Your pond is an ecosystem. If you want to make it a productive fishery, pond liming and fertilizing are important steps for keeping that ecosystem in balance and promoting fish growth.
Ready to reel in some trophy largemouth bass? If you are wondering why your bass are not tipping the scales yet, liming and fertilizing may solve the problem.
We can get you there with our liming and fertilizing service. For over two decades we have enabled pond and lake owners across Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas to maximize fishery productivity with these proven techniques.
First, it has an abundance of food to stimulate fish growth from the bottom to the top of the food chain.
Second, it has water that is not to too acidic to stimulate food growth.
Our team of experienced biologists and fishery management experts will assess the state of your water and whether lime and fertilizer will correct an imbalance and stimulate healthy growth.
Your pond’s ecosystem has a food chain with phytoplankton at the very bottom. These tiny organisms are the food of the small invertebrates and smallest fish living in your pond. Those critters are in turn eaten by larger fish, which in turn are eaten by even larger fish, all the way up to the monster trophy bass. And if we do this right, you will sit at the very top of that food chain.
The plankton play another important role. They absorb sunlight that penetrates down into the water. That prevents submerged pond weeds from growing out of control, which can disrupt your ecosystem, cut oxygen levels, and lead to a fish kill.
Just like fertilizing crops produces a better yield, fertilizing your lake will produce an abundance of plankton. You want to develop a nice plankton bloom, which means food is plentiful and growth will proceed right up the food chain.
Fertilizer increases your lake’s overall fish capacity and also stimulates fish growth so you can look forward to those monster bass. A healthy plankton bloom also limits light penetration and inhibits growth of nuisance lake weeds.
But the timing for fertilizing is critical. If submerged pond weeds have grown close to the surface, then the nutrients can stimulate their growth, which can cause an imbalance.
But fertilizer will not produce a healthy plankton bloom if your pond’s alkalinity is too low. Alkalinity is a measure of water’s ability to absorb acid, like the acid introduced from rainfall and water runoff. Too much acidity and the plankton won’t thrive.
Our fishery management experts will measure your lake’s pH to see if acidity is preventing fish population growth.
Liming is the process of correcting this problem. We add powdered agricultural limestone to your water. This raises the pH and increases alkalinity. The limestone must be applied evenly over the entire surface so it can settle and react with the pond mud.
The process of liming alone may spur a healthy plankton bloom. If fertilizer is needed we always ensure water alkalinity is corrected first through liming so the process will have the greatest impact.
Pond liming and fertilizing are key tools in maximizing fishery productivity. When these processes are performed correctly, a limed and fertilized pond will produce more fish and bigger fish for years to come. We generally advise our clients to consider re-applying pond lime and fertilizer every three to five years.
It is important to understand the chemistry and biology behind these techniques and to apply them in the correct manner at the right time. Our team of biologists and fishery management experts have helped hundreds of pond and lake owners across the region to boost the productivity of their ponds with proper pond fertilization and liming.
Frequently Asked Questions about Pond Fertilizing and Liming
Results of a standard water quality analysis, specifically the alkalinity and hardness values, are used to determine if lime is needed to correct imbalances in water quality.
Fertilizing helps increase the primary productivity and thus the productivity of the entire fishery.
Depending on precipitation and geographic location lime needs to be added every 1-3 years.
