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Louisiana & Mississippi

Where to find Water hyacinth in NE Louisiana?

19 years ago

Does anyone in Northeast LA (Ouachita/Richland Parish area) know of anywhere I can get some water hyacinth? I'm looking for a place where it's growing close enough to a road that I can get to it pretty easily and load up a bucket-full for my pond.

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Comments (6)

Pterostyrax
19 years ago
Are you certain that you want to transplant some to your pond? You will very quickly have no water to look at, just a sea of hyacinths. One of the most horribly invasive plants I have ever seen.
angiebug
Original Author
19 years ago
Pterostyrax,

I know it's very invasive. However, I have a 20,000 gallon water system in which I use plants and fish to keep the water clear. My pond is in a high traffic area that receives alot of daily abuse. As a result, it is impractical and expensive to use too many water lilies or other delicate aquatic plants. Water hyacinth is the fastest way to obtain enough surface coverage to block the sunlight that promotes algae growth. Besides, if/when I decide that I've got too much hyacinth, I can easily pull it out and throw it away.

I do appreciate your concern, however.

Angela
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Last fall I threw some into a little pond that is spring fed, we have now turned it into a larger pond and I am in the process of changing it into my pretty pond. Anyway I am shocked after having a deep freeze of around 2 months, might be less but I am sure it felt that way, I am shocked to see that they are now growing again. I know we had below freezing temps for at least 6 weeks, day time highs above freezing for a couple more weeks but night time below freezing again. We are now coming out of it. I am such a happy camper as to not have to buy more this year. I have some in my basement and they are limping along but they don't all look to good. This is the before photo, the pond I had till my two pups decided to play in it and killed my liner. Now we have a house in the country and decided to use the spring pond for the goldfish and plants. Here we are digging it out. Thank goodness for big toys. I can't wait till all of the plants settle in and start blooming for me. Sandy
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Water hyacinths consume prodigious amounts of nutrients. If enough of the right kinds of nutrients are available they will really take off once the water warms up. Most of the time, if they are not doing well it is because one of the essential nutrients is unavailable. Potash is often the culprit but it can sometimes be a lack of iron. You can just add these nutrients to the pond. There is no need to put them in a bucket of miracle grow. If the problem is a potash shortage, the hyacinths will have an olive green tint and will have long root systems. They will not grow much and will not be budding babies. If the problem is an iron shortage they will be chlorotic, which means they will not produce chlorophyll and will exhibit a pronounced sickly yellow color. They might also have more dead leaves than usual. Add some potash and/or some chelated iron and see what happens. If the problem is a nutrient deficiency, and you add the right nutrient, you should see improvement in a few days.
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I did an experiment years ago with WH, as I had the same problem as OP. The thinking then, I think on this very forum, was a lack of potash. My experiment was to test if too much potash could be added. I added 5 lbs to a 30 gal tank. The sickly WH did take off. And goldfish eggs that hitched a ride on the roots hatched and grew normally. So the experiment did show high levels of potash seem to do no harm. However, later experiments showed basically what buyorsell888 said, the fish ate the WH roots. In my case it was Goldfish. It was not obvious damage, just enough to limit growth. So in the potash experiment it wasn't the potash that caused the growth, it was that they were protected from fish. When the WH were put into a tank with pond water and no potash they grew very well also. While the cause of poor growth can be many things it seemed like fish were the most common cause when talking to other pond keepers. You can test your pond by protecting the roots to see if that helps or adding pond water to another tank and putting some WH in there to see if they improve. If they do you know it isn't a nutrient problem.
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Paul- thanks for the info, looks like I'll be buying an aquarium before the first frost. Not sure where Ferndale is...I'm still trying not to get lost here in the Portage/Kalamazoo/BattleCreek area, lol. We're going to remove the last of the over grown shrubs from around the pond this weekend. I'm really looking forward to being able to see the pond without having to practically stand in it! We must be doing something right...the 6 "little" survivor fish we inherited when we bought the house in March are now huge. We've also noticed several tiny, little black babies swimming around the past couple of weeks and two green frogs have moved in:-) Not sure I'm keen on the frogs though...I pulled three dead ones out of the pond in May, ugh. Any ideas on how to discourage them from trying to hibernate in our hard plastic preformed pond? One last question...where did you find the lettuce? I tried parrot feather but it didn't last long, our fish devoured it. Thanks again for all of the advice...I just love this site. Deborah
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tamivileine
19 years ago
I'm not entirely sure it's legal to have water hyacinth, in that it's an exotic and there are eradication programs. You might want to check on that.

sea ya
tami
angiebug
Original Author
19 years ago
Come on folks...I'm pretty sure it's legal to have it in Louisiana. You just can't import it into the state because it's an invasive species. I know of several aquatic stores here in North Louisiana that sell it for use in ponds. I was just hoping that someone knew of a lake or bayou where I could find some in a place that would be easily accessible in my car. Besides...I doubt seriously that it will create a serious problem in my concrete pond, since I used it all summer last year before tossing it in December after it got frost damage.

Angela
southern_bell_la
19 years ago
hi angie bug i have some and would be more than happy to share some with you. i think i've talked to you before about some red yucca seeds. i live about 40 miles from you but will be in arcadia on the weekend of may 16th for the bonnie and clyde trade days. maybe we could meet there if you can wait that long.
taffyj
19 years ago
I lived near Lake Charles, where I had easy access to WH from the Calcasieu river. When I moved to Alexandria, I took a little with me for my pond. The winter here killed it. So, if a central LA winter kills WH, then a North LA winter should certainly kill it. By the way, I checked with the 'powers that be' before removing any from the river to take home, and he said as long as I don't put it into natural waterways, its okay. Not even illegal, because the authorities have given up fighting it and consider it 'naturalized'. Plus, living near the Calcasieu river all my life, I've never seen it get really bad, and I've never known of anybody trying to eradicate it. Sure it forms small rafts, but it never entirely clogs the waterways. You can just navigate your boat around it.
Plus, I found it makes a really good source of Nitrogen for compost piles. My koi eat all the roots off any WH I put in the pond, so I toss the rootless plants in the compost bin and get fresh for the pond. So, it also makes good vacation food for my koi. All around a useful plant, if used and disposed of carefully.

Sorry, no I don't have any right now. I haven't gone back to the river to get some yet this season. Check ebay, you may find it there.

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