Puny Plants

[jkayden]

I added plants to my new 4,000(?) gal pond at the end of May. Their growth appears to be stunted. Lilies have tiny pads and yellow pretty quickly. Gamecock is about 18" tall (the two blades). Sweetflag is about 6". Taro is about 18". Pickerel Rush is about 6" also

The pH is a little high... maybe 8 ish. I have a bunch of fish (koi & shubunkin) and they feed often. Ecosystem seems healthy -- lots of critters, dragonflies, etc. There is a seemingly healthy carpet of algae on the rocks etc. There is (was) a fair amount of hair algae on the waterfall, but I think the 2 days without power recently killed it. ...and these pictures were taken when the power was out so the water isn't falling.

The gamecock, lilies, and Taro were planted in special super expensive pond soil with some mexican beach pebbles on top to keep the koi out. The Sweetflag and pickerel rush were planted in gravel. I initially used fertilizer with the fancy pond soil, but haven't kept that up. Figured there should be enough nutrients in the water.

Lilies are about 6" to 12" under water.

I'm a total noob to water gardening. We bought our house with a tiny 100 gal pond. I demo'ed that and built the new one. Added fish in the fall of last year. I've kept fish in aquariums my whole life, but this is my first time with a pond. Any advice would be great.

 

[AlyssaFish]

Welcome to water gardening! I hope you find it as wonderful and fulfilling as the rest of us!

Plants can be tricky critters. Here are some important things to consider:

Plants have different growth seasons. For example, some plants will grow more in fall and spring than they do in summer. By adding your plants in May, your plants will all essentially only have had the summer season to grow. Depending on the species, that might stop the plant from reaching its full potential this year.

Plants first establish root systems when they are transplanted--then worry about sending out leaves. Some plants are simply slower growers than others, and will take a long time to establish their root systems.

Plants can get "shock" from being transplanted and will often go through a recovery period. This is especially true if the conditions dramatically changed--such as moving a plant into a new type of soil. It can take months for the shock to wear off (and sometimes it doesn't and the plant dies), but when it does, the plant will grow like normal.

Lilies have small pads when the root system and tuber is still small. They put a lot of energy into beefing up the tuber in order to survive winter. Some lilies also just always have small pads (dwarf varieties). Additionally, lilies need a lot of fertilizing. They're considered "heavy feeders." They're best fertilized through aquatic fertilizer tabs or spikes pushed into the soil.

Too much or too little sunlight can affect a plant's growth. Water temperature also impacts it.

 

[jkayden]

Thanks AlyssaFish. I'll add some fertilizer to the lilies...see where that gets me. There is a huge ash tree over half of my pond. The pond gets full sun for about half the day though. That was probably important to specify.

 

[j.w]

@jkayden
Nice pond! Love all your neat rocks!

 

[BKHpondcritters]

In my experience, it takes pond plants a full growing season or two to really get established & take off. Once they do, you'll be most likely be pulling a lot of them like weeds on a regular basis in order to keep them in line, but until then...

Lilies need extra fertilization to perform their best, so we do use tabs every couple of weeks on those, but the marginal plants I use a 'tough love' approach & tell them to suck their nutrients out of the pond water, since that's their 'job'. Mine aren't in pots/baskets, though. I plant straight in the gravel on the shelves so their roots are unrestricted.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

Neat rocks! and pond

 

[AlyssaFish]

In my experience, it takes pond plants a full growing season or two to really get established & take off. Once they do, you'll be most likely be pulling a lot of them like weeds on a regular basis in order to keep them in line, but until then...

So true! My pond is new this year and I am already dreaming of next year! Only a small handful of my new plants are killing it--my water clover is a force to be reckoned with, and so is my valisnaria! Everything else, though, not so much!

 

[Jhn]

Agree, with @BKHpondcritters and @AlyssaFish it can take abit to get your plants to take off.

Will also say the taro May prefer to have the crown above the water and just get its feet wet. Taros/ elephant ears are ones that should grow quickly right away if they like where you put them.

Like bkh I don’t have any of my plants in pots even the lilies, exception is a large yellow flag iris and a thalia. Let the rest of them suck the nutrients out of the water.

 

[GBBUDD]

you just built a pond so you know what is in it some inert rocks. And Rubber, Not much for plants to get nutrients from. Look at a aquarium with neon rock as gravel and plastic plants its sterile nothing will grow well. As others have said it takes some time for mothet nature to bud up what she needs in our ponds. It took me two years to get to the point I hoped and expected. Its all about patience.

 

[jkayden]

Thanks for everyone's advice. I've added a couple tabs of fertilizer to the one very sad lily on Saturday... not seeing anything new yet, but I assume it will take a few more days. I'll try raising the taro out of the water a little more.

Speaking of the taro--it seems to have an offshoot coming out. Should that be in the gravel/soil? The pot is too small to contain it at this point. The offshoot is coming up and out of the pot.

...and for fun, here's a picture of my pond that I took this morning. I have to cap the wall on the left and do some exterior landscaping, but it is nearly done after almost a year. Rocks are heavy.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Very nice! and, yes, taro does that. You can separate the little offshoot & pot it up, or just leave it alone. It won't mind hanging there, off in the water, out of the basket.