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Fertilizing Around the Pond?

February
15th
PondMeister

Question of the Day:

What is the best way to fertilize the plants and lawn around my pond. Some of the lawn and plants are above the level of the pond. Are there products that can be used safely in these areas?

PondMeister Answer:

Whoaaaaa – This is one of the best ways to mess up your water quality in the pond and create some serious algae blooms. No matter how careful you are and think you are safe, fertilizers used around the pond area for potted plants and lawns inevitably may “leach” into the pond and do serious damage to the water quality and even kill the fish. I have never had one pond owner yet ‘fess up to doing this but believe me, many of us are guilty of this.

In the Pre-PondMeister days of Yore, I was a frequent offender and fertilized all of my potted plants around my 6,000 gallon ponds with time-release fertilizers and then watered vigorously with the water draining out of the bottom of the containers back in to the pond. I never gave it a thought and wondered why my pond water had major league algae blooms and was green and cloudy.

EHow writes: “Fertilizers contain nutrients, especially phosphorous and nitrogen, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Since fertilizers help plants grow, they also cause algal blooms in aquatic ecosystems”  Read more: How Does Fertilizer Affect Aquatic Ecosystems? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6623588_fertilizer-affect-aquatic-ecosystems_.html#ixzz1mVo8LcHq

The BEST fertilizer of all for your garden plants or your yard is…drum roll please…..POND WATER! I keep a bucket near my pond and water my plants with the pond water which is loaded with fish waste and other good stuff for the plants!

There are plenty of safe pond plant fertilizers for your pond plants at http://www.thepondoutlet.com/home/tpo/smartlist_287/fertilizer.html

A few good ones are Pond Plant Fertilizer by AquascapeOnce-A-Year Plant Fertilizer by Aquascape and Highland Rim Aquatic Plant Fertilizer

 


date Posted on: Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Category Questions and Answers.
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