Pond Nutrition

Dear Frog,

Because people eat gluttonously they think that everything else does too. Most of the animals and plants in our environment hibernate a good portion of the year dormant and when active require only a meal or two. Your fish do not need feed nor do your plants need fertilizer. Put your pond on a diet. When you fertilize, do not fertilize above the pond or within three feet. Your fish do not need feed if the eco-system is working.

What food does the pond need? A dead “sweet-wood” deciduous log or simply a dead log that is rotting is all that is needed. This provides habitat for over 4,000 species. The sugars in the wood are consumed that feed a food chain ultimately to fish. The decomposition of the wood is assimilated to form all other life. This closes the system in the pond.

To attract the larval forms that inhabit the log, you require nectar and seed bearing plants. The insects that eat nectar lay their eggs on the log. Birds attracted to the seed leave droppings containing the bacteria that consume the cellulose in the log. Therefore the food and life chain extends far beyond the pond providing water and habitat for all of us froggie.

So if you have too many weeds, your pond is too fat. Limit all nutrients in the pond and propagate plants on the shore to consume the nutrients entering or in the pond. All that need be known are plumber’s rules: it flows downhill (payday is on Friday and don’t lick your fingers).

One precaution: Do not use bark dust around a pond! Bark contains chlorophenols. These natural insecticides kill the invertebrates in the pond killing the pond. Therefore use logs that do not contain these compounds. Asphalt also contains chlorophenols as do many petroleum based chemicals.

Your pond, froggie, must eat the right stuff: a log. And it cannot be poisoned by chemicals and fertilizer. I know most do not know they are doing this thinking they want bigger fish or greener grass but all they are doing is shooting their foot. It is much more economic and easier to not fertilize or feed fish. Your pond will be nicer.

Lovingly,
PonDoc                from the pond

www.ponddoctor.biz

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