# Fishman VS. American Pondweed



## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Took some aquatic plant photos today thought I'de share one that I opted to go to war with. One of the first things I do before treating a pond is make myself aware of what I am going up against. This first photo give you an idea of size of lake, taking an educated guess I put it at 2/3 of an acre to 3/4ths. The picture is decieving I know... it look's smaller.










The plant I am holding is called Spiked Rush. It's fairly common and you'll find it around quite a few ponds that don't use riprap for erosion protection/weedcontrol. It grows in dense clusters and is what I would consider one of mother natures natural erosion control methods. Generally I don't kill it, unless a special request is made. In this particular situation, like most, I am not treating for it. In the bottom right hand of the screen, submerged you can see this fellow:










This is Brittle Niad. This particular pond has it 1-8' out and a treatment is neccessary. On the bottom left you can see a little bit of algae... which ironically enough I didn't take a single picture of today.... and it's what I see the most of.

Apon further inspection of the pond I find this fellow:










American Pondweed. You can see the algae in the pond as well as some grass from the pond edge recently having been weed wacked. This plant is relativley easy to kill with any aquatic herbacide, herbacides containing surfactants are considerbly more effective however. The leaf itself is very waxy and chemical easily runs off it. 

I had initially intended on using Cutrine-Plus and Aquathol. To put it frankly this would of been my most cost effective means of treatment. However after finding the American Pondweed I opted to use Hydrothol 191 because it contains a surfactant and there are no fish in this pond. Hydrothol 191 is safe to use in ponds containing fish (becomes toxic at .3 parts per million) but this time of year when plankton blooms are near their highest, coupled with warm temperatures, it's not an herbacide I'de put on the top of my list. Hydrothol 191 is also an algaecide (unlike Aquathol) and since I'm treating both algae and herbacious plants it's really my best option. 

I go back to my truck and mix up 1 gallon of cutrine and 1/2 a gallon of Hydrothol. Frankly Hydrolthol is going to do all the work and Cutrine is simply along for the ride to speed up the process. Most surfactants (which hydrotol contains) act as penetrants into cell walls to deliver chemistry faster and easier. Copper, which is what Cutrine contains, helps to speed up the process and in the grand scheme of things is relativley inexpensive.

I add 2 1/2 gallons of water to this mixture and mix it up vigerously. Hydrothol does not mix readily with water based products and has a tendency to float. While I walk around the pond I occasionally shake the backpack that contains my mix. Which brings me to my next photo:










It's important to note the droplet size I used here. There was an occasional breeze today blowing so I could not use a fine droplet... otherwise I'de wear what I was spraying and kill grass in the process. Given the waxy coat of the American Pondweed leaf I opted for a medium sized droplet delivered under 2 PSI (backpack has a PSI gauge on it... not a neccesity by any means) but it's relativly low pressure to give you an idea. Too high of pressure will simply wash the chemical off the emergents and you may over apply to the given area which with Hydrothol you do not want to do since it kills fish at .3 ppm. 

10-15 minutes have elapsed since the time of my last photograph. Can you tell a diffference 










And a close up:










Give the pond 2-3 days and it will look like a million bucks. American Pondweed simply shows quickly which I thought you guys might enjoy


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

Great Post !


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

WOW!!! What a difference.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Thats cool and some great info, thanks!
Salmonid


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