Duck weed

[Loopy]

Is it true that if duck weed completely covers your wildlife pond, it can suffocate the tadpoles?

I have oxygenating plants and plenty of snails in the pond and will be stocking it up soon with marginal plants round the edge.

I keep meaning to try a solar powered fountain as I understand that moving water will help keep the duckweed down.

[70007]

I think there is a distinct possibility that the pond weed may take too much oxygen out of the water and therefore suffocate fish or other creatures that live in it. However, I think algae is more likely to have that effect, and certainly a frozen pond will, as the ice prevents oxygen in the air from being absorbed by the surface water. A fountain should help keep oxygen levels high, but it does tend to disturb certain creatures that like still water, such as larvae of many insects.

I have almost completed a small pond in my garden. It is only about 8 feet in length, but it was hard work digging out all of the soil. However, the robins and dunnocks think it is marvellous. I have seen 3 robins in the garden at once during the last week, pecking at creatures disturbed by my efforts. I have never seen more than 2 at once, in 20 years of living here, and even that was only at breeding time. I wonder if they are brothers and sisters from this years brood and can tolerate each other at the moment.

I shall not put any fish in, but just wait and see what wild creatures discover this new home. I have placed a large flat stone at the edge of the pond just below water level in the hope that birds can drink or bathe from there, but the robins seem to prefer to drink from the steeper edges at the moment. It will take some time to get used to.

[barn owl]

i built my pond about 2 yrs back, its also about 8 feet , i dug it about 6 feet in the middle and gradually built it up on the sides, i purloined some lilys from the local canal and put in two water pumps one is on a concrete slide covered with stones and plants which has moss growing all over it now so it looks really natural you cannot see any concrete anymore, just a moss waterfall, the other pump i drilled a hole in the bottom of an old watering can made of metalsat it over the pond and it looks great. both are oxygenating the pond and keep it from icing up in winter.
i was amazed at the wildlife in the pond after only a few months, there are water skaters, dragon flies, snails, frogs and tadpoles, the frogs i witnessed crossing the lawn every night to go for a night out feeding and sure as eggs came home every morning, great various colours too. i have 21 fish in there and the heron i keep at bay by stringing wool strands over the pond, which works well. and whislt cleaning out a pump the other week there was even a leach in there, these things im sure mostly came from the canal lilys, and the birds drink and bath off the concrete waterfall. i never get duck weed at all and i reckon thats due to the pumps.or algae. so i suggest a pump and some water plants that will already be occupied by little pond life. having a still water pond i think wont work for fish or lots of other pond life, it will however encourage the worst kind of insects such as mosquitos.
good luck with your pond, its a wildlife haven and i reckoment it to all but think twice if you have small children.
regards owl.

[Nuthatch]

I've also got a garden pond which was introduced to my garden in May 2006. I intentionally don't have any fish as I wanted this to be purely a wildlife pond which is crescent shaped. Accordingly one side abuts the patio, whilst the main curve is bordered by grass. At the "peak" of each end is a beach area covered with stones which enables the frogs to come and go easily.

I too was amazed how quickly wildlife made it their home. Within a couple of months I'd noticed frogs and now currently have 10 leaving each evening for their meals etc. This year they spawned and I'm seeing baby frogs around the garden. I've deliberately let the grass grow long around the pond which provides cover.

I too get a small quanity of duckweed but I use a net to scoop this off the top of the water. I recently attended a talk about ponds, given by a local garden centre. The advice given about duckweed was remove it as soon as you can.

My biggest bugbear is blanket weed; I have a wildlife friendly treatment which is meant to kill it off but doesn't seem to make a great difference. I mostly use a bamboo can and "twizzle" it out.

House sparrows, green and goldfinches drink from the pond and a blackbird and starlings have even had a bath in the edges of the water :)

Good luck with your ponds and I hope they give you as much pleasure as mine has given me.

[Jenny]

Thank heavens, no duckweed here, though I did have a bit of a problem with it down south. Two solutions I found with the twizzle stick (already recommended) and, if the pond is of a suitable size - tench. Don't ask me why, but having tench (small ones and they didn't grow beyond pond capacity) were great - they seemed to like duckweed so keeping it down and they also weren't a pain with other wildlife.

I am finally able to get some help, so my pond is going to be re-done!. Some of the objectionable paving slabs will be retained, so I can have a path across what is a half bog to my bird feeding stations - currently tending to sink about 3 inches!! The max depth is just on 3 feet (blasting required otherwise!) but in our climate here should be enough to keep from totally freezing!

[70007]

I've also got a garden pond which was introduced to my garden in May 2006.

House sparrows, green and goldfinches drink from the pond and a blackbird and starlings have even had a bath in the edges of the water :)



Yes, mine is now coming up to its one month birthday and it is quite interesting to see how many more house sparrows I now get. They seem to follow each other to the edge of the pond and splash around in the shallow water. I think my earlier birdbath was a little too deep for them and was used mainly by blackbirds and starlings.

The water seems to be full of mosquito larvae, but I will take some out in a small sieve and my tropical fish will love them.:cool:

[Nuthatch]

Yes, mine is now coming up to its one month birthday and it is quite interesting to see how many more house sparrows I now get. They seem to follow each other to the edge of the pond and splash around in the shallow water. I think my earlier birdbath was a little too deep for them and was used mainly by blackbirds and starlings.

The water seems to be full of mosquito larvae, but I will take some out in a small sieve and my tropical fish will love them.:cool:

Hi 70007 - Glad to hear your pond is attracting your birds already - you never know you could have frogs soon!

[70007]

HOORAAAYY!!

I have just seen my first frog in the pond :D

It is only a baby, body about 1 inch long, but it is a start and judging by the number of tiny flies in the vicinity it should not be short of supplies.

I'd forgotten that oldies like myself could get so excited ;)

[Nuthatch]

HOORAAAYY!!

I have just seen my first frog in the pond :D

It is only a baby, body about 1 inch long, but it is a start and judging by the number of tiny flies in the vicinity it should not be short of supplies.

I'd forgotten that oldies like myself could get so excited ;)

Many congratulations and I'm so pleased for you.

Oh yes - golden oldies can get very excited; as I did when I saw a toad in my pond two days ago - a first for me. :D:D

[linda loo]

Is it true that if duck weed completely covers your wildlife pond, it can suffocate the tadpoles?

I have oxygenating plants and plenty of snails in the pond and will be stocking it up soon with marginal plants round the edge.

I keep meaning to try a solar powered fountain as I understand that moving water will help keep the duckweed down.
WE HAD APON BUT KEPT TAKING DUCK WEED OUT LEAVING ONE THIRD OF SURFACE COVERED NEVER NEEDED ANY PUMPS OR ANYTHING TO INHIBIT ALGAE

[Jenny]

Great 70007! Wish you luck! Lost mine again - mixture of freezing temperatures and then a drought for nearly three weeks! Ran out of water in the butts ..... :eek: :eek:

[70007]

Great 70007! Wish you luck! Lost mine again - mixture of freezing temperatures and then a drought for nearly three weeks! Ran out of water in the butts ..... :eek: :eek:

I've noticed that hoverflies seem to be drawn to leaves by the water. I wonder if their larvae live in water like dragonflies?

[Dillibags]

It is so fascinating having a pond :D I've wanted one for many years and finally got my wish early this year, it is always so interesting!

The birds found it very quickly, and nearly every day the sparrows come for a drink and a dust bath next to the pond!

Desperately hoping to see some dragon flies !!

I bought a solar powered oxygenator which works very well on the odd occasion we get some sun :cool:

I've been told that in a pond just one street away they have newts so hoping they might wander over to inspect mine!

[barn owl]

Hi Dilli,
well done on the pond, newts like eels will travel miles seeking fresh places and also the old grass snake hunts ponds out for dinner, dragon flys i reckon will arrive at some point, i get them here but they dont seem to stay long, having said that they did breed here 2 yrs ago. I never ever get a weed problem and thats great, maybe its the fish that keep it at bay ? i dont know really but its always clear. you can also introduce grass carp to your pond which are small and eat weed.
this year we have baby fish so they are breeding but i must be careful as the size of the pond determins how many fish it holds, but they seem happy enough, and if you have fish dont forget to put a mold cleaner in the pond as a disease can spread fast and kill them all.
but good luck with it, its exciting really to have another aspect in the garden.
regards owl.