Floating pots

[SharonA]

Has anyone made a floating pot for plant? My pond doesn’t have shelves and I need more plants to help with algae.

 

[Lisak1]

There have been DIY floating islands featured on the forum. Pool noodles and screening material, or pieces of foam insulation with holes cut in for the plants both come to mind. Let me see if I can find some examples! I'll be back!

 

[Lisak1]

Here's a few different ideas from YouTube using different materials:

 

[brokensword]

I got kinda fancy with my attempt to protect water hyacinth, water lettuce and water lilies from being eaten. I used pvc pipe, covered with pool noodle foam, then wrapped with shrink wrap plastic, then painted. The netting was plastic chicken wire, which I first attached to my pvc frame. I didn't like the idea of waiting for my plants to overgrow and hide the floating ring, so I made my foam look like branches. This helped keep any koi from actually slipping over the ring (of which I'd heard stories). The pic below shows 3 such baskets. The larger, heart-shaped one is approx 6' x 6' and is one large net holding 7 water lilies. The other two are shallow baskets lined with fiberglas screen so even fry couldn't get past. They worked fine and allowed the plants to filter the water column without fish nibbling away the roots. This year, for the water lilies, I"m trying the mrsclem way and using screen over the pots. The baskets I made took up too much of the visual space, so just experimenting this year. Anyway, just an idea or two;

 

[GBBUDD]

My floating island was a tree stump turned upside down. Made for a great planting area for moss and carnivores

 

[jmajid]

We had some floating planters surrounded by netting, both fine net and the more coarse square plastic netting, but found that the koi would nibble at the roots and also we found that the water flow to the plants was being impeded by the netting so then we had gunk/other debris just cling to the netting and cause more issues than was worth it.
I have seen someone on YT create a PVC frame with paracord as a basic net of sorts and then they hung underlayment which was zip tied to the frame. Holes drilled in the bottom to make it sink and then he used his gravel to keep it in place, but I am sure you can find a different way to keep it in place...
See this link - at around 18:38 he shows how to make the frame.
I have not made this yet...

 

[Susan Barlow Holmes]

Has anyone made a floating pot for plant? My pond doesn’t have shelves and I need more plants to help with algae.

I made a few floating planters by sewing shadecloth/fiberglass screen onto a hulahoop. I then cut a whole into the center were I put a floating basket with iris and a few other plants, bare root. On the surrounding part, I put water hyacinths. I also use plant stands with pots just above the water level for pickerel and other plants. I have yet to figure out how to have water lilies with koi. They are only in the goldfish pond.

You can also use water pipe insulation (kind of like pool noodles) but they are already split down the center, on a floating basket. Don’t make them heavy though or they will sink.

 

[SharonA]

Here's a few different ideas from YouTube using different materials:

Neat ideas

 

[addy1]

i made a floating island out of that 1 inch insulation board, everything grew great. I had to get rid of it since the herons used it as a way to fish.