Pond in the foothills

[Big Lou]

Cathy gets home around 5:30. Only time she could see the lily open was on the weekend.

 

[addy1]

That's a possibility.
I'll transfer it to a pail with clay tomorrow.
Don't have kitty litter, I'll just use the clay here around the yard I guess.

Did you put any drain holes in the oil pans you used?

We are home again, everything has gone crazy even the lilies, I need to cut off all the dead buds and leaves. Pond water was up to 84 now 72 since we are 15 degrees below normal, i.e. 54 this am.

No drain holes, solid oil pans, I like to keep the roots contained in the pan, by end of summer they are escaping without any help from me giving them holes.

 

[MitchM]

Hi Mitch. I am in Alberta too. It took my lilies forever to get going this year. Some of them I have had for years. I had one that I though was done for. Everything is finally taking off and I have my first bloom peaking thru the surface today. Should be another day or so for it to open. Even the lilies that overwintered locally at my favorite "pond" store were poor performers until recently. Our winter was very long this past year and we didn't get favorable growing weather till late.

Hey rodsboys, welcome to the forum.
This is my first lily so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Thanks all, my water temperature is around 66F, so it sounds like it's a temperature issue for now.
I haven't potted it up yet, will get to that soon hopefully.

.

 

[ZmanArt007]

You've got a really nice looking pond The cows are nice and the mountain lion is incredible .

Yes you need the holes so the excess water can drain out in case you over water it.

How do you overwater a submerged water lily?

 

[MitchM]

Thanks Zman

I found about 200 baby fish today. 2 schools of about 100 each.
It will be interesting to see how big they get before winter and how many survive our 6 months of ice cover.

.

 

[j.w]

What kind of fish are they Mitch?

 

[MitchM]

Pretty sure they're goldfish, jw.
I can't imagine the Ruby Red minnows are that prolific already.

 

[j.w]

Well that is a heck of a lot of goldfish to make it through the egg hatching and survive all those hungry mouths! You must have lots of good hiding places. I usually only have a few hatch and survive.

 

[MitchM]

I was out trying to look at what kind of fish they were and I found 3 additional schools.

The big goldfish will swim by them, but leave them alone.

.

 

[addy1]

My gold fish don't seem to school that much but the rosey's do, so maybe they are minnows.

 

[MitchM]

You're probably right addy, as usual.

Minnows they are, then.
It will be interesting to see if any predator populations increase as a result of this population explosion.
I'm thinking maybe dragonfly larvae or those dastardly backswimmers.....

.

 

[MitchM]

Yep, I was right.
Watched a backswimmer going after the minnows...
Visibility in my pond is only 1 1/2 feet so I don't know if he caught one, but it's only a matter of time.

.

 

[Fishylove]

Yep, I was right.
Watched a backswimmer going after the minnows...
Visibility in my pond is only 1 1/2 feet so I don't know if he caught one, but it's only a matter of time.

.

Wow are those things that devilish?! This is the first year we've had dragonflies stay around and lay eggs or whatever it is they do.

 

[addy1]

Well if you look at this way, they only get the weak, slow fish. Survival of the fittest. We have a bunch of dragon flies, back swimmers, etc, and a ton of fry. So some survive some die, if all lived it would be a nightmare of fish overload.

 

[Fishylove]

This is true