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November 1, 2007

Fall Maintenance on Your Pond

We've recently experienced a record breaking hot and dry summer but fall is quickly on its way. We are already experiencing crisp cool nights followed by cobalt-blue skies during the day. This also means that you may need to do some fall maintenance on your pond to get it ready for winter. A little maintenance now will go a long way and keep your pond healthy and ready for spring.

As the temperatures begin to drop, the pond's inhabitants begin preparing for winter. The hardy water lilies will bloom less and less and quit replacing spent leaves. The hardy marginal plants will go through a similar process and begin storing starches for the long winter months. Do not fertilize these plants again until the spring. Prune back their folilage to a couple of inches above the water level. Tropical plants will continue blooming until the first frost.

To avoid getting tea-colored pond water during the fall and winter months, remove dead leaves from the pond. A good way to remove them is with a long-handled net. If your pond has a skimmer you may want to watch it more closely since it may fill more quickly with leaves and need cleaning more often. If your pond is under trees that drop leaves during the fall months, you may want to purchase a pond net to catch the leaves. The nets come in a variety of sizes, are easy to install and are an inexpensive way to help keep leaves out of your pond. If you keep the leaves out in the fall it will make the start-up and maintenance of your pond in the spring easier. If the leaves get the better of you and you want to remove the tea stain from your water, you can use activated charcoal . You will need approximately five pounds of activated charcoal per 1,000 gallons of pond water. This will treat the pond for up to three months.

Fall is also a time to start watching the water temperature of your pond. When the temperature reaches 50-degrees F that means it is time to completely stop feeding your fish. You may have overfed your fish a few times (or several) during the summer, but doing that during the fall and winter months is deadly for your fish. Since fish are cold-blooded, their metabolism naturally slows as the water temperature drops. When the fish slow down, so does their digestive system which means they will not be able to process the fish food given them.

Unlike pond owners who live in the colder climates, the southern pond owner can enjoy their pond and running waterfall year round. In the event we had a huge ice or snow storm, it usually does not last long enough to completely freeze our waterfalls. But there are items available on the market to help keep the pond healthy if it were to freeze over and those include air pumps, bubblers and floating heaters. These will help the pond stay healthy by promoting the exchange of harmful gases from the pond into the environment. During the summer, decaying gases are easily exchanged into the atmosphere whereas in a pond completely frozen by ice the gases may not be able to escape.

With the cooler temperatures and less threat of bugs, the fall months offer a great opportunity to spend by your pond. So break out the sweaters and blankets, hot chocolate and fire-pits and invite some friends over for some relaxation by your pond. Enjoy!

© 2007 Vought Water Gardens, P.O. Box 184, Decatur, AL 35602