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| Accessory Aquatic Plants |
The aquatic plants which remain are those that you can order from
practically any dealer, and those that will thrive in practically any section of the United States.
These plants keep pool water healthful by releasing oxygen into it
and taking from it carbon dioxide, which, in strength, becomes poisonous to fish. These oxygenators can be seen at their work frequently in
patches of strong sunlight, particularly when they are producing an
overabundance of oxygen. Tiny, silvery bubbles form on the submerged
foliage, break away, and rise to the surface.
Oxygenators contribute to the pool's welfare in other ways. Just by
being there, they offer enough competition for sunlight and food to keep
microscopic vegetable organisms from multiplying too rapidly. It is
these tiny suspended vegetable organisms, in overabundance, that turn
pool water a murky, unattractive green.
Foliage of the submerged plants also serves, to an extent, as a bed
to receive the spawn of goldfish and provides a protective cover in which
baby fish hide.
How to Plant the Oxygenators
These plants, Anacharis, Cabomha, Ludwigia and Myriophyllum,
will grow without planting. Merely twist a piece of wire around the
base of the stems to serve as ballast and to hold the stalks upright. Then
drop them into the pool. They will grow more luxuriantly, however, if
the stem ends are stuck into a small flower pot of heavy loam. A 4- or
5-inch pot will accommodate up to half a dozen plants. Vallisneria and
Mares-Tail should be planted in pots or boxes of loam and placed on
the pool floor.
All of these submerged plants are perennials. If you live in a mild
climate, you may never have to reorder them. You may have to replace
the more delicate, feathery plants, however, if your pool freezes over
and if your goldfish tear them pretty well to pieces during the winter
period of little or no growth. All are inexpensive.
Submerged Aquatics
Anacharis- (Elodea canadensis). Also called Ditch-Moss, Water-Pest, Water-Thyme, Babbingtons-Curse. A fine oxygenator for outdoor
pools. Located where there is plenty of sun, it is an extremely free
grower, as some of its unflattering names imply. A wild form, somewhat smaller and sparsely foliated, grows throughout the United States
and in southern Canada. This, if transplanted to your pool, will do very
well, but the cultivated form is inexpensive and far superior. In an
aquarium indoors, either form does poorly. A healthy, cultivated plant
in an outdoor pool is about 6 inches long, with pliant stems bearing
whorls of deep green, willowlike leaves. It spreads quickly by runner
and, if it can find enough soil in which to root, will develop a plant
chain several feet long on the bottom of the pool.
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