Re: NANFA-L-- Pond construction

dlmcneely at lunet.edu
Mon, 19 Sep 2005 14:50:38 -0500

My cattails are simply growing in the pond, no media, no pots. The
pond varies from inches to two feet deep. Cattails are mostly in water
6-10 inches deep. This is their third year, and they have done very
well -- flowering and putting out new rhizomes which grow into new
plants. In fact, I've hd to remove some to keep them from filling up
the pond. I just collected them from a creek on a friend's property,
took them home, and stuck them in the pond, using stones to weight the
rhizomes down to keep them from floating up. But that was only a
problem when I first put them in; the new ones as they've reproduced
have shown no tendency to float.

I've been told that cattails are just about the easiest of all plants
to keep, and I believe it after my experience with these. Since I've
written all this, they'll probably all catch some horrible blight and
die, though. Oh, there is a caterpillar that eats them, but I've never
seen the adult or any pupae. But Carolina wrens probably get all of
them before pupation. To me, it just adds to the beauty, though. I've
found dragonfly exuvia on the cattails, too, but though I've
specifically gone out at night to look, I've never seen them emerge.

I've had no problems with their rhizomes penetrating the liner, and
folks who should know tell me it won't happen. It's and EPDM liner

David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely at lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely/index.htm

"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"
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