Soil for replanting pond plants

Hi I would like some advice about replanting pond plants into bigger pots ..can anyone advise on which soil would be best to use thanks for your advice

 

You can buy pond plant compost, or I always just used some garden soil with the stones taken out.
Best if its not got any organic matter and a bit clayey.

 

As @pete says you can buy 'proper' Aquatic Compost, but see little point as it just soil with minimal nutrients so it does not put loads of nitrate etc in to the water which encourage algae.

That kind of gives you the clue that any type of soil / medium does not really do anything for the plant other than hold it down.

We would just place your plant into its new aquatic basket or pot with some small horticultural gravel or pea gravel around the empty spaces.

When potting on, its a good time to see if you can take off any small pieces of the main plant and pot that up to hopefully produce another good plant this summer.

 

Thanks for your advice ...I did try some pond soil but after putting the plants back into the pond the soil went on top of the pond ..I have tried to get floating soil out of pond with a net but now colour of water looks black so at the moment unsure best way forward apart from emptying the pond

 

@Gizmo .
If you do use soil the usual way of doing it is pot the plant in a basket, you then top it off with a 1in layer of pea shingle, or similar, just don't use anything sharp.

You then water it throughly before carefully lowering into the pond.
If the compost is in the slightest dry it will float.

The floating soil should settle eventually, I wouldn't empty the pond.

 

This is what the pond is like now can't see alot

 

That's nothing compared to mine.

If you want a sterile environment wildlife ponds are not for you.

 

I don't expect crystal clear water but it was alot clearer before I put in the new soil ....

Thinking about adding shelves to our wooden pond as well for different plants but have concerns how to put in shelves on the in side of wooden wall ...

 

Well whatever you do don't screw through the liners to fix the shelves.

 

mmmm i was thinking of shelves under the liners but concerns over edges going through the liners .. not sure if they do plastic shelves that you could use ,
our pond is approx 29 inch high and the only shelves are at ground level or just below ground level nothing above 29inch from ground to top of pond its just a straight wall of timber

 

So are thinking of draining the whole pond and taking the liner out in order to do this?

 

Unsure what to do really or how to solve it ...the pond is 6f x 5f ..no shelves really only the one in the bottom of the pond

 

As @pete says the pond will clear in time, though you will probablhave to change /clean the filters more often until things settle.

You cannot do anything to add shelves to the existing structure short of fitting a new liner.

The easier way would be to use something like these baskets filled with bricks or pea gravel so they give you the height you want. Always place something under the basket so you do not puncture the liner.

 

thanks for your replys i dont think i can add baskets into pond to lift plants up to the level they need example 2 inches of water as the orignal shelf i dont think its wide enough so the baskets would be more in the middle than the edge

 

Could you use house bricks or slightly smaller paving blocks.

Using some thin plastic coated or galvanised wire , or all plastic long cable ties, that you could fasten to the plants pot at 2 or 3 points then hang it to a hook screwed to the underside of the top decking board ?