How to Plant Pond Plants Without Soil

Soilless plants keep your pond water clear.

If you want a clearer pond, you may want to consider going soilless. Pond baskets will allow you to grow pond plants in the water using stones instead of soil. Pond water that does not have a constant amount of soil leaching in from submerged pots will look clearer. Pond plants can live happily without soil, deriving their necessary vitamins and minerals from a pond fertilizer.

Things You'll Need

• Newspaper
• Pond baskets
• Assorted-sized stones
• Pea gravel
• Bricks or concrete blocks
• Fertilizer
• Pond plant food or fish

Instructions

1. Remove the pond plants, along with their root balls, from the soil. Rinse the plants and their root balls under warm water, rinsing the roots completely of soil. Set the plants to the side on a piece of newspaper.

2. Set one plant in the center of a pond basket. Holding the plant erect with one hand, place assorted-sized stones around the plant to hold it in place. The stones will also weigh down the basket, preventing it from floating up to the water surface after submergence.

3. Continue the process of placing one plant in the center of each basket and surrounding them with stones, until each pond plant has a pot. Pour a 1-inch layer of pea gravel over the stones in each basket.

4. Submerge the pond baskets in water, with the foliage of each plant above the water line. You may need to set the baskets on bricks or concrete blocks to keep the foliage higher than the water.

5. Feed the soilless pond plants a diet of pond plant food or introduce some koi or goldfish to your pond, if they are not living in it already. Nutrients that the plants would have derived from the soil are given off as waste products by the fish.

Tips & Warnings

• Alternatively, line the baskets with three to four sheets of newspaper, set a pond plant in the middle of the pond basket and fill with untreated kitty litter.

• Do not dig up plants from public ponds, rivers or lakes. These plants are part of the natural environment. Removing them can cause a disruption to the ecosystem, not to mention they may contain pests and diseases that can transfer to your home pond.

References

• Garden Ponds 101: Planting Your Pond Plants
• Bonnie's Plants: Growing Pond Plants Soilless and Having a Cleaner Pond

Resources

• Pond Solutions: Aquatic Plant Supplies
• Pond Doc: The Benefits of Soilless Planting