Fall Pond Cleanup

Fall is knocking on our door and it’s time to help the pond for next year. I know sounds sort of strange but let me explain the fall pond cleanup.

All year long our wanted plants have been growing and showing their beautiful flowers or providing their benefit to the pond, pond inhabitants, insect and well you get the picture. Then there are those unwanted plants or weeds as most folks call them. Growing in and around the pond all year either looking good or being a pain for fishing, swimming or boating and our view of the pond.

The first thought is to kill the weeds using chemicals or do nothing and let Mother Nature take her course and kill them over winter. Both are great ideas but leave the mass of weeds to decaying in the pond, using up precious oxygen and adding to the muck layer which in turn makes the pond shallower each year. Be sure to watch the video below…

There are other ways to remove the unsightly weeds and wanted plants before they die, use up oxygen and become muck. Use a weed cutter and rake them out and dispose of them. Sounds easy if you are looking at a small 25’ diameter pond should take a few hours using the rake and weed cutter. But moving up to larger ponds we are looking at a lot more time and work, depending on the amount of weeds covering the pond. The idea is to get as much of the weed mass out of the pond as you can.

 

The Pond Rake and Weed Cutter as part of the manual process of weed removal and pond weed control can also be a tool to pull out fall leaves. I know it sounds like a lot of work but the prevailing winds should push the leaves to one part of the pond and you can get the mass of leaves out. The Deskuzzer is a great tool as well for skimming the top surface of the pond and collecting cut weeds even leaves if they are still floating. Be sure to click on the blue highlighted words for more info and videos of the tools. As for the Red Max reciprocating weed cutter they are not cheap but click the link as that is where we found them to be the least expensive.

This was our first time out with the Lake Mower testing and getting a feel for the unit. It cuts a 48″ wide path and with the extension can cut down to 7′ deep. What we’ve learned is maybe a bigger motor and that water shield will get heavy to push and gets tangles around the prop at times. Over all this is the easiest fastest way to cut the weeds out of a pond, sure beats manual, but would still take time to cut this 2 acre pond and remove the weeds. There is a option to mount a rake after cutting the weeds to push to shore.

Looking to have your pond cleaned up before winter or maintained during the summer use the contact for at the top of the site to let us know where your located and we’ll work out pricing depending where you are in out service area.

We also want to keep our pond bacteria levels up too, yes beneficial pond bacteria, the good ones that will eliminate muck and excess nutrients, works from 35 to 95 degree water temps, keep working on those decaying weeds and leaves.

Related post: Fall Pond Preparation