garyh20ski

@LoopSki I am one of the 2 owners of the Ski Lake in Middletown and it is not and has never been dry. Not sure where you got that information....

@Skoot1123 For cattails we have had really good success with a cocktail of Clearcast, Aquaneat and a pine oil based surfactant.

rogerw The photo was taken in the fall so the grass in the pasture land is pretty dry. We actually average around 40" of annual rainfall. We do keep the lake full in late summer and fall with supplemental well water.

Bonavita Middletown, CA

To be more specific our lake is about 60 acre feet in capacity. We use Sonar Genesis liquid. Our application is 12 gallons annually. 6 gallons initial treatment with a follow up of 3 gallons each 30 and 60 days post initial dosing. We get the Sonar Genesis for around $300 per gallon for a total annual cost of around $3500. We just dump it out behind the boat so it is super easy to dose the lake. It nukes the weeds but does not have any effect on algae. For that we use a chelated copper in a dry pellet form that we spray out of a backpack sprayer.

I will second the use of Sonar.... Although expensive it has eliminated our Milfoil and Sago Pond Weed issues. We are in Northern California and could not get a permit for Grass Carp so have no experience with their effectiveness.

We treat our algae with chelated copper in a dry granular form. After becoming frustrated applying with a hand spreader we bought a Stihl backpack sprayer. It is essentially a leaf blower that has a tank on top and can be quickly switched to spray both liquid and dry material. It will spray out the dry copper granules approximately 40 feet. This makes quick work treating the algae in shallow water from the shore or spot treating deeper water from a boat.

@skoot1123 makes some very important points. In constructing our lake we had a 3' x 300' depression along a fence line created by cattle walking. Army Corps required us to buy into a mitigation bank to offset the loss from constructing the lake. Army corps saw no value in the 12+ acre wetland we were creating. Army corps as well as the CA State Water Resource Control Board take loss of waters of the United States very seriously. The fines they levy for violations are absolutely mind blowing. I would suggest contacting a biologist to at a minimum do a wetlands determination. It is expensive to play by the rules but is nothing compared to the potential costs of fines levied and reconstruction to the original site condition.

Forgot to mention the two follow up doses of Sonar were the slow release pellets.

We are in Northern CA and DFG will not issue Grass Carp stocking permits to us. We had a pretty severe issue with Sago Pond Weed and Eurasian Water Milfoil. Last year we treated it with Reward. It knocked the weeds back but they quickly came back. This year treated with Sonar. First dose was liquid with two follow doses each 21 days later. The results were awesome. Weeds gone and have not come back. We did have a algae bloom after the weed die off. I think the decomposing weeds may have been a part of that happening.

@estrom That is the lake. We have a lot of double headers with skiing in the am and golf or Mtn biking at Boggs in the pm. Not to mention a ton of great local wine tasting. Let me know when you want to come up it's like Disney Land for grown ups.

@estrom you will have to visit sometime and take a ride. @AB you would not believe regulatory agencies in CA we had over 25 involved in our permiting which took 5 years. We even had to buy wetland mitigation credits as USACE deemed a 12 acre ski lake as having no wildlife value. Grass Carp would be the perfect solution.

Just over the Napa county line in Middletown

Hi everyone new here to ball of spray. I have a somewhat new lake in Nor Cal wine country that is now in our fourth year. We developed a Sago pond weed issue last year and treated with Reward. This stunted the growth for a few months but the weeds have kept coming back.. Tried to get a stocking permit with DFG for grass carp but they will not issue for our area. Was told by our chemical supplier to use Sonar but was a bit surprised at the cost. Could buy a few new skis at the price of a single treatment. The lake is about 50 acre feet in capacity, no fish other than mosquito fish, and we do not irrigate from it. Have read a bit about Diuron sp? But many seem to recommend against it. Any advice from others who have has similar problems? Thanks, Gary