Thanks for posting about pond weed control.

Biological Control .. best seems to be Grass Carp reported to eat the weeds, we are still investigating.

Chemical Control... not allowed to use herbicide as our pond is linked to the River Itchen. However we do use Barley straw extract to control algae.

Mechanical Control ... motorised cutters etc are far to expensive and you still have to rake up the cut weeds.

In the end throwing a rake out or placed behind roots by guy in a boat and pulling it in is the best solution for us, so far. one in the boat, two each with a rake and barrow. we cut and collected barrow fulls.

We continue to use Pond Dye (see biofix and dyofix.co.uk) other shading can be obtained by planting willow trees.

Weighted black polythene sheets for 6 months at a time has been suggested as has solar powered fountain or air pumping air bubbles as this reduces infestations and oxygenates the water.

Regards, Tall Paul.

Ok guys, I cannot believe that there are no moe ideas out there on irradiating pond weed.
The sun is making the blanket weed and Hydrilla grow like crazy right now. So apart from hard work etc what are you guys doing?????????

Hey, what a coincidence John. What you describe is virtually what we do Use our rescue dinghy with an electric O/B and a Big Alloy Hay Rake. But we run it backwards. The electric O?B turns through 360 deg. so we run stern first with the O/B Pulling us and the big rake over the bow at around 1 metre down. If we get some real heavy stuff we have an I/C engined long handled hedge cutter that we hang off the stern and the rake catches it at the other end. Works a treat and is quite efficient and cost effective. Just needs some man power. Happy sailing Ian,

Don't know if you can get a dinghy into the pond with a Seagull silver Century on the back (lots of pulling power) and devise a type of floating rake with fingers the depth you want, and drag it up and down the pond, (they have similar boats here set up with a big rake system on the front). You might be able to get a number of guys to drag it if motors aren't allowed. Check this machine out http://www.envirolands.co.nz/ like a giant barbers clipper. Don't know how clogged your lake is but if it's anything like this lake you may need some serious gear. Carp are by far the best but if you can't use them there it's a problem. http://www.aquaticweedmanagement.nz/ also https://thisnzlife.co.nz/4-ways-weed-waterways/ just a few things to read on weed control methods here, (probably similar there as well)
John. B

Exactly John B It is refreshing to see the informality of a chat with somebody on the opposite side of our world.

Similarly, if there are more ideas out there I am sure they will be added to the thread
We both have it our best shot!!!

Pond weed. I'm sure if anyone has a solution to removing excess pond weed they will post it under pond weed. We are just filling in time until someone does, not really stopping them. I think it's nice that we are a bit informal and can have a bit of fun (which is what it's all about)
John B

Thanks for the info.

What it requires then is for people who are posting which is not related to pond weed etc to start a new post with a related new subject title.

Regards, Tall Paul.

Hi Paul,
It's not possible to edit thread Subjects I'm afraid🤔
Actually that's a good thing cos otherwise we'd loose track of what belongs to which topic / thread! I s'pose that's why it has been designated a 'Thread'!
What should happen is that such tangential spin-offs of a thread should migrate to a 'Non-Hobby Chat' thread ASAP.
Doesn't often happen like that I'm afraid, but then; that's what happens when friends start nattering, Online or for real!😉 Cheers, Doug 😮

Hi folks,

Please could you edit Subject

As this post was about pond weed and weeding etc

Many thanks,

Tall Paul ... needing solutions to tons of pond weed.

Hi again, you are probably meaning this one (ex Porirua Wellington coastguard) see history and pics here http://www.coastguardmana.org.nz/waveney. She's been around a bit. Also an Arun class up North which was for sale. Also a Nelson (UK) pilot boat which was also for sale. Another page you might like https://www.coastguard.nz/regions/northern-region/units/howick/about-us/articles/an-article-on-nz-coastguards/ Also pic of Brede boat (from that article) We seem to have had a number of UK boats here in the past but now days it seems to be mostly big RIBs. The 2 pics of the red pilot boat are of the 'Waitemata' which was the main pilot boat for about 20 yrs. It is a semi cathedral hull with 2 big surface drives and capable of around 35 knots. Everything in the wheelhouse is spring loaded. I think they have retired her or she's in reserve.
New boat is Wakatere, a foil cat built here which is Scania powered with Hamilton jet units http://q-west.com/boats/wakatere/. The passenger cat is one of the 3 new NZ built cats for the Waiheke run and harbour runs . Nothing compared to the huge INCATs you have up there ( we did have a similar big cat and huge monohull here for the Cook straight run years ago) but they had to limit their speed through the Queen Charlotte sound to Picton due to the wake, so the speed advantage was useless.
John B

Hi again jbkiwi
Now you are triggering memories. We did the trip on the high Speed Cat to Waiheke, they certainly shift that is for sure. What was great to see when I got off was an ex UK RNLI Lifeboat. A 44ft Waveney, the design was based on a self righting US Coast Guard Cutter. looked very well cared for.
Yeah travel by water just has to be the way. I used to be an out and out power man. Nothing like a big diesel thundering away below decks but as I have edged past retirement I have come to also appreciate the fun of sail too. In a past life I worked on Vee 18cylinder 4 stroke, turbo charged, Intercooler Marine Engines, they did sound sweet!!
Your model collection sounds great and well varied. I just have five, soon to be six scale boats, two tugs, trawler, MTB and a Hydrographers survey ship. The latest is a 31 ft Huntsman, that will become the tender to the Hydrographers boat at 1/48.
You know, I think all modellers some help, we all have some form of affliction that keeps us building things. Keep the faith, keep on building!!!

Hi ikseno, probably the best way to see the city is by boat and going down to Waiheke Island (and other islands) on the ferries (high speed cats) is great if you are into wine (lots of vineyards on the island and a festival with music each year (rhythm & vines I think) which is real popular with locals and tourists alike, - ferries are packed when that's on. Fullers ferries have 21 vessels between Auckland and the Bay Of Islands up North and have some great destinations. I occasionally go for a ride (I get transport (ferries, trains and buses) for free on my pensioners Gold Card. I can go from outside my door to the city (20km) get off the bus, walk 100m to the ferries or 200m to the trains and go anywhere I want in the Auckland area. Great on a nice day if you're short of something to do. Longest boat trip I can do is about 28km between Gulf Harbour Marina and the city. There are tours etc on classic wooden boats as well plus sailing on ex Americas Cup and restored Sir Peter Blakes'Whitbread racers. Never get bored!
My "thing" is almost anything that involves building. Full sized small boats, scale (ish) electric boats, R/C planes (converted all my IC planes (18) to electric) cars, motorbikes etc. All in all I've had 20 cars, 12 motorbikes and 12 boats many of which I've re-built - 18 R/C planes and 5 electric boats, also built 5 trailers . Just can't help myself ! I need help!!

Hi jbkiwi
Yeah, Aukland was pretty manic when we were there. Best way seemed to be ride a boat, had an excellent ride round the harbour on a 44ft Sloop, Ok is a plastic boat, but it floated and got us on the water away from the traffic and the people. Bliss!!
We enjoyed Queenstown a lot, very laid back. Remember driving around Arrowtown and up the river in a Range Rover,awesome ride that was.
Christchurch, hey that was so sad to see, are hearts go out to all affected. It was quite a sobering sight to see the hotel we stayed in flat like a deck of cards. Just concrete slab on top of slab. It was hard to see it on the TV news, then the Cathedral, such a beautiful building destroyed by nature. But not as hard as for those that lived there. Take care man and happy modelling in NZ, What is your thing? Mine is scale electric stuff

Hi ikseno, thought that might be the case. Auckland's still here and a whole lot busier now probably, than it was a few years ago. I live on the North Shore and like most people on this side I don't go to the city unless I have to because I don't want to do 5mph on the motorway before 9am and after 4pm (and we only have 4 mill in the country!). Auckland being on a narrow isthmus can be a pain to get around. You wouldn't recognize Queenstown,- Christchurch especially, if you were there before the earthquake.

Hi jbkiwi

great idea my friend, however they are not native to the UK and you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get a licence to release non native fish. We have looked at this and the Environment Agency got very interested and said no way!!
How is Aukland?? Have great memories from a trip a few years back!! Plus visits to Queenstown and Christchurch. Great country!!

Hi Paul, we have a crowd here in NZ which hires grass carp to maintain ponds in golf clubs etc. Might be someone around like that? We also have a plague of Chinese carp in a small lake here (34sq KM) near Auckland, you are welcome to take as many as you like. A few thousand 12" carp will have your pond spotless in a day. There are so many they have a permanent conveyor/ catcher set up in the lake to make fish fertilizer out of them. Come over and help yourself, bring a truck !

Just an idea.
You could contact a local dive club and see if they would like the experience of working under water?

Martin.

Hi Tall Paul

Good luck to you sir. Our research unfortunately found us price way to high for our bank balance .Hence out DIY attempts at weed control

ikdeno99

Thanks for the contributions.

I have since found

one company that has the equipment to cut and remove the weed,

another company has weed cutters maximum depth of 4.4 ft, even though our pond is deeper we don’t have any scale boats that need more than that depth, the larger sail use a larger lake.

https://doroteamekaniska.se/en/doro-cutters

Going to find out if we can hire or have to buy.

Regards,

Tall Paul.

Hi Tall Paul
May I ask, is your pond a stand alone pond with no inlet or outlet? Or does it have one or the other.
The reason for asking is quite simple, if you have an outlet, what you put it will flow out, plus if you have an inlet then it will dilute what you have put in and also bring you fresh seeds / weed and nutriment from wash from the land just to make it all grow even faster.
We have been here for a number of years wit a pond with a flow through it
Barley Straw kind of worked, but I have doubts about the straw quality and you get a decayed mass in your pond.
We have settled on a mix of Food Grade Dye and plain hard graft. We have a "rescue boat" which we row around our pond cutting off the weed that grows from the bottom off about one metre below the surface. The Dye takes care of the rest that floats and slows the weed growth from the bottom by reducing sun light penetration.
Good luck with it, it is hard work, but worth it in the end!!

Thanks Scout13,

The dye is a good idea.

At Guildford the council used barley straw bales, these seemed to work on just surface type weed not the ones we are having trouble with that grow from the bottom.

Regards, Tall Paul. 👍

try dyofix lake shadow it's a concentrated food dye will not harm anything living in the pond except the weed we contacted one of the weed clearance company's would have cost £1000 just for them to come and look they told us to use it as most of the large golf clubs do
if you look on their website there is a calculator to tell you how much to put in but I think you can only buy it by the kilo if you get any on cloths it will wash out as I have done it several times