Water Lettuce to stop pea soup

[DrDave]

I just got this today from a person who used my advice on Water Lettuce. It is nice to get feedback, so I thought I would share. This person was a sceptic before using it.

Hello Dr Dave.

I'm pleased to say that the Water Lettuce proved to be a great success last summer.

Thanks to your advice to be patient, both green water algae and blanket weed disappeared in a matter of weeks.
I was actually able to turn off my Uv ! - so many thanks for that.

I was wondering about the progress of your 2010 rebuild with plastic netting.
Did you need to make any modifications ?
I know you mentioned that you could add tubes between the netting to increase the area, and I wondered if you'd found this to be necessary ?

 

[j.w]

I wish it would grow here in my pond like I have said before. I've never had it but it's too cool here for it I'm thinking.....boo hoo

 

[vertigo72]

Id love to have some, but its also not growing in my pond. Neither water lettuce nor hyacinths. Dont know what it is they dont like, they get partial sun, temperature is ample now, they are shielded from my koi. I even put two of each in a bowl of pond water in my greenhouse, and they just witter away slowly.

I did read that water lettuce going yellow is a sign of insufficient nutritions in the water, but the leaves are not turning yellow, they are turning in to mush and not enough nutritions seems kinda dubious anyway, seeing how much foam my fractionator makes. I even added some of that foam extract to the bowl in the geenhouse, to no avail. OTOH, I am reading zero nitrates on my test kit, and Im not having any kind of algae (yet), so perhaps my iris are doing too well?

The only floaters doing well is the duckweed in my iris bog.

 

[taherrmann4]

Both my water lettuce and hyacinths were in my pond for about 5 weeks before they started to do anything then in the past two weeks they have really just taken off, probably bc of the weather getting very hot and humid the last two weeks. If you have koi they will eat the tender roots on the lettuce so you may need to build one of those floating planter rings that Koiguy has instructions on.

Dr Dave: Is there a certain number of water lettuce plants per sq ft recommendation out there?

 

[j.w]

I'm thinking it must be the heat they need and we are just not hot enough here for them and if we do ever get any heat it only last for a couple months if we are lucky. Maybe if I put them in the pond when temps were up there I could get maybe a month of growth before fall kicked in

 

[DrDave]

Both my water lettuce and hyacinths were in my pond for about 5 weeks before they started to do anything then in the past two weeks they have really just taken off, probably bc of the weather getting very hot and humid the last two weeks. If you have koi they will eat the tender roots on the lettuce so you may need to build one of those floating planter rings that Koiguy has instructions on.

Dr Dave: Is there a certain number of water lettuce plants per sq ft recommendation out there?

Water lettuce is anywhere from 1" to 14" in diameter. Where you have fish that like to eat them, try this:

 

[mouseams]

Water lettuce never did well here until near the end of summer. That and the hyacinth like warm days and some sunlight. I looked in my bog filter setup today of my watercress and the roots are solid! Two cheap bunches from the supermarket filled a 3' round container. Going to start pinching back now. JW, try the watercress if you haven't yet. I am much further north than you and it is thriving. I think it will do very well in a floating ring. Grows roots quickly. Pond has stayed clearer this year than ever before and I have a larger fish load than in the previous two years. Just had to go through the spring thing, then all was right in the pond.

 

[fishin4cars]

Water lettuce is anywhere from 1" to 14" in diameter. Where you have fish that like to eat them, try this:

What is the netting you used and where would you find it? very cool idea, not only for plant protection, but for fry to hide in or even a isolation tray to put a fish in for observation and photos. I see several reasons that one of those would come in handy.

 

[j.w]

DrDave I like that big plant container..........it looks huge!

Amber I never did get any water cress yet. The only store that had it here the stuff was in wilty bad shape so I was waiting til they got a new shipment in and then I just never got around to it. If I put it in a floating ring do you think I should put it close to flowing water cuz I've heard that suggestion or does yours do well in calm water?

 

[DrDave]

Larkin
It is the same fencing material that can be used in the Doc Bio Filter. I buy it and the thinwall PVC at Home Depot. It does provide a safe haven for smaller fry when they are still vulnerable to a quick snack.

JW
It is about 18" x 30" and maybe 5" deep. I Grow the WL primarily in my upper pond and there it is all over the place. I like to have some shade cover for the breeder koi, hence the WL Corral. Up till a few days ago, I was raising Duckweed/Azolla in it.

 

[koiguy1969]

its the same stuff i use on my floating plant 'rings' its hardware fencing by Tenax..Lowes carries it as well........

 

[fishin4cars]

I haven't seen it at ours, that would look better than chicken wire on my predator covers too, I THINK???? But I'll look again, got a few things I would like to try making with some of that.

 

[adavisus]

Zero nitrates (plant food) = no algae, how can water lettuce or hyacinth thrive, lol

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[vertigo72]

Zero nitrates (plant food) = no algae, how can water lettuce or hyacinth thrive, lol

Yeah, and its true I dont have any serious amounts of algae, but TBH I should test it again (I lent my nitrate testkit to a friend) as I havent tested it since I started getting foam on my pond and my foam fractionator has been producing buckets full of foam and dark green/brown stuff, which I think points to more than enough nutritients in the water. Perhaps not the right kind for lettuce or hyacinths, Im not sure. My iris and other plants are also doing rather well, while the lettuce I have in my green house in pond water and being fed "foam" and its still barely surviving.

My temperatures are way up now, water is nearly 20C in the pond and outside it gets to 30C at the moment, so thats not it; Im gonna blame the salt (ca 0.15%) I added. Ill try putting them in tap water instead of pond water, see if that helps.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

It was my understanding, at least for hyacinths, that they need a ton of sunlight to thrive? When I tried to grow some indoors one Winter, I had the temperature, an airstone, and the water was refilled with old water from our fishtanks. However the light I had was a halogen bulb, and the plants just slowly died off. This year I plan on doing the same setup, but using some 6500k bulbs that our aquarium plants thrive on.