Unless you put handles on the pots, it's hip wader time.

Happy ponding,
Scott

Thanks Scott. No handles. Have insulated hip waders.Will just have to remember not to lean over too far or the water goes down the front and I'm a popsicle! Do you have any ideas for repotting into some kind of pot that could maybe have ropes on it or something. Maybe I need to find a big hook!

I was thinking of those pots that come with the plastic hooks attached. Then you just need a pole to hook onto the hook.

Hi. I was thinking about this after I read your post. I wonder if you could put a 2 long boards into the pond angled one on either side of the plant (making a ramp) and push the pot onto it and then pull it up? Could make a mess thought if the pot slipped off

Meg

Hi Jalal!

I was thinking of you the other day when I came back from visiting my dad, and we flew over the extra wide part of the St. Lawrence River... and on both sides there was still so much snow on the ground...

Anyway. Waders. I was helping Sharon the other day, my neighborhood fellow pond junkie, she giving directions and tossing the baggie with fertilizer tabs to me whenever I found yet another lotus or lily pot with my feet in the water, and me bending over to grab the pot edge and getting water down the bib front. Pushing the pots to a shallower spot helped a lot. Lifting with one hand didn't - I almost lost the contents of one or two of them...

Good thing we had some decent sunshine before that, the water was in the upper fifties.

:) Mary

I use the tines of a stiff garden rake. I turn the rake sharp tines up, catch them under the lip of the pot and lift.

Here is a link that might be useful: My pond the way it was before the freeze.

My pond is all one depth. My solution is to clean the pond in the spring. I pump out about 1/2 to 2/3 of the water, that makes it easy to find all the pots and they are easier (but still not EASY) to lift out. I repot, put back, then gradually add more water as the pads grow taller. So basically instead of lowering and raising the lilies, I'm lowering and raising the water level. Of course, if you have marginal plants that you can't easily move around, they risk getting too dried out while all this silliness goes on. Or if you have lots of fish, they might not have enough water to stay happy.

Some people drill holes near the top of the pots and make sturdy handles out of rope or wire or something and use a broomstick or rake to lift them out. Your handles would have to be really strong, because those pots get darn heavy!

WaterGal, that is exactly what I was trying to remember with the rope handles.

Happy ponding,
Scott

I'm very new in this...
have just pulled mine up today on a string and re- potted it. Have a bridge over the pond and keep the pot hanging just under the water, my pond level fluctuate, but I'm still thinking of some kind of float attaching to the pot, so I don't have to constantly lowering the pot during the season.
Konrad
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My husband is always the one that rearranges pots and puts the marginals down for winter. He always uses the waders. That water gets mighty cold in the late fall when we cut the lillies back to keep the debris to a minimum. This year I did the trimming back and I about over did it. I was pretty froze up even with waders on.

Anyway for lifting pots up this year DH took two long pieces of #9 wire like what would be used for heavy clothes line wire. He formed two 90 degree corners for the handles and the free ends were bent in the shape of a hook. Then he was able to reach in the deeper section and hook each side of the nursery pots that we have lillies planted. Worked better that he didn't have to have his arms in so deep. For me if I bent over...... the water is going over the top of waders....... Brrrr

Rita

Here is a link that might be useful: Our pond

Thanks everyone for all the support and great ideas and Mary thinking of me when you saw snow. Snow is all gone but is 32F tonight again crazy spring here. I have an air stone running in the pond thinking it might help with the bag of filter media that is in the pond and maybe circulate the water somewhat. Used the net yesterday to scoop out algae clumps and dead hornwort that had floated to the top. Pulled all the dead foilage off the water iris and other plants which are all greening up nicely. Like the hook idea and maybe the rake--could maybe push the pots to the shallower end for hip waders. I bought insulated gloves last fall that reach to my shoulders which will help for dealing with that cold water.
Konrad what kind of water lily is that in the pic. The leaves look leathery more like hyacinth leaves that my water lilies. Happy ponding everyone.

I use very heavy wire to make criss crossing loops over the top of the pot. It looks terrible now but when the lily leaves grow they hide the wire loops. In the spring when it is still too cold to play in the pond but I want to get them up onto the shelves to start growing I throw in the end of the tow strap with a hook on the end and hook the loops and pull them up. Later when it warms up a bit I will actually get in the pond and arrange the plants. The marginals get put in milk crates on the bottom of the pond. I put the same wire loops on the milk crates and pull them up off of the bottom in the same way.

My method probably wouldn't work for you, but I move my pots around in the pond with the skimmer net for the pool. It's shape is just right for hooking around the pot & dragging the pot toward me, or pushing them. In winter, I pull all the pots to the shallow edge, pull them out & put them in net laundry bags. Then sink the bags over the edge in the deep side & loop the pull-ties around a rock. Then, next spring, they're easy to pull up & repot. When they're all out of the pond, it's easy to clean all the settled gunk off the bottom.

I made a thing kind of like the dog catchers use out of a 5' piece of abs pipe, a 14' piece of nylon cord, and a 1x2. You put some screw-in eyes in the abs pipe and one at the end of the 1x2. Run the cord through the abs pipe, then through the eye at the end of the 1x2, and then back through the eyes in the abs pipe. What you now have is a loop you can position using the pipe and 1x2 and then you tighten by pulling the ends of the cord when you have it around your pot. Try it.

Great ideas. Kalevi--kinda like lassooing a pot? I live in cowboy country made me think of that. I like the net idea--would catch leaves maybe and the wire grid is intriguing! Like many of you said those water lily pots can be heavy esp when they are 4 ft down in very cold water!

The other thing I have started doing is putting a black nylon loop on the pots. I put a cork on the loop (drill hole through cork and feed cord through it). Then I use a pole with a hook to lift the pots while in the water. You can move them OK in the water but you need to move them to where you can reach them by hand to take them out.

kalevi........would you be able to post a picture of your device? I'm having trouble picturing it.
I like the idea of using heavy coated clothesline wire and crisscrossing it over and under the pot a couple times. Then all you'd have to do is make some kind of long-reaching hooked pole thing to bring it closer to you. Then maybe (using leather gloves), lift it out of the pond with the wire. I don't know though.....those pots can be pretty heavy. I use some pots I get at the Tractor supply store that are about 18' across and 9" deep. They are rigid and have a good lip around them to hold on to. If pots have lips, you can tie a rope around that lip and also make a handle for it.
Someone needs to invent something that makes this alot easier to do, since some of us are just getting older and older. ;)
Wouldn't it be great to be able to use something like an electric hoist? Life would be so easy!

Yes, my husband suggested a hoist like he has on the back of the pickup, but I declined. lol

>>Konrad what kind of water lily is that in the pic. The leaves look leathery more like hyacinth leaves that my water liliesSorry, I don't know, these lilies where given to me and I haven't asked.
Konrad