keeping plants in a koi pond

keeping plants in a koi pond

Koi Pond Supplies > Live Pond Plants

Live Pond Plants Planting Tips

Love aquatic plants? Garden ponds make ideal environments for live pond plants. And you can be rewarded with a stunning floral display for much of the summer. As long as you provide what they need.

So before you look to establish an array of plants in your pond to create a lavish green there are several questions you might want answers to.

What's the size of your pond? Most watergarden lotus plants or water lilies can be sized for small, medium and large ponds. Otherwise for smaller ponds there are dwarf species of some pond plants available.

How many hours of sunlight does you pond get each day? Different pond plants have different lighting requirements in order to bloom.

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How deep is the pond? Even if you live where it's gets cold in the winter if the pond is deep enough hardy varieties can over winter. If you aren't going to be able to leave the plants in the pond in the winter where will you overwinter them?

On the other hand some pond plants need to be underwater to thrive. Such submerged plants should be potted in containers. The point to remember, even though there is a variety of types of pots, pick one that is big enough for your plants.

Pond Plant Tip: If you've got pots with holes, slots or perforations, to keep the dirt from falling out, line the basket with burlap. Roots can still grow reach the water.

Be careful with potting mixes. Peat moss floats. So avoid use of potting mixes emphasizes that.

Otherwise give pots time to become waterlogged. So the soil and such doesn't float out and away. If you pond lacks shelves, you can use bricks or cinder blocks to get the plants to the best height.

Some may suggest using gravel as the final top layer. That may or may not be helpful. Koi can be persistent and even work their way thru gravel and then spit it out so that it ends up all over the bottom of the pond. This is just one reason why keeping plants in a koi pond can be more of a challenge. Since koi often look at your plants as a salad bar.

What kind of feeder is it? Read the directions. Some pond plants are heavy feeders and require extra fertilizer, usually delivered as a "stick" or "tab", which you will need, to supply extra food.

Live Pond Plants