Questions on planting Anacharis and Parrot Feathers

[Fishinapond]

I just got a shipment from ebay and I'm not sure what to do with it.

The Anacharis came as individual stalks. What can I use to hold it in bunches and weight it to keep on the bottom. And how many should go in each bunch?

The Parrots Feather came as bare root plants. Is it better to plant it or let it float?

Thanks!

 

[justDIY]

I'm not sure about parrots feather, never had that one myself,

Anacharis is used mainly as an oxygenator for ponds, and is grown floating on the surface.

You can plant anacharis bunches into a pot with a clay potting soil (Schultz Profile or plain cat litter)

It will grow roots quickly, but takes time to estabilsh itself as a rooted plant (takes at least a month!) ... after it's established, it grows new stalks up from the soil and the old ones eventually die off.

use a small rubberband (the kind for dental braces work well) to bunch three or four stalks together, and cram it about 1" to 1.5" into the soil. Picking off the leaves from the bottom inch or so helps, but it's not nessecary.

if you don't want to wait for it to establish itself as a rooted plant, you can rubberband small bunches to rocks and drop them in the pond ... then every few weeks, cut off the tops and add them to the existing bunch or start a new one.

 

[Guest]

Thew same technique can be used for parrots feather. I like to plant it like glmcell said, then let it grow up and out of the water, it will grow in bunches up to 6-8 inches above the water surface before becoming top-heavy and falling over. looks great either way. If you plant the PF in shallow water, it will do best there. I like the anacharis in deep water for long stems and lots of oxygenation.

 

[Fishinapond]

Thanks!! That seems to work great. Now... How about Water Hyacinth. I bought a bunch of it to cover the surface area and it keeps getting in my skimmer box, blocking the flow and causing my pump to cut out. NOT GOOD!!

Specifically what's the best way to keep it out of my skimmer box. I was thinking of making something like around public beaches with fishing line and styrofoam balls. Could the styrofoam cause trouble? Do they sell something like that?

Thanks again!!

 

[justDIY]

oh, so you mean like a floating fence sort of thing?

that might work ... dunno how it would look in a pond 8O

as long as you use real styrofoam and not that biodegradable stuff made from corn I think there wouldn't be any problems.

another idea would be the green plastic mesh that onions and lettuce sometimes comes in. you could stretch that across an area, and have it just breaking the surface of the water (using your fish line to keep it in place) ... might be a little less noticeable

 

[glstine]

I have seen floating nets at water garden shops to keep floating pants in place and to protect them from hungry fish. That could possibly help.

 

[neelie355]

how about a hola hoop. I personally find them distracting. I run a line of fishline accross the pond to prevent them from getting to the skimmer. As for the underwater plants, I rubberband them 6,8, stalks at a time and attatch them to a rock, weight, sinker. I use to use soil, but my koi would dig them up making a very dirty pond.