Sticks don't make it go away and are useless in microponds which can fill up with blankweed. It's hard to get rid of. Barley straw /extract doesn't seem to be helping either.
It's the use of the sticks as opposed to the sticks themselves - using a stick to twiddle and then remove the blanket weed does work and can often be preferable to watching TV - it won't stop it re growing - only the natural balance and pond coverage will help to reduce it. The OP's query was about " a large fish pond " - a micro pond ( ? ) is a different matter entirely
Barley straw extract didn’t work for me (though I appreciate it isn’t actual straw).
I’ve been stick twiddling for weeks now, do it several times a week to keep the blanketweed at bay in my small pond. It is working pretty well, but I’m waiting for several oxygenating and floating pond plants to arrive from puddle plants, so I can give one last clean up before chucking them all in. It’s very true that the more you cover the surface with beneficial plants, the less the baddies will thrive, but sadly I couldn’t get hold of any plants until now, so the weed flourished.
Many of my older pond plants died off in the harsh winter we had, rather than floating back up from the bottom, which is a shame. Wonder if it was choked by the humongous, slimy blob of fluorescent blanket weed I managed to dredge up from the bottom of the pond?
Gross.
Still, the kittens found it fascinating and tried to eat it...
Tried the barley straw,much stick twiddling, probably 2/3 of the surface covered with plants, including water cress,in the end we got a UV FILTER, this time of the year,the old man is cleaning it out weekly
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The OP's query was about " a large fish pond " - a micro pond ( ? ) is a different matter entirely
I’ve been stick twiddling for weeks now, do it several times a week to keep the blanketweed at bay in my small pond.
It is working pretty well, but I’m waiting for several oxygenating and floating pond plants to arrive from puddle plants, so I can give one last clean up before chucking them all in.
It’s very true that the more you cover the surface with beneficial plants, the less the baddies will thrive, but sadly I couldn’t get hold of any plants until now, so the weed flourished.
Many of my older pond plants died off in the harsh winter we had, rather than floating back up from the bottom, which is a shame. Wonder if it was choked by the humongous, slimy blob of fluorescent blanket weed I managed to dredge up from the bottom of the pond?
Still, the kittens found it fascinating and tried to eat it...
Yes, I appreciate that.