Pond Fertilizer Uses

While pond fertilizing is not recommended for most ponds, there are specific conditions that warrant using pond fertilizers to increase the productiveness of one’s pond.

To review, the addition of fertilizers to pond water is a practice that is done to increase the planktonic algal bloom in the pond.  Plankton are groups of microscopic plants and animals that are consumed by insects and small fish.  If fertilizer is added in early spring and continuously added during the summer, the hope is that the water will bloom with plankton and the fish will have a very desirable food source that will in turn increase the fish size over the summer. 

Now, what situations are best for attempting to fertilize your pond?

1. Aquaculture ponds – these ponds are designed to produce fish, shellfish, or shrimp in the most cost effective manner possible along with the most pounds of product per pounds of input possible.  This means that the formation of planktonic algae from fertilizing a pond would likely be one of the most cost effective ways to produce more pounds of fish per acre.
2. Game fish ponds – these ponds are designed to create an environment that will produce large game fish in a short amount of time.  The idea of these ponds is to produce large fish fast by feeding smaller fish with plankton and, in turn, larger fish consume these fish faster and reach trophy size in a shorter amount of time.

These two situations are the chief situations that could benefit from fertilizing the ponds. 

Ponds that are not good candidates for fertilization include garden ponds, small ponds, association ponds, shallow ponds, retention ponds and ponds already battling submerged weed or algae growth.