Tub Pond Plant Substrate

[Allan]

I set up a tub pond with cardinal flower, sedge grass and blue flag iris.  I put the plants in dirt inside cloth pots.  Second guessing the dirt now, should they be in a coarser substrate or is this fine?  My wife is sure this is going to end up as a mosquito breeder so I want to be as successful as possible on the first try.

 

So what do you think, leave the plants in dirt or replant in gravel.

 

 

 

[keddre]

I do dirt in pots with a gravel or sand topper, but mine are also completely submerged for my fish to rummage trough. If your worried about mosquitos, checkout mosquito fish, they are smaller (2-ish inches) and can handle temp swings small ponds like that have, or add a small solar air pump. Squitos don't like movement

[Allan]

Thanks, I think I'll top them with gravel too.  I want to submerge them but thought I'd wait a few weeks to see what happens.  I plan to add endlers once the temperatures rise a little more, and a small water pump is on the way for movement.

[PineSong]

Nice plant choices, @Allan. I hope your wife comes around to loving the tub!

Tub pond expert Ted Coletti says soil is fine and gives some plants like water lilies the best chance at success. I bought a Prince Tut grass and plan to just submerge the pot it came in, with gravel on top of the soil. For my pond baskets, I plan to line them with paper grocery bags so the soil won't come right out the holes in the sides and bottom of the baskets and muddy up the tub; by the time the paper is soaked through, the soil should be wet enough to stay in place and the paper wil be soft enough for roots to get through and out into the water column.

[Allan]

I like the paper bag idea.  I'll have to remember that for next year.

[Dr. Ted]

Hi and thanks for your kind words!

I plant most of my marginals in plain pea gravel in perforated pots so they filter the water for my fish (no mechanical stuff).  Waterlilies and lotus get solid pots with clay amendment in soil, and granulated Landon's fertilizer. I fertilize both these systems, weekly the solid pots, and sporadically (and only one at a time) the perforated. Or none at all for the basketed.  Plants evolved to grow in dirt so you can never go wrong with a solid pot. But they won't filter the tub.

Latest edition of my book was published in SPring and I also do club talks via Soom if available. https://www.amazon.com/Tub-Pond-Handbook-Comprehensive-Container/dp/B091W9WLDP

keep on tubbin!

Dr. Ted

[Dancing Matt]

You can check out @Streetwise, He has done walsted style tubs and you could take some lessons from how he does it. I recognize a  pot is a little different.

[Allan]

Update. Took out the grass and replaced it with cattails from the ditch, it was surviving but not growing. 

[Streetwise]

I love using topsoil for plants. I hope that this forum has shown that it is easy and simple. I prefer a gravel cap so mulm can join the soil.

[Allan]

That reminds me. I used kitty litter for a cap.