The start of Autumn

The start of Autumn

At the start of Autumn your pond plants will start to collapse. Summer has been and gone so quickly!

Pay attention to pond plants in Autumn:

  • Waterlily leaves begin to turn brown - remove them from the pond so that they do not sink to the bottom and rot under water over Winter.
  • Remove any annual floating plants that will turn black in the first frosts and begin to decay in your pond water.
  • Net duckweed out from pond surface so that it does not seed down to the bottom of the pond to reappear next Spring.
  • Rescue Frogbit plants and Sagittaria sagittifolia bulbils before starting Autumn maintenance.

British Native Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae):

  • Starting to breakdown now as temperatures drop
  • Dormant buds will drop off the leaves and fall to the base of the pond
  • Buds are 5x10mm or 1/8" x 1/4" and look like apple pips.
  • These will easily be lost if you do not remove some now while you can still see them
  • Put some plantlets in a bucket for safety until after you have finished your Autumn maintenance in November.

British Native Arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia):

  • Looking yellow leaved and over.
  • Find the bulbils in the mud of the pond and replace them in their baskets.
  • The parent plant will die back after a couple of years but the new plants do not grow from the centre of the old basket but from the bulbs that can set down 6-8" away from the original basket.

What your pond plants will look like at the start of Autumn:

Tree leaves:

  • Tree leaves will soon start to fall and the net should be fixed across the pond to prevent them falling into the water
  • Put the net in place as soon as the first winds are forecast - the first windy night will bring down more leaves than you expect.
  • Leaves should not be allowed to sink to the base of the pond to rot.
  • Some tree leaves take a long time to rot away and use up a lot of oxygen in the process.
  • Use a dipping net to remove them by hand before they sink.

Net earlier rather than later to avoid extra work!

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