weeds and reed in a pool - how to get rid of it

[sweatalot]

we've got a klong ( ca. 10 X 6 m) close to our house. It is full of weeds and reed.

We would like to have a nice pool (no plan to swim, the dogs probably will, as they do now)

 

The Thai neigbours and family recommend poison.

 

I don't have a better idea, too, so probably will use posion.

Every idea which one can be used? It should be effective and safe and disappear soon. 

Any idea for another way?

[CLW]

we've got a klong ( ca. 10 X 6 m) close to our house. It is full of weeds and reed.
We would like to have a nice pool (no plan to swim, the dogs probably will, as they do now)
 
The Thai neigbours and family recommend poison.
 
I don't have a better idea, too, so probably will use posion.
Every idea which one can be used? It should be effective and safe and disappear soon. 
Any idea for another way?

What do you mean by pool? It sounds more like a pond. Klong is the Thai word for canal AFAIK.
What is the later purpose of the pond?

Without knowing the details, excavation is the better alternative in my opinion.

[Crossy]

Once you have a dead pond, no plants, no fish what do you intended doing? And you probably want to keep the dogs out of it too.

 

Physical removal of the overgrowth either by hand or with a small machine (backhoe) is the way forwards. Maybe reinforce the banks where your dogs go in and out, plant up around the margins with suitable green stuff. Bung a few fish in it and you're good to go.

 

All sorts of life will move in very rapidly, frogs, snakes to eat the frogs, even water fowl.

 

Any pond here which isn't concrete is going to need maintenance to keep the unwanted plant life down.

 

[sweatalot]

6 minutes ago, CLW said:

What do you mean by pool? It sounds more like a pond. Klong is the Thai word for canal AFAIK.
What is the later purpose of the pond?

Without knowing the details, excavation is the better alternative in my opinion.

yes, pond would be the better word. Now  it is just a ditch half full of water. we had a backhoe there a few years ago to make it deeper - the weeds disappeared for some time -but now they are all back.  We don't want the backhoe again

the last time they removed more than 100 trucks (I guess about 5 tons each) full of soil. 

The purpose for the pond now is to look nice in front of our new built house close to it. Probably some fish in it and may be some  nice plants.

[55Jay]

Back pond at our first house became over-grown, and to my chagrin, the MIL put in those flowering lily pads saying "just a few wont hurt, they look so nice". 

 

A few of the brothers spent a couple of days in my cheap, plastic boat cleaning all that stuff out.  You could probably hire a couple guys to do it for you and/or use heavier equipment as suggested. 

[sweatalot]

about the backhoe. I am searching if I can find a pic how it looks now

[Crossy]

17 minutes ago, 55Jay said:

A few of the brothers spent a couple of days in my cheap, plastic boat cleaning all that stuff out.  You could probably hire a couple guys to do it for you ...

If it's not too far gone this could be the solution.

 

Whatever happens you will need to maintain it regularly, taking out any plants you don't want.

 

EDIT If you have space geese look nice and can help keep the growth down. They also lay delicious eggs (make sure you get a pair not just two). Ah, and they make great assistants for your guard dogs.

 

[sweatalot]

that's the way it looked 5 years ago. much more vegetation now

[Crossy]

2 minutes ago, sweatalot said:

that's the way it looked 5 years ago. much more vegetation now

Looks good, all you have to do is get it back like that and don't let it get away from you again ?

 

[sweatalot]

32 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Once you have a dead pond, no plants, no fish what do you intended doing? And you probably want to keep the dogs out of it too.

that's the point of my question - I wonder if the poison will deteriorate after some time so that the pond will not remain dead. Our Thai neighbours claim the poison will go away after one week. Brother in law made his fish pool deeper used poison and grew fish in the pool. Vegetation did not come back

[sweatalot]

1 minute ago, Crossy said:

Looks good, all you have to do is get it back like that and don't let it get away from you again ?

 

but you can hardly see the water anymore because of the plants

[Crossy]

1 minute ago, sweatalot said:

but you can hardly see the water anymore because of the plants

Exactly, you have to get the plants out, then keep them out by constant maintenance. 

 

Creatures can help you, geese, maybe ducks and fish by eating a lot of the stuff that starts growing. It's never going to be clear like a koi pond, so don't put fancy fish in there, tilapia are cheap, breed fast, eat plants and are good eating when they get big enough.

 

You need to get an ecosystem going and then you should just need to help it along once or twice a month (you will likely need a boat).

 

What you will never be able to do is just leave it alone, as you've discovered.

 

 

[55Jay]

24 minutes ago, sweatalot said:

about the backhoe. I am searching if I can find a pic how it looks now

Looks like a really nice spot!  ?

[Crossy]

Don't forget, if you do kill off the plant life with chemicals, you are still going to have the haul the dead stuff out out by hand (or it will smell really bad really quickly). So haul it out by hand anyway without killing your pond.

 

[Thian]

You buy a nice hippo, make it your pet (hippo's eat plants)...post it in thai newspapers, start selling tickets and reservations for 5 times ticketprice....visitors will come every day, after 6 weeks chinese grouptours come to see, you get rich, build a new home next to this one and hire staff to handle the tourists.

 

 

[jak2002003]

Muscovy ducks are really good at eating all the vegetation in a pond.  They will swim about and much down all the green stuff in a few weeks.  

 

They also give you delicious eggs, keeps pest numbers down, are delicious themselves when they get big, and are interesting to watch and have about.

 

We had a pond full of lotus and floating weeds.  Could not see the water surface.  I got only 6 ducks and in less than a month the water surface was totally clear of vegetation.  

 

Geese will usually not eat much of the aquatic vegetation.  They like to graze on the grass outside the pond (in my experience).

 

 

[Crossy]

As you can see from the replies, your "decorative" pond can provide a load of really healthy food as well as looking nice (provided you like eating eggs, duck and fish).

 

The more nutrients you can extract from it (in the form of stuff you eat) the less actual maintenance you will need to do.

[Rimmer]

We have a big pond, it gets overgrown with lilies and reeds I have found the only way is to send wife and young sister in there to clear it out manually.

[Rimmer]

And I have to say they do a magnificent job 

[sweatalot]

Great ideas, thank you all,  please don't stop to let more come. 

I start getting away from the chemical idea, I never liked it, but still I do not exclude it. The backhoe was about 15000 Baht last time - might be useful again. Geese and other birds are not possible unfortunately - our big dogs would enjoy them  for lunch. But I am looking for ads regarding hippos ? What about big catfish?

[Esso49]

1 hour ago, sweatalot said:

Great ideas, thank you all,  please don't stop to let more come. 

I start getting away from the chemical idea, I never liked it, but still I do not exclude it. The backhoe was about 15000 Baht last time - might be useful again. Geese and other birds are not possible unfortunately - our big dogs would enjoy them  for lunch. But I am looking for ads regarding hippos ? What about big catfish?

Doubt your dog would get the better of a goose.

[drtreelove]

Interesting suggestions, - Hippo?  But I'm sure you are serious and also interested in practical and cost effective vegetation management.  If you can find an effective biodegradable herbicide it would be less of an issue for environmental contamination and much cheaper than a big labor or equipment project, plus disposal. This type of herbicide won't be nearly as effective or translocate into the root systems for a complete kill, or suppress regrowth like a systemic chemical herbicide would, like RoundUP.  

 

There are organic program compatible, biodegradable herbicides available in the US, but haven't tried to find these yet in Thailand. Maybe other  members will recognize the active ingredients from the products mentioned in the linked article, if they have seen and used them.  Vinegar (acetic acid) may be the most available of these I believe.  I don't know if Wood Vinegar would do it, but you can get that and a hand held pump up garden sprayer at Home Pro. 

 

And Crossy's observation is so true, you kill the vegetation, now what?  Other than physical removal, an EM product (effective microorganisms) may help decompose the residual dead growth and clean the water. 

 

http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6498

[Crossy]

20 hours ago, sweatalot said:

Geese and other birds are not possible unfortunately - our big dogs would enjoy them  for lunch.

Dogs can be trained to leave the other pets alone without compromising their guarding ability.

 

[worgeordie]

By poison do you mean algicide ?,that would kill all the plants

in the water but you would have to remove the dead plants as

they will rot in the water and make a smelly mess, once cleared

of dead plants you could put fish in,but without some plants

in the water, it will turn green.

regards worgeordie

[jak2002003]

28 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Dogs can be trained to leave the other pets alone without compromising their guarding ability.

 

Very true.  I always train my dogs never to kill anything.. or chase anything.. because I have chickens and ducks and other pets.

 

The 2 dogs I have now walk about with the chicken flock and act as their protection... and keep cats away from my smaller birds too.

 

OP.. Maybe rent a couple of Buffalo for a week...they will eat all the greenery and deepen the pond when they go for a mud bath.  

[drtreelove]

2 hours ago, worgeordie said:

By poison do you mean algicide ?,that would kill all the plants

in the water but you would have to remove the dead plants as

they will rot in the water and make a smelly mess, once cleared

of dead plants you could put fish in,but without some plants

in the water, it will turn green.

regards worgeordie

Have you used the authentic Japanese technology based EM products..  We have a little water fountain in our garden and I was putting off cleaning it because I thought I would have to net out the fish, drain the water and scrub it.  It was getting ridiculous, recirculating pump straining from moving thick green gunk and the sides were thick with algae.  I had picked up a liter of EM when I was buying some organic fertilizer components, so I put some EM in the water fountain and within a few days the algae was gone, yes gone, and the water was clear, I could see the bottom for the first time. The fish were energized, brighter colors, hungry and pregnant. 

The Japanese/Thai company that makes it here in Samut Prakan, contracts for water management at wastewater treatment plants, fish and shrimp farms. They say it clears the water, eliminates odors and pathogens that cause shrimp and fish diseases.  They also use it in their "bokashi" organic fertilizer product. 

 

[kickstart]

On 9/1/2018 at 6:04 PM, sweatalot said:

Great ideas, thank you all,  please don't stop to let more come. 

I start getting away from the chemical idea, I never liked it, but still I do not exclude it. The backhoe was about 15000 Baht last time - might be useful again. Geese and other birds are not possible unfortunately - our big dogs would enjoy them  for lunch. But I am looking for ads regarding hippos ? What about big catfish?

Catfish, Blar-Dok,or Blar Chon ,are bottom feeders, that is they live at the bottom of ponds /rivers etc , they will not eat any plants

As has been said Nile Tilapia, Blar- Nin and Blar Tar-Pee -en( whatever they are in English ), will eat vegetation in the pond.

[drtreelove]

18 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

Very true.  I always train my dogs never to kill anything.. or chase anything.. because I have chickens and ducks and other pets.

 

The 2 dogs I have now walk about with the chicken flock and act as their protection... and keep cats away from my smaller birds too.

 

OP.. Maybe rent a couple of Buffalo for a week...they will eat all the greenery and deepen the pond when they go for a mud bath.  

More power too you, you're a better dog trainer than I am. 

 

I tried to tell my farm dog to bring home the dead neighbors chicken when he killed one that strayed into our orchard. But he'd just leave it lay, so I had to pay the neighbor 100 baht for the dead trespasser chicken to keep the peace, and I didn't even get to eat it. 

[jak2002003]

4 hours ago, drtreelove said:

More power too you, you're a better dog trainer than I am. 

 

I tried to tell my farm dog to bring home the dead neighbors chicken when he killed one that strayed into our orchard. But he'd just leave it lay, so I had to pay the neighbor 100 baht for the dead trespasser chicken to keep the peace, and I didn't even get to eat it. 

You were lucky your neighbour did not say it was a prize winning pedigree fighting rooster.... they can be really expensive.

 

It is easier to train dogs to guard livestock when they are puppies.  You could still do it with your adult dogs if they are not in the habit of killing things, but I would never trust them to be alone with other animals if you were not about.

 

 

[AsiaHand]

The US Air Force and the companies of Dow Chemical with Monsanto  has shown a large advancement in most all floral removal during the 1960s/70s.