Although Aquaplancton can be applied at any time of year, it is easier to apply either in early spring before everything starts to grow or late autumn after everything had died down.
Where you have open water, just sprinkle it on dry. Where you have lilies or marginal plants, you can use the method that Geoff Hamilton, the late Gardeners’ World presenter used on his pond at Barnsdale. He mixed his Aquaplancton in a watering can with some of the pond water and inserted the spout, (without the rose) between or beneath the leaves. This gets the Aquaplancton into the pond with the minimum amount of mess.
Another of our inventive customers who can’t reach the centre of his pond from the banks uses a length of plastic drain pipe. He pours the Aquaplancton, in liquid form, down the pipe very successfully. An inexpensive and effective solution. A variation of this method is another customer who uses a length of plastic guttering, shovels the Aquaplancton on dry and reaches the centre of the pond with this method.
Aquaplancton is active on the bottom of the pond, it won’t do any good sitting on top of the weed. So, as long as it finds its way down to the bottom, it doesn’t matter how you do it.
It also doesn’t matter how much you apply, because it is not a harmful substance, so you can’t overdose.
Obviously if you put white powder into water it will go milky, so don’t do it the day before you have guests coming. The milkiness will disappear as soon as the powder settles to the bottom, this will depend upon how much activity there is in the pond.
Ponds without fish settle more quickly than ponds with fish. It’s a good idea to keep any pumps running as you apply the Aquaplancton to mix the powder well round the system, but if you are then happy to turn them off for a little while, without affecting the oxygen levels for fish, this will allow the Aquaplancton to settle more quickly. However, it always finishes up on the bottom with the laws of gravity, it just takes longer if you keep the pump running all the time.
If you have an inlet and an outlet, some people worry that the Aquaplancton might get washed away, but this doesn’t happen because, once it has settled on the bottom, it would take a fast flowing river to shift it.
If you are able to get all the way round the pond, just work your way round throwing the Aquaplancton in from the banks. If it’s a large pond with shallow sides and you are able to wade in a little, so much the better (take care, we don’t want to lose you). If there are some areas that you can’t quite reach, don’t worry, nature will step in and help. Once the Aquaplancton has settled, it will start to stimulate the beneficial, aerobic bacteria which will spread and reach the parts that you couldn’t, so just do the best you can, it’s not crucial.
Full instructions are available on line by clicking on this application instructions link.
