overgrown root system

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My friend has a 32" deep pond. The lilies have taken over. Now the
roots are taking up 24"'s of the pond.
Any suggestions on how to get rid of the roots without killing the
fish, frogs and everything else?

Thanks,
Dave

[Derek Broughton]

wrote:

> My friend has a 32" deep pond. The lilies have taken over. Now the
> roots are taking up 24"'s of the pond.
> Any suggestions on how to get rid of the roots without killing the
> fish, frogs and everything else?

Not really, at this point. Any digging is going to be hard on the fauna.
Dig up one lily at a time, prune/divide it (be brutal - these plants are
obviously so healthy, you don't need to pussyfoot around them), replant it
and let the water clear before doing another one.

In future, pull & divide every year - it took a bit more than a year for
them to get that dense!
--
derek

[Crashj]

wrote in message >...
> My friend has a 32" deep pond. The lilies have taken over. Now the
> roots are taking up 24"'s of the pond.
> Any suggestions on how to get rid of the roots without killing the
> fish, frogs and everything else?

Sell the plants on eBay.
Crashj "Nothing wasted" Johnson

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

And I would add to Derek's post, re-pot in containers, so they're easier to
remove/divide next time. Sounds like his pond needs a good bottom cleaning
before fall anyway. ~ jan

>> My friend has a 32" deep pond. The lilies have taken over. Now the
>> roots are taking up 24"'s of the pond.
>> Any suggestions on how to get rid of the roots without killing the
>> fish, frogs and everything else?
>
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 09:18:11 -0300, Derek Broughton >
wrote:

>Not really, at this point. Any digging is going to be hard on the fauna.
>Dig up one lily at a time, prune/divide it (be brutal - these plants are
>obviously so healthy, you don't need to pussyfoot around them), replant it
>and let the water clear before doing another one.
>
>In future, pull & divide every year - it took a bit more than a year for
>them to get that dense!

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

[Derek Broughton]

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:

> And I would add to Derek's post, re-pot in containers, so they're easier
> to remove/divide next time. Sounds like his pond needs a good bottom
> cleaning before fall anyway. ~ jan
>
Oh, and I'd add to that - experiment with potting media.

I had great success with leaving my lilies bareroot. I wired them into
milkcrates filled with rocks. Then they're _really_ easy to divide. If
you get the weight of the rocks right, they actually float to the surface
when they're ready for dividing, because the bouyancy of the foliage
defeats the weight of the rocks!

You can pot in kitty litter (needs washing well), or gravel (difficult to
get a shovel through to divide them). Forget soil, though. They just
don't need the extra nutrients.
--
derek