Blanket weed

NickG61

I’ve tried everything to get rid of blanket weed and have now resorted to skimming the bulk of it out every few days.  This works well and keeps the pond clear.  Problem now is that there are tadpoles all over the pond and I can’t remove the weed without catching tadpoles.  Any suggestions? Would more oxygenators help?

Crazyfroglady...and.now.newts.

Blanket weed in huge amounts is horrible! and it can just take over the pond. However the tadpoles do eat It and there’s always lots of beastie hiding in it. If it’s causing you real problems you could try cloverleaf blanket answer, we used it last year and it did a really good job. Because you have tadpoles I think from memory you dose 25% every 3 days it turns the water milky but it will clear.

Fairygirl

It's just because the water's warming up.
There are various treatments available = barley stray etc, so it would be worth looking at one of the pond specialist sites to get info, and see what they have in stock.
Keeping the surface partially shaded with planting also helps, but it can be difficult at this time of year to achieve that. Easier in summer. The high temps just now are throwing things out of kilter a bit too. 

A good alternative is watercress. Just the stuff in the supermarket is fine - chuck it in. It feeds on the nutrients that blanketweed also enjoys. 

BenCotto

I’ve tried barley straw. Without it the problem might have been much worse but I’m not convinced it did much good. I tried replacing the water with filtered water. The blanket weed scoffed. I have bunged in lots of oxygenators but they have not flourished and just seem to disappear after a while. Snails and other scavengers just nibbled at the edges.

 Now I am going back to Nishikoi Clear Waters which I know works very well. It is safe to use in wildlife ponds and you should see a transformation within a few days. It’s not particularly cheap at £20 for a litre but that is a season’s treatment for my pond (4.8 x 3.2 metres). There are many similar products on the market, some cheaper, but Clear Waters came out top in the latest Which review of pond treatments

Spudface33

I use Blagdon Barley straw extract, add the correct dose into a bucket or watering can of water, mix and distribute evenly around the pond.  Ours was green and nasty a few weeks back but now we can see down much deeper and enjoy the newts and tadpoles.

Pete.8

As @Fairygirl says it's just because the water is warming up and the blanketweed is the first to get going so it takes advantage of all the nutrients that have built-up in your pond over winter.
Once the plants get going they'll outcompete the blanketweed and it'll die back (assuming you have enough plants).

Cloverleaf and Blagdon Barleystraw extract do work (for me).
I use Cloverleaf in my fish pond which works well and have been using it for about 15 years.
I use Blagdon Barley Straw Extract and Sludgebuster in my little wildlife pond.
Both are crystal clear by early summer and barely a filament of blanketweed left.