Autumn and Winter Pond Plant Care Guide
Introduction | Autumn and Winter Care
Checklist | Leaves | Fish | Plants | Pumps and Filters
Chop'em and Drop'em
As your pond plants stop growing and begin to die, stop feeding them and cut off any dying leaves. Eventually cut the plants back to almost nothing and drop them to the deepest part of your pond. If your pond is shallow and not at least one foot deep, use a deicer, leave a pump on or build a dome over your pond. The dome framework can be made of wood or PVC pipe and should be covered in clear plastic to create a greenhouse effect. The sun will shine through and keep the water warm. A similar but less effective method is to just place a board over the pond and put some type of insulation on it.
Many tropical plants can be brought indoors and treated as houseplants during the winter. They will require hours of light and must be kept wet. Some tropical lilies will even bloom during the winter months. I tried placing floating plants such as Anacharis(Brazilian Waterweed), water hyacinths and water lettuce in my indoor tropical aquarium and had partial success. The water hyacinths survived most of the winter but eventually died. The Anacharis was slowly eaten to nothing by my tropical fish. Which I think is great and better than just throwing it away. Some of the Anacharis placed in my son's goldfish aquarium survived all winter and I placed it successfully back out into the pond the next spring!Introduction | Autumn and Winter Care
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