Interesting idea. I've raised tomatoes for years, but never thought of this. With almost unlimited space in the gravel for the roots and lots of natural fertilizer, it's something that might be worth experimenting with. I would be interested to know the results if anyone has tried this.

I have one in my skippy filter. It is supposed to take lots of nutrients out of the water. Also if you take the peeling off and remove the seeds and chop it up the fish love to eat it just like they do the peas. I'm sure it would do wonderfully in the bog also. Glenda

Some people like to grow various dry land plants in their ponds.

Frankly I don't understand why?

The reason for having a pond is to grow pond plants that you can't grow in a regular garden. I barely have enough room to grow all the ones I want in my pond.

So I keep my dry land plants in the garden where they belong and have more room for my wetland plants in my ponds and bog gardens.

why not combine the best of both worlds if you can?

I don't think I'd eat the tomatoes myself, since they become filters in the water, right? But I think it might be a cool thing to try out.......and give the tomatoes back to the fish. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Cat - Why not eat tomatoes grown from plants that were used as pond filter plants? Fish emulsion is a great organic fertilizer and you know no pesticides will be used over a pond filter. Sounds like healthy tomatoes to me if they do grow well with their roots submerged.

I would not do it, not tomatoes anyway, because staking them up would be a problem because tomato plants are BIG and one cannot let them lay over in the water for the leaves to rot, nor would I recommend letting the fruit fall off into the water to rot. Plus they might need spraying for various things (I grow organic myself).

I grow tomatoes to eat them and I'm not sharing with my fish;-) Nothing like a warm, vine-ripened summer tomato - eaten right off the vine - a little bit of heaven.

Interesting topic though as the tomato likes consistent watering.

catfishsam
I don't get it either. Never have, never will. It baffles me as to why anyone would want to put impatiens or other garden plants in their ponds when there are so many cool bog and aquatic plants. I think they look out of place and just plain weird but to each his or her own. I don't like a lot of garden decor either but everyone should be happy with their own pond and garden!

I grow about a dozen tomato plants every season. Although I donÂt grow them near my pond, I do use the pond to help fertilize the tomatoes. A few years ago, during my pond spring cleaning, I saved some of the sludge from the bottom of my biofilter and threw it in the hole while transplanting tomatoes. I tried it on a few plants and those plant gave me ripe tomatoes at least a week before the rest. I now collect the waste when cleaning the pond filters and dump it near the tomato plants. IÂll probably be eating tomatoes from my garden in about a week while my neighbors will have to wait until July. I tell them I donÂt have enough of the secret fertilizer to share. Some people use cow manure, but IÂm sold on fish manure! LOL.

Comettose.......I don't know. It just seemed yukky to me to think about eating something that came from my pond! I know it has great fertilizer in it.....but it just isn't appetizing to me! I know it shouldn't bother me, since I use my chicken poop in my garden........

You have chickens??? Ever seen what they eat? And I'll bet you eat chicken. Or eggs? think where they come from.. Glenda

If you read up on them like I do, a lot of pond plants have parts that are edible. Cattails, lotus, and watercress are some of the most popular examples. A plant filter is just another form of hydroponics, why not grow veggies in it. I certainly would eat them. It can't be any worse than any other manure used as fertilizer.

Happy ponding,
Scott

Why grow 'land' plants in a pond? Well, sometimes you don't have a lot of choice.

I have a pond that is under a mature canopy of oak trees (NO sunlight + tannic/acidic water) and there aren't many true 'aquatic' plants that will grow in it. Pickerel won't grow, watercress won't grow, cattails won't grow...I can't even grow the invasive water hyacinths! The only plants I've been able to grow thus far are Taro and water lillies.

Impatiens on the other hand LOVE to be in that water and I for one LOVE the fact that I don't have to water them - they water themselves and provide a lovely bit of color. Plus I can bareroot them and pot them in pea gravel instead of potting soil and I can save the pea gravel from year to year - and save myself having to buy potting soil (and since I collect the impatiens seed each season and grow them from seed in my own composted soil, it costs me virtually nothing for these annual 'land' plants).

Believe me, I'd grow 'aquatic' plants in my pond if I could (it's why I made the pond in the first place after all) but mother nature just refuses to co-operate! So it is for practical reasons that I grow 'land' plants in my pond. I've had such trouble getting anything to grow in that water that I don't even think in terms of 'land' or 'aquatic' plants anymore...if it grows I'm glad and I don't really care what 'type' of plant it is!

Longlocks
Kathy

P.S. EVEN the supposedly horrendously 'invasive' water plant LOOSE STRIFE will not grow in my pond!

Kathy, I wonder if it is something in the oak leaves that cause your problem?

It sounds like you have a logical reason not to grow pond plants in your pond.

Normally though it is best to grow land plants in a dry land garden and pond plants in a water garden.

Careful with those roadblocks, Sam. "Best" is subjective, and it never hurts to try different things. Nothing wrong with trying.

Brenda

Brenda, tomatoes leaves are also poisonous.

Maybe it would kill the fish? How is that for a roadblock? LOL

So are many "bog" and pond plants, Sam. One very popular plant that comes to mind is elephant's ear (Colocasia). But come on, let's not go there. :)

Glenda has experience growing them, which is what the original poster was looking for. There was also a regular poster on here who grew them around her pond...until they fell over and rooted IN the pond. They were very prolific.

Brenda

I have grown Tomato plants in the vegi filter before. My main reason is because Lowe's in Muskogee gets really crappy water plants. I have all of them. If I want something different or of a different color or whatever, I have to go to TULSA! Who wants to drive an hour and a half for a plant or 2? So I put in impatients for different colors and tomatos for early growth. Also Lowe's has reciently gotten their water plants in earlier but in years past it has taken them WAY WAY late in the year. I have experimented with a start of this or that in the waterfall, just to see what it would do. Sometimes they die, sometimes they don't. It gets my plants started as early as I can... :) Why not? I don't put them where the fish can get to them so it won't hurt and you never know what will happen.
Plus my kids LOVE trying it. You should have see the science teacher at school when my oldest told her all about the Nitrogen cycle and what plants you can use as water plants, that were "dry land plants" to her. She didn't believe her till she invited her to our house to see the pond. Low and behold.....

Okpondlady, How did they do? Did they live? Did you get tomatoes? Were they good?

Thanks

Maybe I will plant a tomato plant in my bog garden just for fun?

I'd like to second Missa's question!

I've seen tomatos planted in ponds (around edges, in veggie filters, etc.) but I've never seen them with any tomatos on them and no one's ever said how they taste or how they dealt w/ staking them up, etc.

Do they taste like really good acidic tomatoes grown in the ground or do they taste like those really tasteless ones you get in the grocery in the winter (which I assume are hothouse/hydroponic type tomatoes)?

And YES Sam, it is because my oak leaves are highly acidic (this makes my water tannic (looks like lightly brewed tea water) AND because of the lack of sunshine that I am unable to grow a lot of things (or at least that is my theory and I'm sticking to it - lol!) But tomatos might do wonderfully for me given that the water is so acidic so I'd be very interested to hear about how tomatos grown hydroponically in a pond yield as compared to growing them in the ground, whether the insects are worse or better (and those nasty fungus diseases tomatoes get - are they more likely to occur on tomato plants grown in a pond??) And just exactly how do you deal with staking them???

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:204481}}

{{gwi:204483}}

Another 'land' plant that I use a lot in my pond (barerooted in floating planters) is the shade loving hosta - the roots of which make for very good tadpole nurseries.

(I should mention though that while the hosta does very well for a season in the pond, when I took them out and replanted them in the ground for the winter when they came up next spring they were very small and stunted.) I don't know if this is because my pond water just didn't provide them with enough nutrients or because I didn't take much care when transplanting them back to the garden in the fall but at any rate I get a kick out of trying new stuff and seeing what will or will not work and why - so why not plant a tomato plant just for fun???

I have my tomatoes planted in pots next to the above ground pond and only use pond water to water them. They look great and are settiang tomatoes at the usual time for our location.

I grew some extra tomato seedlings in my biofilter. They grew very well and had no negative effect on the fish. The problem was the tomato plant roots spread about 1' down into the springflo media and made it impossible for me to clean anything and the roots were getting thicker. They flowered well and I figure I would have gotten a lot of tomatoes if I didn't rip them out before then.

Missa,
I have never waited long enough to get fruit from the plants. They get huge and real leggy so at some point I usually take them out and toss them. Usually about the time my Hyacinth will survive. I don't know what they would taste like but I am sure they would be ok. Couldn't be anything worse than those nasty hothouse ones from the store.

Karen