Cleaning ponds after 20-30 years without any maintenance.

[JustHutch]

Hi all. I’m new here, but not new to ponds.

I’ve got a 20 year old pond to clean that has a ft or so of silt in it. I have no problem doing this (I do it for a living) but I would like some input in cleaning around the lilies.

As you can imagine, there is masses of them but the customer is happy with the size so I’m not there to do any repotting. I never know how far I can take the cleaning process in terms of cleaning the sludge from the roots. I use recirculating pond water if I do wash down the roots but I often ask myself how they’ll do as they’re obviously thriving so well in the waste.

Has anyone ever done something similar and what is your experience? Would you get the roots as clean as possible or would you leave the waste and just clean around them?

Thanks for any responses.

 

[Jhn]

It were me I would just clean around them and get the sludge of the bottom as best you can. You could go though and remove some of the rhizomes that have no growing tips.

Have the same thing in my pond, a section where the lilies have free reign. Just clean around them occasionally and pull out dead or pathetic looking tubers.

 

[JustHutch]

It were me I would just clean around them and get the sludge of the bottom as best you can. You could go though and remove some of the rhizomes that have no growing tips.

Have the same thing in my pond, a section where the lilies have free reign. Just clean around them occasionally and pull out dead or pathetic looking tubers.

This is pretty much the conclusion I came too. Sometimes I get my gloves on and give the roots a scrape with the side of my hand just to remove some of it without stripping the roots.

Thanks for your input

 

[j.w]

@JustHutch

 

[Michael from Daytona]

Hi all. I’m new here, but not new to ponds.

I’ve got a 20 year old pond to clean that has a ft or so of silt in it. I have no problem doing this (I do it for a living) but I would like some input in cleaning around the lilies.

As you can imagine, there is masses of them but the customer is happy with the size so I’m not there to do any repotting. I never know how far I can take the cleaning process in terms of cleaning the sludge from the roots. I use recirculating pond water if I do wash down the roots but I often ask myself how they’ll do as they’re obviously thriving so well in the waste.

Has anyone ever done something similar and what is your experience? Would you get the roots as clean as possible or would you leave the waste and just clean around them?

Thanks for any responses.

Hey there, Hutch. I'm surprised that after two or three decades there is any pond at all! When I bought an old house in Florida, I inherited a couple of concrete-and-tile ponds that had been abandoned for ten years. There was nothing but sludge in them (24" deep) requiring a couple days of shoveling muck just to find the bottom. As far as your foot of silt providing a base for water lily roots, my suggestion is: Leave well enough alone. Not because you're likely to kill any plants, as I've found water lilies to be extremely tough (my koi sometimes pull lilies right out of their pots and I find their bulbs floating around, or if they sink, establishing roots among the river rocks lining the bottom). Cleaning the roots is a waste of time and downright counterproductive, as is "overcleaning" the rest of the pond, as a small amount of silt contains healthy bacteria that help convert organic waste. This will save you having to wait for a super-clean pond to go through all the starting-up cycles (green algae, etc) new ponds must go through before achieving a steady-state.

 

[Jhn]

Hey there, Hutch. I'm surprised that after two or three decades there is any pond at all! When I bought an old house in Florida, I inherited a couple of concrete-and-tile ponds that had been abandoned for ten years. There was nothing but sludge in them (24" deep) requiring a couple days of shoveling muck just to find the bottom. As far as your foot of silt providing a base for water lily roots, my suggestion is: Leave well enough alone. Not because you're likely to kill any plants, as I've found water lilies to be extremely tough (my koi sometimes pull lilies right out of their pots and I find their bulbs floating around, or if they sink, establishing roots among the river rocks lining the bottom). Cleaning the roots is a waste of time and downright counterproductive, as is "overcleaning" the rest of the pond, as a small amount of silt contains healthy bacteria that help convert organic waste. This will save you having to wait for a super-clean pond to go through all the starting-up cycles (green algae, etc) new ponds must go through before achieving a steady-state.

Disagree with not cleaning the sludge out, your not going to get it all with lily rhizomes down there, anyhow. While it does contain bacteria so does the rest of the pond as long as no draining and refilling, plus scrubbing of the liner and rocks is taking place, removing sludge isn’t going to cause green water. Not doing it is just postponing the inevitable of having 24” of sludge in there, which is going to be a major pita to clean.