Duckweed control is perhaps the most onerous task that one has to undertake, irrespective of whether you like it or not. It’s imperative that you maintain a fine balance between the plant and animal in your pond, and if one overpowers the other the ecology will get disturbed and there will be commotion inside the pond.
How to Identify Duckweed
Duckweeds are miniature green plants that floats atop the pond, lakes, or in still water. These can be easily identified with very little leaves (around 1-3) and a quarter of an inch in total, and usually consists of only 1 to 3 leaves. Each little plant has its own short roots coming from the bottom.
Even during the winters, they remain green and continue to float, though majority of them die out. During summers, duckweed accumulate in abundance and form bed like or string like formation and float on the top of the still water.
Is It a Bad Plant?
A lot of people by its sheer ugly look form an opinion of it as a bad plant and there have been debates if it’s good to completely remove it from the pond or keep it in minimal quantity. Experts feel that it’s good to completely eradicate rather than in bounty. The main thing with duckweed is that every single plant have the capacity to reproduce a new plant within next 24 hours, provided the environment is conducive.
When duckweed covers your entire pond, it obstructs sunlight entering the pond and the aquatic flora and fauna can’t get enough of it which is imperative for their survival.
As a result, all water-dwelling plants die and in due course it becomes fatal for other plants and animals to survive inside the pond. This will lead to formation of newer duckweeds as they consume nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen from the dead organic matter present at the bottom of the lake.
On the other hand, if the duckweed is present in smaller quantities, it will bolster much better ecosystem which is beneficial for both fish and plants. The sight of duckweed in small numbers floating around the lotus or water lilies even look beautiful just remember that is an indication that it may soon be covering the entire pond.
Hence, a lot of people long to get duckweeds inside their pond. As a matter of fact, many pond owners have shown interest and take counselling as how to grow duckweed. Also, to control its growth, many pond owners introduce koi fish and grass carp which will limit their growth.
To sum up, its ideal that you hire a professional agency such as Aquacide Co. who can help guide you in your pond maintenance from time-to-time. These individuals offer expert advice and can recommend treatment or maintenance procedures and when to use products such as Fluridone to completely eradicate it.