Goldfish magically appeared, now they are breeding like rabits!
casey_t
16 years ago
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pikecoe
16 years agocydriasgarden
16 years agoRelated Discussions
It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 17
Comments (101)Hi JG, It's good to hear from you again, JG. Please forgive me for referring to your "Extreme Roll" zinnias as "Extreme Curl". The word "roll" is much more appropriate for the geometry of their petals than the word "curl". I should have referred back to your messages instead of relying on my memory. Let's have a drum roll for Extreme Roll. Maybe that can serve as a mnemonic for me. "I've got a number of Extreme Roll progeny coming up..it will probably be some time before I see any flowers or can show any photos! And there, I am optimistic... " I am very hopeful that you will get some more Extreme Roll specimens. I have never seen a zinnia like them and, because they are so unique, their flowers have a magical look. I hope they get a permanent place in zinniadom. "I'm finding, too that the topsoil I had in those bags is a terrible absorbant for water...I'll take my garden soil over that any time! Water actually rolls off the growing mixes, too, when they are hot and dry. I wonder why some sort of wetting agent isn't added!" I wonder, too. I have a bag of Peat Moss that I had intended to use for inside gardening, but when it gets dry, it is just like you described. Water sets on top of it in beads. It takes forever for it to absorb the water. I'm going to give up on it and incorporate it in some outdoor garden soil. There is a small flower bed at the front of the house that I think I will incorporate it into, along with a dose of fill sand. I think that Miracle-Gro is advertising some growing mixes that are kind of foolproof, and I think they also have some of those water absorbing crystals and the mix also kind of expands when it gets watered. And it may have a plant-friendly wetting agent. The TV ads for it look kind of enticing. It probably costs too much to use on a large scale, but I can see how it would be appropriate for small high-value flower beds. I am building another compost pile. Weeds and lawn clippings are an almost inexhaustible source of organic matter in this rural environment. Well rotted compost and sand are two of my favorite soil amendments. I mentioned a plant friendly wetting agent. Obviously there are such things. In the past I have used small amounts of Dawn dishwashing detergent in some of my foliar sprays. I am not sure of the chemistry of Dawn, but I have seen them using it to wash oil slicks off of waterfowl, so it is at least "bird friendly". However, some detergents are phytotoxic to plants. Some detergents can act as herbicides. I suppose I should do some experiments with Dawn on zinnias. I currently have some Tween 20 and Tween 80 that I have used in my indoor gardening. They are food grade, so hopefully they are safe to use. But I haven't done experiments with them to determine at what levels they might be phytotoxic. "I finally watered the plants two days ago in anticipation of this very hot spell. I've been conservative with the water because we are on a well. On average, the plants are about 5-6" high now with some trying to put out buds. This is the worst gardening season I have ever seen! " Same here. I have been using a lawn sprinkler on my zinnia patch to keep it from "burning up". And we have a rural well, too, and it will "run dry". When I see the water pressure starting to drop off, I turn off the sprinkler. The well recovers in a few hours. But this heat wave is going to be a continual problem for our well capacity. This close-up of a trumpet-petal recombinant shows the petals in some detail. It is a single bloom, and single zinnias are usually culls for me. But I am keeping this one around because it has an unusual "look". The petals remind me a bit of pitcher plants. That little beetle peeking out of a pitcher petal confirms that this is not a carnivorous plant. I do wonder, though, if a variation of this flower form could develop nutrient absorption capabilities that could produce a carnivorous strain of zinnias. Admittedly, that would be a real "stretch". But zinnias continue to surprise me with their odd variations. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)...See MoreEarthworms breeding in pond
Comments (17)I wish this post came with a solid answer, as I am 100% dealing with the same problem. I live in eastern WV. I have a small 50 gallon pond with 2 filters- one for the spillway/waterfall, the second for a small fountain thing and a frog thing that spits water, and a layer of smallish rocks at the bottom. We shutdown the filters for winter, and at the beginning of April we went out to clean the muck and debris that had accumulated. There were giant (and by giant, I am not exaggerating when I say one of them was at least 10" long) earthworm looking things EVERYWHERE in the water! They were NOT dead, some of them seemed to be grouped around what *looked like* bloated ticks (that's what I originally thought, but after some research, they might have been eggs?). We got out the ones we could see, put a water clarifying agent in the water and started the pumps up. I tried to research what the heck we were seeing, and I couldn't get a solid answer because of these people who just want to argue about what you actually saw in your own pond. It wasn't limited to this page. April 18th (about a week or two later), the spillway pump was down to a trickle, and the water fountain had tiny little worms (these looked like tiny earthworms, not red in color) coming out of the holes. We took the filters out, cleaned the muck off from them and found tiny worms were INSIDE the filter mesh. Soooooo.... we went out and bought some goldfish to put in there. Fish like worms, right?? Obviously a tiny goldfish isn't going to eat a 10" worm, but we were hoping they would go after the babies... eggs... larvae? Two days ago, April 27, the spillway was slowing down to a trickle again, the fountain was fine, though. Again cleaned muck, found worms. My husband pushed some of the rocks at the bottom around, and more of these giant worms started popping out. We decided to just start shoveling the rocks out. There really wasn't any plan beyond that, just get as many rocks out as we can, and go from there. So. Many. Worms. This time I got pictures of some of them! As my husband is shoveling these rocks out (being extra careful not to puncture the lining, or a goldfish), I'm spraying them off with a hose. Besides the giant earthworm looking guys woven through the rocks (and very much alive), there's teeny-tiny red worms attached to the rocks, as well. What the heck is going on in my pond?! The internet has not been helpful. I've learned more about worms than I ever wanted to know, but I have zero answers to my own problems. I either have glycera bloodworms (because of the tiny red worms), nightcrawlers (because of the full grown looking worms), and/or non-biting midge fly larvae (because those are also tiny red worms called bloodworms). Terrifying fun fact, glycera bloodworms have metal teeth, and they bite 😐. I wish I could go back to last year when the only "problem" we had in the pond were tadpoles. Help? Anyone? Suggestions (besides taking a flame thrower to my whole backyard, my husband said that isn't an option)? This is too much nature for me. Nature is gross. At least they aren't African Jumping Worms, because that's a thing. *gag*...See MoreMagic Fish?
Comments (11)I dug a 4-5 ft deep pond a few years ago. I had 12 baby koi a friend gave us in it and my ducks and geese ate them all. We had a drought that dried up the pond totally til the dirt cracked. I got rid of all my birds and 6 months later we had a very unusual rainy season that filled up my pond to way over flowing. Now I have minnows by the thousands (1/4 to 1 inch in size) I never put any in there. I captured some thinking they were koi babies. Not even close. I also have tadpoles and mosquitoes and other bugs I didn't before. So where did all these fish come from? I thought they were zebra danios that were eggs on aquarium plants we took out to the pond. These aren't them. These are all silver and see thru. Is it God working in mysterious ways? Eggs in the rain? We are close to a big lake. A pregnant fish a bird caught for dinner and dropped into my pond? This is one of the most "happy" bizarre things I have ever seen Someone please give me an answer......See MoreAnyway to tell if your goldfish spawned?
Comments (4)My pond come winter freezes completly. All the way down to the bottom. I guess I could get one of those heaters, but they seem to do fine when I bring them in (except for this year's mishap) Usually around March I have to remove the ice using a shovel so I can ready it for spring. If I didn't that puppy wouldn't fully melt untill May. I decided it would be fun to put my underwater camera in the pond to see if I could see anything interesting. I set it in various spots and clicked record and came back few mminutes later to watch them. Didn't see much, no water beetles which was surprising but I did notice that my white comet is defently a male! From the frames you can clearly see those white bumps on his gills. I didn't notice this on the other bigger comet but boy was she fat. I'm assuming 'she' based on her plumpness and cause I'm hoping her to be one! I did notice the white comet chased her around a bit for a couple seconds a couple of times. It wasn't constant pestering but there was a chase or two. I guess I'll just have to let them be and make nature do its course! Will be easy as I'm going away from two weeks. Thanks....See Morelefd05
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