Pond Rake

[dummy]

What did resolve your hydrilla problem?

 

[pekabu]

I saw something rather interesting today. It was a two long pontoons, about 20' long, with a backhoe on one end. It had to round paddles about 4' in diameter 1' wide for propulsion. It also looked like that had some type of york rake attachment, but traffic was going pretty fast, and with the rainy weather I wasn't able to check it out more.

 

[MicroPilot]

Here is another thread in the Power Trac forum discussing Pond Rakes. Lots of pictures and ideas that could be applied to a conventional tractor.

 

[fishman]

KennyV,

Sounds like you're a veteran of the weed wars. They sure can be a pain in the rear, can't they?

I feel I need to point out that Karmex (active ingredient is diuron) is not labled for use in aquatic systems. On the specimen label here under "environmental hazards" on the first page it states "do not apply to water". It is a violation of federal law to spray Karmex on a lake, even if it's your own.

Yes, it does work, but it comes at a cost. Most of the fish kill calls I get at my office (I'm a state fisheries biologist in Texas) are from people putting out Karmex. Studies have also shown that Karmex in the quantity needed to kill aquatic weeds, also kills the bug life in the bottom of your pond. None of this is good.

A better, safer product would be something like Cutrine Plus, which is a chelated copper herbicide designed to kill floating moss/algae. A new product out just this year is called GreenClean and it is similar in composition to Oxyclean. It oxydizes the algae on contact and kills it.

If anyone has any further questions about aquatic herbicides, feel free to PM me.

 

[KennyV]

Hello Fishman
I was very interested in the MSDS… this is nothing like the label on that product at the time I used it. 1970 thru 1985. At that time there was extensive use of Karmex on and in irrigation ditches. Thank you for this important update.

I was introduced to this use by one of the local co-ops. With more inquiries to the county and state, my rate of application was stated to be “not a problem for my intended use.” A very light surface application to control algae… I steered away from products containing copper, as I had many trees around this water. Aquatic weed control is a problem and if you are not careful you definitely can cause a lot of harm/damage. I regularly stocked this body of water with fish. I never had any fish problems using the quantities at the rate I described. BUT it would appear the usage has been excluded.

If I were doing it today I am not sure I would be very enthusiastic about copper. Although I know it is used in swimming pools for algae control. It is tough on trees. Copper was one of the chemicals recommended for the control of Hydrilla. I did not even consider that. With a lot of research (this was before WWW), I found best was to use a fish. I believe it was ‘African Mohr’, NOT grass carp. I knew some folks that tried grass carp didn’t dent the Hydrilla.

With your work with fish you would have been a great resource back then. GreenClean sounds very interesting… I have always preferred the least intrusive approach to the control of any pest. KennyV.

 

[KennyV]

A FISH /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif... and they grow to be huge. They are very shy /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif around people. You will almost never see them, but will grow to be well over 40 lbs. I put 100 of them in...First year greatly reduced /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif, Second season... No more Hydrilla /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gifKennyV.

 

[fishman]

KennyV,

I haven't had any problems with tree damage from using any of the chelated copper products. Like you, I tend to steer away from copper sulfate (e.g. Bluestone) as it has a LOT more copper as the active ingredient.

I am not familiar with the African mohr, and a search on Yahoo failed to turn up any hits. Must not have been successful at some level, maybe too expensive to produce commercially?

In Texas, at least, hydrilla is a favored food of grass carp. They are quite picky, however, and some submerged vegetation is avoided. They don't particularly like coontail, for example.

I'm going to try some of that Green Clean next year. Initial reports from the field are promising, but cost could be a real factor.