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- Submerged Oxygenator Pond Plants -
Anacharis, Vallisneria, Hornwort, Red Ludwigia, Cabomba.

Submerged Oxygenator Pond Plants - These plants are productive in the watergarden due to the fact that they compete with algae for the nutrients in the water and effectively reduce the amount of algae that will be able to grow helping to keep the water clear. You don't need to fertilize them because you want them to take advantage of the excess nutrients (nitrates) already present in your pond water.

Planting  Submerged Plants - If you have fish in your pond it is suggested that you try and cultivate them in gravel pockets. Just push them into the gravel and bringing the gravel back onto the roots and stem. Each pond is a bit different and you will learn as you go. You can also use light rubber bands around a few of the stems bound together and clip fish sinkers on the rubber band and they will drop to the bottom if you have no gravel for them to root in.

These plants are somewhat hardy, but not extra hardy for hard winters in shallow ponds. Rule of thumb here is "If your pond freezes over, winter plants inside." Keep in a kid's plastic pool with a grow light.

They are sold in bunches of 6-8 stems (about a big handful) except for Vallisneria which is a rooted plant. It is advised to use one bunch of plants per 1-2 square feet of water surface area.

For great water quality you should have 40-50% of your pond's surface planted.

Say the pond graphic above is 8' x 10' which is 80 sq'. Since we want 1/2 planted, that equals 80/2 or 40 sq'. We know that we need about 1 to 2 plants per sq' that we want to cover. That is 40 sq' divided by 2 which is 20. So then, 20 is the magic number for how many plants (bunches) we need. 1 bunch equals a big handful with floating and submerged plant orders.

The shortcut to all of this is to divide your total surface area in square feet by 4.
So, if your pond is 8' x 10' it is 80 sq' and 80/4 = 20 Plants (Bunches)

How much is a "Bunch?" A bunch is standard terminology for submerged plants. Imagine a nursery worker grabbing a reasonable handful and that is 1 bunch. In the case of Anacharis, the plant below, Anacharis come bunched in a group of individual plants. Maybe 6 to 8 plants per bunch. So 1 bunch is about handful. If you order 25 plants you in effect get 25 bunches.