Pickeral Weed

[Harriett]

I want to plant some in large pots and set them on the shelf in my main pond with the tops below the water level. The plants in my upper pond (irises, lizard's tail, and alligator flag), which serves as a vegie filter, are planted in pots full of rocks - no soil - and are doing fine and keeping the string algae in check. The water lilies in the main pond are planted in soil with sand on top.

I have to decide whether to plant the pickeral weed in rocks like the plants in my vegie filter, or in soil like the water lilies.

Any thoughts, or experience with this?

Thanks,
Harriett

 

[taherrmann4]

I had these and just wedged in between some rocks, or set a small rock on top until they rooted. Once they rooted they took over my creek, and small pool below my waterfall. Pulled them all out last spring. Can you get them in Florida, I thought they were considered a noxious weed down there that was taking over waterways?

 

[adavisus]

Pickerel is adaptive to any submerse position, it's a tough plant through hard freezes and hot sun. The first hard freeze will knock the foliage down, you might want to make it easy to reach to trim it. Wherever you plant it, the thick rhisome will slowly but surely dawdle out of the pot or position

Regards, andy
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[j.w]

I had those Pickerel Rushes and they were monsters in my pond too and multiplied and got so big and bulbous in their pots that I just got tired of having to deal w/ them and tossed them out a couple yrs ago. Aphids loved them too and I could not keep the suckers off them. The wind reeked havoc also. No more for me thank you!

 

[adavisus]

The lanceolata form can be a lot bigger (6' tall) and faster spreading than the cordata (2' tall), which is rather more sedate planted shallow rather than deep. Big diff between growing habit if its planted where fertility is lower...

Regards, andy

 

[j.w]

Wow I would hate to have the bigger one then cuz mine were only about 2 or 3' tall. I must admit tho I could have controlled them better if I'd divided them each yr. Don't need a plant that outgrows it's pot too fast and boy it was a bugger trying to pry them apart once you let them get entwined together in one pot! If you get them divide them often and hope you don't get aphids.

 

[Harriett]

Thanks for your replies.

I put some in my upper pond a few years ago and although the flowers were beautiful it crowded out everything else so I had to pull it out. Last year I planted some in dirt in a large shallow container next to my pond and kept it wet, but It hardly bloomed at all. The new growth coming up now looks very healthy, so I think I'll transplant it to large pots in the lower main pond. I guess I'll try some in rocks and some in soil and see what happens. (We do get an occasional freeze here in Tampa, but I don't think it will be an issue.)

 

[fishin4cars]

That's a plant that needs to be monitored and divided when needed. It's a nice plant and the blooms are really unique and quite pretty but they will take over if left unchecked. a couple of years ago I left one in a ond in about 10" of water, it split the pot and in two years grew to a clump that took five grown people to remove out. It got huge!

 

[adavisus]

There are white and pink varients which are much more sedate in growing habit.

I quite like the Lanceolata form that grows real big fast, its really quite elegant. It's fairly easy to put a knife through it to divide, where it grows out of the pot

Regards, andy

 

[JoaniePA]

Gee, I've had them here in the Philly area for 3 years now, and they are barely spreading at all. The plants take up about two square feet and I get maybe three spikes in the summer and that's it. The frogs tend to hang out in them for some reason.

 

[addy1]

lol, I planted a bunch of them and they didn't do anything for me either. Everything else grew great, but not those.

 

[taherrmann4]

Mine took over the area they were in, the water was only about 6-10" deep.

 

[fishin4cars]

this may be one of those plants that your on a border zone of where they will thrive and where they won't. This far south they are one of the first plants that start showing spring growth and don't die back until first freeze.
Andy I have seen the white and wasn't impressed but then again very few white flowers do a whole lot for me. Now the Pink sounds cool, I've never seen a pink and that sounds interesting.

 

[Harriett]

After reading your posts I've decided to plant them in rocks, since soil might make them too happy. I want them to be just happy enough to bloom beautifully!

Here in Florida they often fill shallow ditches, but unlike water hyacinths, they don't impede navigation, since they don't float on the surface or root in deep water.

 

[fishin4cars]

I would recommend trying to place them in some kind of pot if possible unless you have a very large area for it to spread. just to give you an example, I planted one single plant shoot last year in a cut off 55 gallon drum with a few other plants, by seasons end it had completely taken over the whole bottom of the drum, had caused the drum to start distorting it's shape and was already on it's way out of the control enviroment. If you place the plant in a stream or moving water it will grow even faster as this plant REALLY likes a flow of nutrients and will spread like wildfire in optimum situations. Just be prepared to divide and start over yearly,