Brian Triplett: Ag Biz

The rains this past week were good to area pastures and ponds. Depending on where you live, you are either just below or just above that magical average rainfall amount so far for the year. If you are fortunate to have a small pond or lake where you can slip off for a few hours of recreation, now is a good time to look it over and see if it needs any maintenance before summer arrives.

The window between now and around the middle of June is a good time to battle problem aquatic vegetation before high air and water temperatures shut this control window until more moderate conditions in fall arrive.

Before attempting to control unwanted aquatic weeds, a few items should be taken into consideration.

First, the small fish, aquatic invertebrates and insects use a certain amount of vegetation in the pond. If you are not feeding the larger fish in the pond with a commercially available supplemental feed, totally eliminating all aquatic vegetation will take away the food and shelter of this critical link in the food chain.

Second, other uses of the pond’s water need to be reviewed before selecting a control product. Some products have restrictions to swimming or fishing in a pond that must be taken into consideration when timing treatments. More critically, some products have restrictions to watering livestock from the pond’s water or for using the water for irrigation purposes. If you do not follow these restrictions, you could injure plants that you irrigate with the pond water or you could sicken livestock.

Finally, just as there are many different types of aquatic plants in nature, there are many different types of aquatic herbicides on the market. Certain herbicides are better to use at controlling certain types of plants than others. Don’t rely on your neighbor for herbicide selection advice. Texas A&M and other universities have tested aquatic herbicides in research and field trials and can offer recommendations that should work on your own pond.

To assist pond owners with making decisions related to aquatic vegetation control issues, the Smith County Extension Office, in conjunction with Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Inland Fisheries Division, will have a free Recreational Pond Management Seminar at 6 p.m. May 27 at the TP&W Nature Center, 11942 Farm-to-Market Road 848. Please park in the designated parking areas.

Speakers and topics include “Managing Water Quality and Aquatic Vegetation,” by Dr. Billy Higginbotham, Extension wildlife and fisheries specialist, and “Invasive Aquatic Vegetation in Texas,” by Dr. Richard Ott, TP&W natural resources specialist.

This year’s program will also feature a fun “Test Your Aquatic Weed Identification” challenge, where participants will be allowed to view and identify pond vegetation samples prior to the beginning of the program. A few prizes will be awarded.

Attendees are encouraged to bring aquatic weed samples to the seminar for proper identification and control recommendations. Attendees can also bring pond water samples with them to the event for a free water quality analysis.

Aquatic weeds should be kept either damp or in water and brought to the program in large resealable storage bags labeled with your name. If you collect weed samples during the long Memorial Day weekend, keep them refrigerated or in a cooler with a little ice until the evening of the program to preserve sample quality.

Water samples should be of between one pint to one quart in size and brought to the seminar in disposable bottles (such as an empty drinking water bottle) with your name and the pond’s name (if you bring water samples from more than one pond) written on the outside.

Attendees with Texas Department of Agriculture pesticide licenses will receive two hours of general continuing education credit for attending. For planning purposes, please reserve a space by Friday by calling 903-590-2980.

Attendees with special needs are asked to contact the Smith County Extension Office at least five working days before the event so that necessary accommodations may be made.

Brian Triplett is the Smith County Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources. He can be reached at 903-590-2980 or via e-mail at b-triplett@tamu.edu or on the Web at http://tceblogs.tamu.edu/mt/smith or http://smith-tx.tamu.edu.

Brian Triplett
()