The pond store told me that the lettuce needs shade, try it in that pond and see how it does.

Yup, like Family said, lettuce needs shade. They can tolerate some morning sun, but they need afternoon shade. I didn't realize that when I tried it last year, and that was the reason mine failed.

Thanks for the suggestion. I just moved them to the mostly shady pond, but I don't think that is the whole answer. Last time I tried them they were in the mostly shady pond and did not do well at all. (that's why I tried them in the sunniest pond this time)

So, they are back to the shady pond, and I am still waiting for more suggestions if anyone has other ideas.

Some people have suggested taking WH that aren't doing well and put them into a tub with Miracle Grow in it for a day or two, take them out and rinse them off and return them to the pond. Perhaps it would work with the Lettuce also. I haven't tried it so don't know how well it would work. I have a problem with the WH not doing well in my pond and I have even tried to contain them with a floating ring. My daughter, however has a little 275 gal pond and they go wild in her pond but so does all her other plants. She say's I keep my pond too clean. LOL Glenda

I agree with Glenda tho I've never tried it. Pull a bunch out every so often, fertilize them for a couple days, rinse and return them to the pond. Has anyone tried this with WL?

So your pond's too clean huh Glenda? Now that it's warmer here (a whopping 64F today) could you come work your magic on mine? (grin) S

Sarah, I would love to. If only I had the time. Would love to visit with you. Glenda

The miracle grow might be a tool of last resort if nothing else seems to work, but it seems me that this is a sidestep of the problem without really understanding the problem, which isn't my style. Some people report being very successful at growing lettuce without soaking the plants in a tub of MG. I want to know their secrets. If I can make my pond lettuce friendly by changing the pH, or adding some miracle nutrient, I would prefer to do that. It doesn't seem like it should be all that difficult to give the plant what it wants without pulling the plants out of the pond.

Larryl, that's something you need to figure out for yourself then. I would not go changing the Ph of my water just to accomodate a plant when my fish are happy in the Ph they're in. When you come up with the miracle nutrient that will grow great lettuce without harming your fish, then share it with us please. Glenda

After two seasons of underperforming Lettuce I called my supplier and he diagnosed my problem. Here were the tips he gave me.

1. Too much sun will burn them...especially when first introduced to the pond. Shade is best.

2. They need calm water.

3. Koi (sometimes goldfish) loooove their roots which will stunt their growth or kill them.

4. Splash from waterfalls on their leaves constantly will burn them or cause them to get gooey in the middle.

My first batch all died slow deaths. Yellowing, shrinking then dying. My second batch did about the same but instead just made a lot of small plants but no real big ones. But this year they are doing fine. No where near as fast population as Water Hyacinth though.

The first thing I have learned about water lettuce that seems critical is how you introduce it to your pond. During transport (especially mail order) the roots dry out and water isn't flowing to the leaves. If you toss them right in to a sunny spot they fry and kill the plant. The damage apparently happens right away but it shows up slowly and is irreversible. This is what killed my first batch. I just tossed em in the pond after unpacking them.

The second batch I did as the retailer suggested and I let them sit in bowl of water inside for 2 days with only a little sunlight. Then they seemed to do great...but then the little buds never got big and I had small little mini lettuces and no real big ones. At the end of the season I was scooping them out when I realized that they had all had their roots munched off. I kept a couple goldfish and one koi in that area of the pond and dont feed them so that they keep the mosquito/bug population down. I always intended to move the koi down but couldnt catch the bugger.

This year I caught the koi, shaded my lettuce when I got it and now they are doing quite well. Allthough my WH is threatening to choke out the space I left for them.

Here in Oregon I'm convinced that we lack heat and sunshine for them and since they don't thrive they attract aphids like crazy. I didn't even have much luck in my heated greenhouse.

I have better luck with hyacinths but they still don't do nearly as well as they do in other climates.

Both water hyacinths and water lettuce are native to sunny hot climates.

I might add that I'm going on 11 years with my ponds and have tried one, the other or both every year.

Buyorsell, it might be the heat. Even though I live in sunny southern Oregon, my pond really runs cool in the summertime. Even on really hot summer days my pond won't get over 70 degrees. It's deep and usually has a significant plant cover which deflects heat. Right now it is running just over 55 degrees due to the cool spring.

You make me wonder about sun though. Do you think I should move the plants back into the sunnier pond?

My water lettuce has small black bugs on them. Can I use the alcohol/peroxide solution on the lettuce while in the pond without hurting the fish and snails?

Larry, I think you have probably hit the nail on the head about the water being too cool.

I push the envelope every year, by putting the Water Lettuce into my ponds a bit too early in the season, around the middle of May.
Our ambient temperatures at that time average between 55°F/60°F,with the odd day where it we may reach 70°F during daylight hours. At night the temperature really drops down and we may even get a frost. Like I said, I do push it and take a chance of losing the plants all together!
Because the water is cool the WL, more or less stay static and don't really look like they are going to make it.
But after we have a few days of the 70°F plus temperatures they take off and go crazy.

My ponds are mostly in the sun, with a bit of mid-morning shade because of the trees at one side of our yard.
I don't feed my pond plants anything other than some Muriate of Potash and some Chelated Iron now and again.
The lilies get a chunk or two of tree/shrub spike to boost them.

I wish I could give you some definitive answer to what may be the cause of your W L plants not doing well, but it strikes me it could be the lack of warmth in the water.

In July and August I have to cull the WL every week because they grow so big and multiply so much.
"Horton"

They're probably aphids, Deckers. You can rinse them off with water, and if you have fish, they will love the snack.

Brenda

My neighbor calls me every 8 days and she fills me up a 5 gallon bucket of water lettuce...She has a very small pond that is well shaded....When I throw the lettuce in my pond its a dark green compared to the yellow lettuce I have..I would guess she has nutrient rich water and the shade must help a bunch...My pond sees full sun from noon until sundown..also I tried putting the lettuce in totes with Miracle Gro..Shake N' Feed...I left them in there for 3 days...the leaves were starting to get that darker green shade back...plus they were shaded a bit more than the pond..any how..that's my 2 cents....lol.....Dave

Larry, I would love to hear how your WL grew this summer.

Just yesterday I was talking to the local ponding expert and she said that in our area, it seems that either WH or WL do well in a pond, but not both in the same pond.

I recently added iron and potassium chloride to my pond, due to having read older posts from you, and my lone sickly WL plant has greatly improved. The WH have not had as much improvement. But I just added epsom salts yesterday. The local ponding expert recommended the trio of nutrients to a local person and her WL perked up and turned a nice dark green.

Even in southern BC, with cool nights and sunny very hot days, some people have to purge their pond of the extra WL.

My water lettuce has done well this year. The individual plants are small, unlike the head-of-lettuce look of the original plants, but I have thousands of them. They are green and bug free. The only thing I am doing differently now, compared with the year they did poorly, is I am adding nitrates. I have been adding potash and iron for a long time, but started adding nitrates only about five years ago. I really don't know if the difference is the nitrates, or not, but something is different.

My water hyacinths and watercress have also done really well this year. I just removed about a hundred pounds of watercress to make room for the bulging hyacinth population. I only started with about twenty puny hyacinths this year and used watercress as a nutrient absorbing substitute in the early season, so it took awhile for the hyacinths to really take over.

I have been keeping my nitrate level at around 20 PPM and would recommend that level for good plant growth. It just might be the secret for water lettuce. I can't say that for sure, because it could be something else that I'm not aware of, but they certainly have done well this year. I'll try some WL next year and see what happens.

If anyone has an explanation why they haven't formed heads-of-lettuce let me know.

The other thing that is different this year, is tree cover. My trees have grown considerably, and now provide lots more shade than the last time I tried WL. The pond they are in is now mostly shady, whereas it was maybe half shaded last time I tried WL.

larryl, I believe my pond, with a small fish load, is missing nitrogen. So what did you add to increase the nitrate level? And what method do you use to measure the nitrate level? I have seen a few strips on the Net, but am wondering if there is one that you recommend, seeing as you obviously have a great deal of knowledge on the subject of ponding!

I bought both my WL and WH online and my pond is not shaded at all from the hot Mississippi sun. The transit in the mail got to to them. When I got my WH, they started browning and looking like they were melting at the tips. My WL didn't do well at first either. When I took them out of the package they looked liked tossed salad, but I put them in anyway. I was battling with the balancing act of my water, so I figured patience would need to be applied to the plants as well. The WL started to turn white at the tips, and looked like they were melting. But I left them all in the pond anyway. But then they started yellowing too, so I tried the advice about putting them in some miracle grow in a separate bowl. I didn't have the liquid but I found some sticks in my garage, and broke them up and put them in a bowl of water in a couple of bowls. I rotated my water lettuce and water hy. for a days soak over night and put them back in the pond the next morning, just once each..My WL multiplied like like crazy and almost took over the pond. They grew so many new babies. Now my WH have grown and turned dark green and looking like they should. My WL looks firm and cupped like they should be, and I am having to thin them out of my pond so I can see the water. I think patience and just letting them get use to the new environment helped. I will also give credit to the plant food soak too.

Well Rooted, I apologize for not responding to your post earlier. I just missed it. I think I was out of town.

I add potassium nitrate, which supplies potassium (AKA potash) as well as nitrogen. I use the Mardel 5-in-1 strips. There are some other strips that are worthless, so try for the Mardel strips. Be sure to follow the directions exactly. Keep the strips dry until you use them and don't ever use wet fingers to get a strip out.

Some people are skeptical about adding nitrogen, but I have been doing it for years with no problems. I started carefully, but I now add nitrogen with abandon. No big deal.

No problem larry. I kept checking...and hoping...and you came through. Thanks!

So now I will check around for some potassium nitrate. My husband said to go to the drugstore and ask for saltpetre and tell them that my husband is getting too frisky.

Or that I want to build a bomb.

I think I will stick with trying to remove a tree stump.

I am now excited about next year!

Thanks again.

I've got lettuce in the top of my skippy filter. I took this one out and took a photo of it.
{{gwi:201601}}From Webshots

Jenion

This year my (e-Bay) dwarf WH have taken over the pond. The (local store) regular size WH are completely in charge of the settlement chamber and the waterfall bio filter. The WL, I don't think they were dwarfs, but they look like it - my DH likes them, I don't. They collect bugs and they melt. They were barely holding their own between the WH's, and I have scooped many families out that were almost completely eaten. But! now that it's almost the end of the season and we just had our first night frost, I notice quite a few very healthy families! Small, but perfectly lettuce shaped!

Go figure.

:) Mary

We use Flourish, its a water supplement (the post about the water being to clean is so true!) it helps our water lettuce grow beautifully even if our turtles munch on them. Our turtle pond also doesn't have a high powered fountain like our koi pond does, we instead have a gentle bubbling waterfall.