My pond has become covered in blanket weed. I cannot rake it out. Initially because I had frog spawn and now I had tadpoles. I've also seen fish eggs on bits ive pulled out. (only a couple of fish in pond) I also have loads of newts.
I dont want the life thats in there to suffer but I'm not sure what to do. Just bought an oxygenator. Have a waterfall, a filter and a small bail of barley straw. What next?
Not all pond life can wander back in. Its something most websites are not discussing.
I've never used barley straw emjean so can't comment. However the presence of blanket weed usually means excess nutrients in the water. Do you use rain or tap water to top up? Try using rainwater as its much lower in nutrients and once plants such as lilies become established, they will starve the blanket weed
So right Fishy, last year, which was my ponds 1st full year, it had loads of blanket weed, I was forever twiddling it out with a stick. This year it's absolutely crystal clear, not a sign of it. It's definitely about getting the balance of the plants right. My underwater plants have grown on so that's the answer.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
An established wildlife pond was already in the garden when I moved here 4yeas ago.Its been great, lots of frogs,newts and dragonflies every year. There's spawn and larvea etc.now,but I'm concerned about the greatly increased amount of algae and other green ? stuff growing rapidly- I can't get on top of it. I use barley straw and twiddle it out with a stick but obviously it's not enough. Help! What do I do? What am I doing wrong? It's so bad I can't see through it in most parts...
We've got a small wildlife pond - we use Blagdon's Barley Straw Extract and Blagdon's Sludge Control as directed by the instructions, and it keeps the algae/blanket weed and sludge under control without harming the wildlife. You can get it via Amazon and some garden centres have it.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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I dont want the life thats in there to suffer but I'm not sure what to do. Just bought an oxygenator. Have a waterfall, a filter and a small bail of barley straw. What next?
Not all pond life can wander back in. Its something most websites are not discussing.
how much barley straw should be used for blanket weed in a patio pond with appx 3000 gals water?
I've never used barley straw emjean so can't comment. However the presence of blanket weed usually means excess nutrients in the water. Do you use rain or tap water to top up? Try using rainwater as its much lower in nutrients and once plants such as lilies become established, they will starve the blanket weed
So right Fishy, last year, which was my ponds 1st full year, it had loads of blanket weed, I was forever twiddling it out with a stick. This year it's absolutely crystal clear, not a sign of it. It's definitely about getting the balance of the plants right. My underwater plants have grown on so that's the answer.
We've got a small wildlife pond - we use Blagdon's Barley Straw Extract and Blagdon's Sludge Control as directed by the instructions, and it keeps the algae/blanket weed and sludge under control without harming the wildlife. You can get it via Amazon and some garden centres have it.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.