Yellow plants

19 years ago

I have two problems. I'm not sure if they are related or not.

The first problem is my ph is up at 8.5. The reason is my water is from a well and comes out of the hose at 7.5 and then I have decorated with limestone. I also have places with exposed mortar. So, I goofed a few places.

I know (now) I am suppose to coat the limestone (seal it). I have not looked into exactly how to do that. Can I get a can similar to a can of spray paint somewhere? At this piont, most of the rock is covered with algea and moss. Do I need to scrap it off or is it acting like a seal?

The other probem I have is my plants. Some plants are just as happy as they can be. I have two lilies that are just great. Then I have some plants that grow strong with new growth but the growth quickly (seems to me) turns brown and dies. My Chameleon Plants are a good example of that. They seem to not like the splash of my water so I've moved them away from the splash zone.

And my third really weird problem (to me) is I bought mail order some arrowhead. It has always been a sick yellow color. I've tried feeding it the lily tabs but, so far, no luck.

One thought I had with the ph is to rig up a way to very slowly drip acid into the pond. I figure it would cost me about $15 per month in acid. I have not figure out how to do that yet. It would be nice if I could figure out a natural way to lower the ph continously.

The other thought I had was to add sulphur to the soil of the plants to help lower the ph of the soil. I've done that on a few plants but no obvius results.

Are all these things inter-related with my ph or are they separate problems?

Thanks for your help.

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Comments (2)

prairie_bogger
19 years ago
Hmmm.... this is interesting to me, because I too have well water with a high ph, used limestone for my pond (the only thing that isn't prohibitively expensive in this area, so I took the chance) AND I have trouble growing the exact same plants that you mentioned. Both the arrowhead and chameleon plants that I put in last year came back this year, but they are small and aren't thriving.

Since the ph has remained stable and my water stays clear I have taken the approach of just leaving well enough alone and experimenting with what WILL grow for me. Besides the string algae, all of my water lilies too have been thriving, as well as iris, mint(of course!), sedges, and watercress. Some of the annuals that I've had success with include lemon bacopa and ornamental sweet potato vine.

If you decide to leave your pond "as is" I would love to continue to compare notes later on with you on what you have/have not had success with growing.

Sherry
jalal
19 years ago
Refer to the post called "Murkish Green Water and High ph" has info on ph/kh. I'd put a link but don't know how. My ph runs between 8 and 8.5 and I don't do anything to change ph. It's when you have a high swing that causes problems. As for the arrowhead try putting it in a bucket of water with some miracle grow fertilizer. Leave it for a day at least. Then before you put it back in the pond maybe put it in another bucket of pond water just to get any excess fertilizer out. You could also put some zeo/carb (like you use in aquarium filters) in the soil with the plant-maybe transplant the plant into new soil. Hope this helps.
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