Deb_NY
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Should cattails go in the northend of the pond or the south

I would like to transplant some cattails and add them to the edge of the pond.
[img][url=https://img806.imageshack.us/I/pondnorthend.jpg/][img]https://img806.imageshack.us/img806/9189/pondnorthend.th.jpg[/img][/url]
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This is the northend. Would they be good there? :? (In the back corner, left hand side of the pic)
Will they be easy to control - you know - not take over?

:!: All advice welcome :!:

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rainbowgardener
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I'm not any expert on cattails and have never grown them, but since no one else replied, here's my thoughts.

I don't think it matters which end of the pond. They are pretty hardy and adaptable and will grow in full sun or part shade. So whatever looks best in your landscape.

They are very aggressive spreaders and will take over your pond edges. They don't like water more than about 6 inches deep, so they won't take over the whole pond (presuming parts of it are deeper than that). And they won't spread onto dry land. But they will claim all of that edge territory. If you don't want that you might want to plant them in a submerged container.

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applestar
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I don't know if there is a rational to this line of thought, but FWIW this is what occurred to me:

Assuming cattails are sun loving full-sun preferred plants --

- If you plant on the North end, the cattails will want to spread southward. Being blocked by the deeper waters, they will probably speed along around the shoreline.

- If you plant on the South end, the cattails will want to spread southward.
They will spread as far as they can up the south shore of the pond until the ground is too dry.

What do you think?

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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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Here are a couple links that I recommend that your read. This one is to give you more information on the cattail Typha latifolia. (as I don't know much about them) [url]https://www.floridata.com/ref/t/typh_lat.cfm[/url]

If you are wanting to go with any other water edging types you could also go with the Cyperus Papyrus [url]https://www.floridata.com/ref/c/cypa_pap.cfm[/url]

I'm not sure of your actual location so Papyrus may not grow there. I think that most if not all pond edgings like that of the Papyrus and the Cattail will spread rapidly... ( I haven't seen any yet that don't ) If you ever find one that doesn't spread rapidly let me know lol

Hope this helped a bit and G'luck :)

Deb_NY
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:) Thank you ..! for all the info. It sounds like I shouldn't plant or transplant them unless I am willing to tend them.. No thank you. LoL :?

The links were very helpful, thank you BewilderedGreenyO.

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applestar
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You're right, if you hadn't realized it, they WILL spread and take over unless they're controlled. BUT, before you write them off, you might want to look up cattails as wild harvest edible. Said to be great source of vegetarian protein (pollen), the heart of the stems can also be eaten like hearts of palm.

Last fall, the kids brought back some cattails from a lake. We put them out for the birds to use for nesting material. They formed fluff, finches and other birds loved them, and their activity blew the fluff around. Several cattails sprouted in my little rice paddy this spring. I couldn't let them stay there, so I pulled them out when they were about 4' tall and tried the hearts. They were delicious, and the rest of the very brittle outer leaves provided great GREENS for my compost pile.

If I had a sizable pond or lake with clean water, I would definitely consider planting cattails.

https://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/native/cattail.html

Deb_NY
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Applestar.. thank you. Did you boil them? (the hearts) :?



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