the plantedtank
Preparing Your Tub Pond
and Plants for the Off-Season
As I put on my plant guy costume this month, I’ll say happy Halloween to all of our readers! I gave a talk recently at an
aquarium society meeting on the subject of
summer fish tubs and small ponds. These
are great for breeding and raising fish with
exceptional size, vigor, and color with less
effort than in an aquarium. During my
presentation, and afterward through email, I
received questions from several attendees on
what to do with your tub and pond plants
during the cold winter months. I thought
I’d use my stint in “The Planted Tank” this
month to discuss how to handle the end-of-
season ritual around the water garden.
Overwintering Based
on Water Depth
FLOATING PLANTS
Ted Coletti has been an
aquarist for over 25 years and
specializes in livebearing fish
and water gardens. He has served
on the Boards of the American
and Northeast Livebearer
Associations, the latter as
co-founder. His book, Aquarium
Care of Livebearers, is published
by TFH/Animal Planet. Ted’s
other hobby is competitive
sleeping while eating.
photographs by the author
ted coletti
Hardy or Tropical?
There are several ways to overwinter your
plants, but they all depend on two factors:
cold tolerance and water depth preference.
In pond circles, cold tolerance is divided
into two categories, hardy and tropical.
Hardy pond plants are the ones that
survive the winter and keep coming back
year after year. These will start a period of
dormancy following a few autumn frosts.
Most hardy plants can be placed below the
frost line at the bottom of a pond for the
winter. Some can even withstand freezing
water and ice around them for short periods
during dormancy.
Tropical pond plants (and most
aquarium plants fall in this category) prefer
temperatures of 70°F and higher, and will
die off when kept for extended periods of
time at temperatures below 60°F. If you
reside in the deep south of the United States,
this may not be an issue, as you could
keep your plants outside year-round. The
occasional frost from a freak storm would
set back your hardy plants temporarily and
kill off your tropical plants, however.
BOG (MARGINAL) PLANTS
Marginals are plants that generally grow best
in moist soil or a few inches of water. Most of
the marginals we keep in the hobby are hardy
in nature. My favorites include the chameleon
plant, aquatic mint, variegated four-leaf clover,
Bacopa caroliniana (which can also be a true
aquatic plant), and forget-me-not (which my
wife, the certified master gardener, had me
destroy because it became invasive).
Ponders usually plant marginals in the soil
right along the edge of the pond. In such a
case, you can just cover them with mulch
for the winter. Summer tubbers (people who
keep fish tubs and not ponds), like myself,
do not have that luxury. I take my marginals,
cut off all the foliage and the roots sticking
through the pot, and let them drain out for
30 www.tfhmagazine.com
October 2010
