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Water Hyacinth


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#21 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 17 October 2006 - 07:02 PM

Martin, have you ever had this problem? Ive never lost any fish when it dies in my ponds.


No, but like you I removed it. I only used hyacinth to keep the pond from getting choked with algae while it was new. Now it's overgrown with Salvinia, but I've put in some pickerel weed and some other stuff I've found in my travels.


Water hyacinth is not toxic. Garden hyacinth (the bulb), however, is very toxic when eaten, and handling the bulbs can give a nice skin rash (don't ask me how I know this).

Fish kills associated with water hyacinth are, however, very commonly documented. Since there is so much biomass, when the stuff dies in the fall it quickly uses up the oxygen in the water as it decomposes. Not only can the fish die of a lack of oxygen, but toxic chemicals can be released from the rotting organic matter in the now anoxic water (e.g. sulfur dioxide).

Interestingly, water hyacinth has also been blamed for starving people in a couple of developing contries by blocking the waterways used for travel/fishing/etc.

#22 Guest_dredcon_*

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Posted 17 October 2006 - 07:36 PM

I see a lot of waterway clogging down here due to both water hyacinth and salvinia. It often cover large sections of the bayou making navigation very difficult. The worst part is the bayou can go from clear to clogged in a few hours if conditions are right. We have run up the bayou to sample and found it completely, make for a fun trip to the ramp.
As you can see the boat hardly leaves a trail through it.

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#23 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 17 October 2006 - 07:57 PM

It may be invested with water hyacinth, but I still want to live in that little shack in your picture. (Of course, I'd probably put in some booms and create a little hyacinth-free oasis)

#24 Guest_dredcon_*

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Posted 17 October 2006 - 08:18 PM

hehe, I wanted to rest a place like that when we moved here for school, but the wife was having none of it. That place is a long way from any road, its kinda crazy how many people liver back in these swamps here.

#25 Guest_ipchay61_*

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Posted 17 October 2006 - 08:26 PM

Probably. Does it look like this:
http://www.biologica...?uniq=micra_umb

That would be it.

Chip

#26 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 17 October 2006 - 09:38 PM

That place is a long way from any road, its kinda crazy how many people live back in these swamps here.


That's Mississippi fer sher...

#27 Guest_dredcon_*

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Posted 17 October 2006 - 09:48 PM

Well thats from Louisiana, but there are many houseboat communities in Mississippi.

#28 Guest_teleost_*

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Posted 18 October 2006 - 08:33 AM

I want to know what was taken out of that photo next to the outboard. Some kind of secrect collecting net you can't share with the public? :lol: :lol:

Edit: typo


#29 Guest_dredcon_*

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Posted 18 October 2006 - 08:41 AM

Its very top secret prototype collection device, not available to the public. Or its my friends head and I did'nt want to poat it with permission. I'll never tell hehehe

#30 Guest_teleost_*

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Posted 18 October 2006 - 08:48 AM

:D

#31 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 21 April 2008 - 10:42 PM

Bumping this thread because of recent interest in the plant. Pay particular attention to the photos in the first post!

#32 Guest_scottefontay_*

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Posted 22 April 2008 - 06:46 AM

(Of course, I'd probably put in some booms and create a little hyacinth-free oasis


Those don't work...you end up trapping hyacinth behind the boom. That garbage was the bane of all of our restoraration projects in the Sacramento Delta. Grows thick it does. It is very pretty when 10 acres of slough are flowering purple in the morning mist though....

#33 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 22 April 2008 - 11:44 AM

Those don't work...you end up trapping hyacinth behind the boom. That garbage was the bane of all of our restoraration projects in the Sacramento Delta. Grows thick it does. It is very pretty when 10 acres of slough are flowering purple in the morning mist though....


Yeah, I figured that wouldn't work large scale. My musings were for something the size of a garden area for personal enjoyment around the shack, with requisite weekly weeding. Your note about how pretty it is reminds me of how pretty purple loosestrife is where I grew up in MA. Huge swaths of purple! Really is a pity that they are so agressive. I'm not totally against the use of exotics in the garden (including water gardening), just the invasive ones. The occasional pretty exotic does have its place in my world if it will stay put.




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