Are you tired of paying $$$$ for those aquatic plant tabs and getting your fingers all dirty and smelly from pushing them into the plant containers? Well don't! I (Rhonda at Ponds4Real) have been experimenting with Super Bloom and Miracle Grow.  Yes, that is right.  All you need is a Turkey marinade injector kit (syringe and needle available at Lowes for $2.99),  some pond water, a 16oz container and one of the above mentioned fertilizers.

I place 4 scoops (fertilizers come with a scoop) of the fertilizer in the 16oz. container and then fill the container with pond water, shake it to dissolve the fertilizer and draws up a syringe full.  Hold the syringe upright with the needle on it and push out any air.  I place my index finger and thumb at the hub of the needle and push the needle into the plant container as far down as I can while holding my fingers firmly against the hub and the potting media in the container.  Then I push the syringe full into the planting media.  If done properly, all of the fertilizer liquid will go into the potting media.  If you see blue (most of the fertilizers are blue but yours could be green or yellow and if you see that color), you will need to push harder against the potting media when you inject the next plant.  Don't worry, I've done this a couple of times and there was no problem with it.

Use this method on all your aquatic plants (lilies, lotus and any marginal plants) that utilizes dirt or kitty litter as the potting media.  Don't use it on plants that are planted in gravel type media.  Fertilize lilies and lotus every two weeks and marginals once a month.

There is one down side to this.  The leaves and bloom stems will be so thick and tough, you will need some sharp scissors or shears to trim them back. 

I have been experimenting using nothing but this formula since the later part of April (2003) and it has worked wonderfully in my ponds and also the pond at Ridgewood Country Club that I maintain.  I decided to test both locations since my ponds get a lot of shade and I wanted to make sure this method didn't cause an algae bloom in ponds that received more sunlight.  The Country Club pond gets direct sun all day and neither location has experienced any problem with algae or anything else from the use of this fertilizer method. 

With this method for fertilizing, you will spend less than $15 a season for everything on a pond that contains 18 lillies, one lotus, and 16 marginals being fed every two weeks during the growing season from April to September. Pretty cheap when compared to pond plant tabs!

Come back soon for photos. I hope to get some this year!

Rhonda Barron
Ponds4Real