, I figure to raise some babies from the above. I ordered two of most in order to give me more possibilities of growing even more.
The picture shows the tanks without the filter material. The next will show the final result waiting for flowing water and plants.
Fred
OK, this shot shows the finished product ready for planting. In my past life I used to havemany aquaria where I used little weights to hold underwater plants down. Do I do the same here except not drown them?
Fred
Wow, it all looks very nice, great job. For filtering the plants shouldn't be in pots, this allows the roots to be free to eat all the good stuff from the water as it flows thru the roots, if they're in pots the water in the pots will be stagnant- those plants will require fertilizer. You'll get the fastest return on your money in baby plants by having them not in pots.
The plants will want to flop over at first....you can string some string or wire across the tops in a grid pattern to help keep the plants upright until they get bigger, eventually they'll be fine on their own.
Since your pond is new and doesn't have any good stuff yet, you should expect slow growth at first. If your pond is ready to go, there's no reason to wait for the plants to get it going- I would go ahead and start running it and throw a couple of fish in, get your biological bacteria going.
If there's any soil on the roots of your plants when they come in, be sure and rinse it all off.
I wasn't going to wait with the water. The tanks are full of water already but the pumps still need some electrical work. (240 volt breaker is needed). I should be able to start filling the pond shortly though. I added bacteria culture into both tanks too. Should be cooking now. :--)
Fred
How is your biological filter coming? What about your pond? Pictures please.
Wow, a resurrection from when I first got water in the pond. I've posted lots of pictures in the various discussions under Water Gardens but the full story can be seen on my web site as it happened over three months time. At this point things are growing in my tanks but there is room for much more expansion. I think it takes marginals a bit longer to get established without something to grow in like dirt or muck. Most of the plants I have are trying to grow into the filter material.
The links are:
http://fredrump.phanfare.com/album/243022/323487#imageID=14391111
http://fredrump.phanfare.com/album/243024/323991#imageID=14408909
http://fredrump.phanfare.com/album/243025/324448#imageID=14434535
See fomay water for current problems.
Fred
HI Fred,
I thoroughly enjoyed watching your pond slide shows....wow...what a fantastic water feature you created!!
~Kim
Glad you liked it. It took long enough to build. Now some lucky fish have a new home. :-)
Fred
Fred, love the pond and also your slide shows! The 'rock work' that team did is fantastic. It would be great to post a link to this thread over on the concrete or hypertufa forum. There are lots of folks over there who are always looking for more ideas for making concrete rocks.
Do you know what the mud was that they used? Was it a straight stucco mix?
No, it was some kind of special cement. First they brought in a pumper and used high strength concrete for he floor. Then they mixed their own with a little cement mixer and sand for walls and coated the previous concrete. The whole thing is then coated with some kind of slurry mix as a sealer and then painted. I really don't know the composition of the material. These people do these type of projects all the time all over Florida. I just assumed they knew what they were doing with the cement. :-)
They didn't have a clue about ponds though and sort of followed whatever meager directions I gave them. I could tell they didn't like outside instructions though. Everything I wanted took more time they didn't want to give but as I praised what they were doing they tried harder. Pride in workmanship and human nature at work. :-)
Now all that fine detail work is being covered by algae. The waterruns are black and green all over but it is also looking ever more natural because of it. If I had another life to live I would now know how to design an even better pond structure but for now this will have to do. If the concrete formulation is important to you I can get some more information on it. Let me know.
Fred
Re: concrete or hypertufa forum
Where is that?
Fred
Here's a link to the forum:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/hypertufa/all/
Many of us over there experiment with cement in making 'mock rocks' since boulders can be so expensive in some parts of the country. The freehand formation of your rocks was interesting and the mixture they used appeared to be easy to work with and also looked very smooth when they wanted it to. I'm always looking at new cement mixtures so I thought you might know what the mixture was, but if not, it's fine.
I have a vegetation filter attached to my pond as well and I do love it. You'll find that you can root cuttings very easily in the "skippy filter" Mine is filled with pea gravel and works basically like a large undergravel filter. I just stick the cuttings in the gravel and nature does the rest, and very quickly, too.
Looks like you have stuff planted in it already buy my two cents worth is that anything that grows fast does the best job. You want something that uses those nutrients quickly and translates them into growth. Louisiana iris does really well in mine, as does papyrus and just about anything from the rush family or the reed family.
Unfortunately I just discovered a huge leak in the junction between the veggie filter and the main pond. I have to redesign that entire corner :(
my filters today
and the other one
We are snowbirds for the time being and won't be here during the summer. This causes some amount of caution as to what I plant as I don't want things to overwhelm their environment. Once I'm here fulltime I can experiment more. As to compost, I have mountains of it from all the vegetation on my property. Things grow fast here in SW FL. I can't really handle it and just keep piling it up. Over the summer it wastes away.
Fred
that pretty much cancels the fairy moss, then! Today there were ducks in my pond. I like ducks, but not in my pond. They really muddy up the water and uproot the plants. Last year it took them a couple of weeks to get the message that there are larger ponds where they will be more welcome. Maybe they'll get it sooner this year.
Good luck with your pond! It's a beauty!