I’m sat here writing this post in the first week of September it is sadly undeniable that the end of summer is fast approaching and will soon be upon us. We can all feel the colder nights starting to close in along with the other inevitable fact of autumn with it getting darker earlier every evening. Your fish and pond can also tell the season and weather is changing. As such, it’s time to think about essential maintenance tasks to do to keep your pond in it’s best shape.
Deadheading flowering pond plants
An important task to keep on top of all year round, this one is still important in the autumn as the main summer season starts to come to an end.
Doing this task during the summer season will encourage your plant to keep generating new blooms, often allowing you to have 2 or 3 lots of flowers over the course of the year. During the winter off season this task has an alternative reason which is arguably even more important.
Developing the flowers (and seeds also depending on variety) takes an enormous amount of energy for the plant. By removing them over winter this energy is conserved as the plant will need it to try and help it survive the harsh realities of winter. This is a time when your plants need all of their energy to ensure basic survival.
There is also another key reason for doing this, which feeds into the next activity. It is important also to keep on top of organic waste matter entering the pond. And doing so may reduce of eliminate the need for additional products such as a sludge buster saving time and money in the long run.
Stop leaves and foliage entering the water
To help your fish survive over winter it is important that you go into the cold season with the best quality water you can. One of the big challenges with autumn is leaves falling off the trees and bushes in your garden. Whilst the spread of autumnal colours these give off may look pretty, they are a problem for your pond.
The problem with leaves entering your pond is they will eventually rot down over winter and in early spring. When this happens they release gasses into the pond which helps algae grow, and will also lead to a build up of sludge on the bottom of your pond.
During winter if the pond is frozen, the gasses released have nowhere to go as they cannot escape the water and this can lead to a toxic build up as well as dramatically reducing water quality for your fish
Start to reduce feeding
Like many others I suspect feeding time is one of my favourite times of the day out at the pond. However, it is now getting to the time of year where you need to start slowing down the feed rate to maintain water quality as well as the health of your fish. The same principle applies whatever variety of fish you have in your pond
As the water temperature drops, your fish’s metabolism starts to slow down as a direct consequence of the change. As the water temperature in your pond drops below 10°C, their digestive system slows down significantly. With a water temperature in your pond that is below 7°C, many pond species like Koi and Goldfish can barely digest protein at all.
Any food that sits undigested in a cold fish’s stomach will unfortunately begin to rot and ferment internally within your fish. This has some fairly grim consequences as it leads to severe and often fatal, bacterial infections, bloat, and intestinal blockages for your fish. Not something any of us would willingly condone.
As you have read throughout this article there is one thing to focus on at this time of year, and that is water quality. Whilst that is no different to any other time of year, the challenges presented with pond water quality at this time of year have a different focus. Hopefully you have found it helpful – check back in a few weeks when we talk about the key challenges for winter maintenance.
