RAUK - Archived Forum - Blanket Weed Problem?

For years I have been controlling blanket weed in my wildlife pond by inserting a stick and twisting it around and then pulling it out. The main drawback of this method is that the wildlife including adult newts get entangled in the weed on the stick and get killed. Also the newts use the blanket weed to lay thier eggs in.

This year I have decided to leave the blanket weed alone and see what happens.

The weed grew rapidly at first but has now stopped at a layer about 8" from the top of the water for around 1/2 of the pond and then a layer about 5" deep around the pond liner.

My Canadian pond weed has grown through this layer and my water soldiers are completly free of the weed.

There is a moving mass of tadpoles eating away at the blanket weed and the Newts seem to pass through the weed with no problem.

I must admit it does actually look attractive.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the tadpoles leave. Will the blanket weed choke the pond or will the blanket weed die back starved of the ferterliser from thousands of tadpole faeces?

Brett

The Blanket weed should already be dieing back but you don't see it as it decomposes from the botom up. It grows at the top of the layer best where there is the most sunlight, the weed underneath decomposes to  a mud like sludge, which I presume would eventually choke the pond from silt build up. If I leave the weed to grow in our pond it will cover it to the top, probably because it is a small pond.  This winter we installed a small pump with an uv lamp system, that has helped to keep the blanket weed down but not eliminate, it leaving food for the wildlife.

I find the best way to keep blanket weed down is shade, it grows best in strong sunlight, floating plants help to keep some shade and the wildlife has somewhere to hide too.

Mike.

I have only found blanket weed to be a problem in the first year or so of a new pond, when the other plants have yet to establish themselves....if you just leave things to look after themselves, ponds tend to reach an equilibrium of their own, or at least that is my experience.