Fall clean out...

[Terri]

Oy! What a job! This came sooner than expected as someone with a kind heart wanted the "mutated" koi in the backyard water garden and came to get them yesterday. I think she was fearful that I wouldn't wait and they would end up as plant food... :grin:

I figured I would just drain the little pond a bit and net the koi out (3 total), yeah right! LOL Too many plants in the way! Next thing I know I'm repotting/dividing plants and chucking w.hyacinth. and vac'ing the shelf... found one of the trapdoor snails, thought he was a small rock LOL


And the goldfish babies,... OH MY LORD! I knew there were quite a few but this pond is FULL of less than 1", 1" and 2" goldfish. About 25% are shubbies(calico), the rest are comets in differing stages of colour development.

Once the pond was about 12" deep with water I netted the larger fish,.. the 3 koi going to a new home and my wakin, tossed them into a 150gal stock tank with a bubbler. The baby fish I left except a few that were nuts enough to be netted with the big guys. I can't believe how "dirty" this pond was! I also can't believe how well the fish are doing in this dirty pond :-? . I had been talked out of adding the filter back in spring, well next spring I will be more stubborn at that!! I've set up a temp filter to help get some of the muck out of the bottom until I completely clean this pond out in another two weeks to bring the baby shubbies indoors.

I have a water poppy and a clover in there,... any ideas as to how I can successfully over winter these tropicals?

[BonnieIN]

Terri I feel your pain as far as the GF babies! I've tried to keep the GF in their own seperate pond but eggs went thru the pump and into the upper pond. Now I've got a zillion of GF to try to net out !

As far as the plants, don't you have a very good friend that has a Greenhouse! :wink:

[Jackie Ramo]

Terri you are not going to be able to move around the fish house with all those tanks and fish!!! :frisbee:

I've not had much luck in overwintering tropicals but maybe Bonnie will pop in and give advice.

[Terri]

Well, I found a couple of articles about wintering the poppy.... and a few other plants http://gardenline.usask.ca/yards/overwint.html and http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?Code=B812 I am going to try with a shallow bowl and keep it in my kitchen window. If that seems to be failing I will rig something up and put the poppy into my 100gal aquarium. I have 3 papyrus I should get indoors too. I kept on inside all summer and it's doing very well in front of my kitchen window. I am going to try the same technic for the water poppy with the clover.
Now this is one reason I do not like keeping Tropical water plants.... I hate the winter work LOL :grin:

I really need to get in gear,... those goldfish are still sitting outside in the 150 stock tank and several babies still in the water garden. Ian and I have been (slowly) cleaning out an area in the fish house for the stock tank. I do believe I will have to get this done by the end of this coming weekend as the temps are dipping quite low over night.... just wish it would stop raining!! :roll:

[Busy B]

So now you've got the rain..

My lilies are trying to send up new pads in the ghouse but I haven't turned the heat up yet..last night we had the hard freeze...might help to zap out the population of baby mosquitoes. We've had so much rain the last month or so that another batch hatched. Maybe next year we'll be spared from them.

I don't have any tropicals to speak of but finally tried to sprout some lotus from seed. Their swelling but no shoots. Guess I'll throw them in with the lilies and see if anything happens.

[Jackie Ramo]

I'd bette go and pull that floating heart.. thought it was hardy... planted in the pond :frisbee:

[Gerard]

Hi every one


Little little rubishes I have been hoping for a water lilly plant for the whole winter, summer is coming in and i got the plant i wanted filled all little nooks and crannys with pebbles so the fish wouldnt get to the roots(As suggested by Garden centre) put plant in water not even 1 week later all the leaves and stems have been broken all the pebbles have been tossed out the pot and the roots are bare what can i do i would like to !bonk !bonk them till they stop but that would be a little rough, i have moved the bare pot with no leaves only water lilly stubs into my bio filter AWAY FROM THE FISH but i would prefer it in the main pond any suggestions


Gerard

[Terri]

Hi Gerald, the easiest way to keep your lily safe is "away" from the fish, but if you want it in your main pond then you can construct a "cage". Consist of two hoops(one slightly larger than the diameter of the lily pot/one 3x the diameter of the lily pot) and some pond netting. While it is not necessary that the small hoop float the larger hoop needs to(something like a swimming pool noodle or a hola-hoop).
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Sort of will look like that above. You attach the netting to both hoops(can you sew?) you want the netting to be snug but still allow for some movement. After complete you place your lily inside, if you've also covered the base hoop with netting this will hold the lily cage in place.

Not great at giving directions so I hope you get the idea. :grin:

FYI large koi, if they so desire, will knock this about to get to the lily,... they love lily roots!

[Peg]

Hi Gerard

I have the same trouble with my plants and Koi. I found a good way to fix it. I make screen pots. I have sent an attachment. It is in MS Word. hope it works. If not let me know and I'll try to send it in a differant format. Hope this helps

[Peg]

Hi Gerard,
i see the attachment did not go through. Here is my e-mail if you or anyone would like the directions for the sreen pots.
peggylee0@rogers.com

[Jackie Ramo]

If you want to send the instructions to me I'll will see if I can get them posted here on the board. Sounds interesting.

ramo203@rogers.com

BTW I find feeding veggies and fruit to the koi makes them leave the lilies alone, but I do admit that this morning there were several lily leaves in the skimmer. I think the big guys are hungry.

[marla]

No Fair, I don't have any lilly leaves yet!!!! The horsetails and rushes, are greening up and I'm seeing cattails,and iris starting. Of course it was snowing and raining today.