Fall

Sadly the season is over for this year and its time to prepare the plants for dormancy.

As soon as the plants start to get brown you will need to cut the leaves back and depending on what part of the country you’re in you will have to move them from where they have been growing during the warmer months.

 

 

1 Marginal plants: cut the plant down to about 2” to 3” from the rim of the pot. and place them in the deepest part of the pond.

 

2 Hardy water lilies: cut all but 3 or 4 new leave and place them in the deepest part of the pond.

 

3 Warmer regions: If your pond water just gets cold or if you only get a thin layer of ice on the pond, as long as your plant’s roots do not get frozen you don’t have to put them in the deeper part of the pond or remove them from the pond.

 

4 Discard everything that you cut off the plants, if possible burn it all, even the leaves and stems that might just be brown and not dried up yet.  I say this because there may be bugs and other pests that could be hibernating or they could have laid their eggs on those old leaves, and on the spring they could hatch or wake up in your pond!  By removing the leaves and other dead material it helps create a healthier pond environment.

 

5 When the leaves from the water lilies and marginal plants in the pond start to turn brown or die, or  when the leaves from trees and bushes around your pond fall into the pond and start to decompose, this creates ammonia.  Ammonia causes gases and fumes which may harm fish and other aquatic life in your pond.  These decomposing plants will also cause the water to turn brown.

 

6 If you live in an area where the surface of the pond freezes solid all the way around to where there are no openings, you should put a dried up log in the water. Most any kind of wood is fine as long as it will float, don’t use red wood it is harmful to Koi.  The reason I suggest a dried up log is because a dried log will be brown, which will absorb the sun during the day and slowly release the heat it absorbed, during the night, which will create an area around the log that doesn’t freeze, and the fumes and gases can escape through this unfrozen area.  This works for me here in zone 5 where some winters are worse than others, sometimes my ponds freeze solid all the way around, and where I need to I use logs from my cottonwood or elm tree, in a few days the sun always defrosts the ice around the log first.

 

 

7 So you are thinking you don’t want to put a log in your pond, or maybe you don’t have any trees that you can get a log from, there is another method you can try. Take a one gallon water jug and fill it with hot water to about 3 inches from the top.  Then place the jug on top of the ice, you may have to do this several times until the ice melts and the jug is floating on the water. Then remove the jug once there is a hole in the ice and this will provide a place for the gases and fumes to be released and for the fish to get oxygen. Don’t leave the jug in the hole once it is melted through, because it could freeze around the jug and that will cause a bigger problem.