weed harvester

[eleeski]

Ken from Canada is coming to ski with me tomorrow. I've been to Canada. The water is cold and clean. He's in for a surprise.

 

I arrived at my lake this evening. The pondweed has totally taken over. Now we were just skiing on Sunday and it was fine. Today I wonder if a skier can get up at all. Ball of weeds!

 

I know Aquarius sells weed harvesters but they are priced somewhere between a new ski boat and the entire lake. With the invasives paranoia a weed harvester will be stuck at one site. I certainly don't want Stan's milfoil in my pond and he doesn't want my chara. I have enough projects that building one won't happen for a while.

 

So I hop in the lake and start clearing by hand. Gross job. But I notice something odd. The water around the weeds is colder than the rest of the lake. Are the weeds growing so fast that the conversion of sunlight to biomass uses all the energy in the sunlight leaving nothing to warm the lake with?

 

I need a good use for the weeds. Gallagher fed some to her bugs but they didn't like it. I know that if I could make money from it I wouldn't be able to get any to grow. And the skiing would be great. Still wouldn't make any money off skiing...

 

Eric

[mwetskier]

have you tried drying them and smoking them? you might stumble onto the next big thing. . . or you could develop green lung disease.

 

on a serious note the japanese discovered a super slippery massage gel made from nori seaweed so maybe there actually is some kind of commercial extract or homeopathic use for the stuff. meanwhile i think i remember richard doan from up here in wa state posting pics on here of a thing he made to pull behind his boat that clipped weeds off at there base with no getting in the water. so maybe ask him about that.

[Wolfeie]

We had the same problem at Ski West last spring into early summer. Combo of mild winter and our dye injector was broken. You will never win doing it by hand, we were pulling weeds our every weekend. We ended up hiring a harvester then closing lakes down for a few days and dumping chemicals in. We added black dye to our blue dye. Seemed to work, so far we are weed free this year, but it was a costly to remove the weeds.

[eleeski]

Here's the pitch: crossfit algae rolling. I just got my evening workout cleaning the chara out of the lake. @MarcusBrown needs to visit - not for the skiing but for the workout. And my lake will get cleaner.

 

@Mark_Matis Between the cormorants and the brackish water, grass carp don't do that well here. Permits are a pain and the fish are expensive. The dye is usually good enough.

 

@mwetskier @RichardDoane is practically a Canadian. And cutting the weeds just spreads them around. The old American Skier had a bulldozer blade to push weeds at one time.

 

@Wolfeie Who was your harvester? I usually add some yellow to the blue dye. Maybe that's the difference.

 

The lake skis well - if you can get up. I might have to put in a start buoy and clean there. It's manageable.

 

Eric

[smilinjim]

http://weedersdigest.com/boat-mounted-lake-weed-cutter-for-lake-or-pond/

It will take some time and the cleanup is a lot of work. You have to get any cut weeds out of the lake!

[oldjeep]

@smilinjim now that is an interesting toy. Those guys are local, but I haven't been over there since I got my dad his original weed rake.

[smilinjim]

@oldjeep I did it the wrong way last year with the throw weed razor. My pond guy suggested this thing. I re-stocked carp last summer and hope that they do their job again.

 

There are a few companies making this type of cutter.

[liquid d]

$2700!!!? are you kidding me?! That's nuts. we were over grown with hydrilla years back. There's a much cheaper way. Get 3 ropes and 2 weights (25 lbs each). Works easiest with 2 boats, by throwing the weights in the water as far apart as the rope allows, making a squared off "U". Boats just drag them down the lake like a lawnmower. You can do it with one boat for smaller areas, but the weights will go together as you drag.

[MISkier]

Wow, for $2700 you don't even get the battery. I expected them to include the boat for that price. I wonder if you could also rig the battery to recharge from your boat motor to extend the life - or just wire it to the boat battery.

[6balls]

How many acres need treated?

[Zman]

Diquat marine herbicide from Syngenta did amazaing job clearing our lake a few years ago. And, it was a mess. Fairly cheap too. About 250 for 2.5 gallons. Pour it in a plastic tote full of oil dry. Let it absorb into the oil dry for a few days. The 2.5 gallon jug should mix well with 60 lbs of oil dry. Then broadcast the oil dry where you want to kill weeds first, like your course area. For us, about 2 to 3 weeks later the weeds began dying. The oil dry sinks and slowly releases the herbicide near the base of the weeds for good contact.

For us, carp would not eat the tough viney weed we had, only the new growth. So, we did both the herbicide for the established weed and carp for new growth. Really did the trick.

Good luck!

[eleeski]

I see I'm not alone with the weed issues. Thanks for all the ideas.

 

@smilinjim I need their eco harvester. Just need to find the older promo harvester that I can get for a good deal.

 

I'm not quite at the needing chemicals stage. Plus that might not be an option if other things work out.

 

Really, I just need to ski more. Yesterday's runs with a bit of manual harvesting has the lake looking better.

 

Eric

[6balls]

Harvesting is a pain cuz u have to get rid of the stuff n u will be shocked at how much mass there will be.

Chemicals are not cheap but work great. Our lake association treats about 30 acres. To have it professionally done is costly between $300-$400 per acre I'm sure lots cheaper on your own n suspect far less acreage as well.

[fu_man]

I feel like the Aquatic weed cutter is the equivalent of using an Easy Bake Oven to bake a wedding cake for 300 guests. If you cut the top 12 inches off the weeds they will just re sprout.