Algae Growing in a Water Garden During Winter.
Q: I shut my water garden down for the winter, but I still see some algae growth. Can algae grow in cooler temperatures?
A: In some cases, a pond that stays clean and clear through the summer can blow up into an algal nightmare in the fall. Shutting down your watergarden ceases the flow-through characteristics of the pond. This reduces the amount of filtration that occurs both mechanically (i.e. skimmers) and biologically (i.e. filterfalls). Since there is less flow, it is a good idea to bump up the amount of bacteria in the pond by adding Seasonal Defense Bacteria with Barley. These bacteria operate in cooler conditions and will greatly reduce the amount of nutrients in the water, and also contains barley straw to naturally help with the algae. Using Oxy-Lift Defense to scrub down your rocks will also help to remove any debris build up.
Filed under: Algae Control, Barley Straw, Seasonal Care, Water Gardens & Features, WG-Winterizing Tagged: | algae, oxy-lift, seasonal defense, winter algae, winter algae growth, winterization, winterizing
Jeanette,
If you are using barley straw to combat the algae, I would just make sure you have the barley contained in some sort of mesh bag, this way it does create a mess throughout your water garden. From there simply place into the water and you are good to go!
I noticed when I just shut my pond down, I have a lot of algae around the rocks and on the pump when I removed it. Do I just float the barley straw in the water? I am not familiar with it and have never used it.
Jeanette Biltz