September Meeting Saturday, September 2

6:00 PM - ? At

Well Garden Industries

1440 W. Douglas, Wichita

(About 4 blocks west of Seneca on Douglas in Delano)

Aquaponics

Aquaponics is the science that uses waste from raising fish to fertilize plants and vegetables. Well Garden Industries is developing Aquaponics setups from small aquariums to large commercial installations. We’ll have our normally fantastic potluck buffet. Please bring a main dish and a side or dessert and lawn chairs. Paper plates and plastic forks are provided, but you are also welcome to bring your own plates and service. Drinks will be provided.

UPCOMING EVENTS Sept 2: KPS Meeting Sept 9: Road trip - OKC Pond Tour Oct 7: KPS Meeting Nov 11: KPS Auction Dec 2: KPS Holiday Party

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

Jane Byrnes Deb Wierenga

President: Mike Kandt 838-6681, koikat@cox.net

Vice-President: Wanita Wright, 733-6626, wrightd9@aol.com Treasurer: Larry Determann 945-0017, ksscouter@cox.net Secretary: Susan Kandt, 838-6681, koikat@cox.net Newsletter Editor: Mike Kandt 838-6681, koikat@cox.net Webmaster: Wayne Determann, wdetermann@gmail.com

FROM THE PRESIDENT By Mike Kandt It almost happened again. A rain-out. But thanks to our hosts, Gale Lane and family, when the rain hit at about the start of our meeting, we were able to scurry inside a large garage building to eat and hear Gail’s presentation and demo on building a deer chaser fountain. Sorry about the mix-up beforehand. I didn’t know Gail had such a great backup plan. Thanks to Gail and family for their gracious hospitality. Susan, Wanita and I have returned from the 2017 International Waterlily and Watergarden Symposium in Pennsylvania where we were inundated over four days. We visited Longwood Gardens, Chanticleer Gardens, Winterthur, Mount Cuba, several private gardens, and garden centers. And this didn’t count the evening informal discussions with some of the world’s leading experts in watergardens and plants. One whole day was devoted to seminars on all kinds of topics. I’m still trying to process all the info we picked up, but you will hear more in months to come. In September, we will learn about Aquaponics at a local business called Well Garden Industries located in Delano. Well Garden is developing Aquaponics setups from small aquariums to large commercial installations. Aquaponics is the science that uses waste from raising fish to fertilize plants and vegetables. This is an even more technically advanced version of the installation we saw in Wamego a few years ago. We will tour their facility and check out lots of ways to grow fish and plants in limited space. Also in September, we will caravan to the Oklahoma City water garden tour on Saturday, September 9. It’s not too late to get your reservation in, so call or contact Wanita Wright ASAP. See the box later in this newsletter. In October we meet at Hong’s Nursery and have a presentation on bee-keeping. Yes, bees are important pollinators of water plants, too. In November we will have our auction. NOTE THAT THE DATE HAS CHANGED to the 11th to coordinate with Botanica’s room reservations. We will have some large pieces of pond liner available at the auction that has been donated by ABC Roofing. So start collecting your donation items and saving your cash for this event. Stay cool!!!

September 2017

ADVERTISING RATES Business Card Size Ad (about 2" x 3 ½"): $15 per 3-month period; $50 per year Quarter-Page Ad (about 3 ½" x 4 ½"): $30 per 3-month period; $100 per year Half-Page Ad (about 5" x 7 ½"): $60 per 3-month period; $200 per year Full-Page Ad (8 ½” x 11"): $400 per year

FREE KOI BABIES that need to find good homes.

We are cleaning my pond the last Saturday of September. If you would like some, please

CALL Wanita, 733-6626

Did you know… Well water has very low oxygen levels and may be high in carbon dioxide (CO2). The best way to fill your pond with well water is to aerate it by spraying into the pond. wcw

SWAP SHOP If you have articles, plants or fish to sell or give away, let me know at 838-6681 or koikat@cox.net

Want Small KOI – mbianco447@att.net Two new green plastic rain barrels; $30.00 each. Carol Daney, cdaney007@gmail.com UV light for sale - 10,000 gal. capacity plus 2 replacement bulbs. Unused, $300. New price of $950 and replacement bulbs at $127. Carol Daney, cdaney007@gmail.com

Water Lilies at Longwood Gardens

Victoria Amazonica

Victoria Cruziana

WATER PLANTS (by Mike Kandt)

Victoria Water Lily Nymphaeaceae Victoria amazonica

I know I have written about this wonderful plant before, but we just returned from Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania where several were on display, and you just can't help getting excited about this amazing water lily.

The Victoria water lily is also called the Water Platter. Leaves can get to be larger than 6 feet in diameter. Edges are turned up, prompting the term "Platter". All surfaces of the leaves below water and the stems are covered with lethal spines. Because of the size and spines, not too many grow this plant at home. It is usually reserved for large botanical garden displays. The large leaves can support up to 150 pounds. You will see many photos of babies and children sitting on the floating leaves.

There are two types of native Victoria: victoria amazonica and victoria cruziana. The former thrives in the waterways of the Amazon river. The latter comes from Argentina and Paraguay and has a taller rim. In 1960, Patrick Nutt from Longwood Gardens successfully crossed the amazonica and the cruziana to create the Longwood hybrid. This is the plant that grows at Botanica in Wichita.

The Victoria is a tropical lily and will not survive frost. It must be grown from seed every year. If you do want to try at home, starts are available from a limited number of southern growers. A single plantlet sprout can cost almost $100, and these are difficult to grow to maturity. Victorias have large fragrant flowers that smell like pineapple. The blooms open at night, close the next morning, and last three days. They then form seeds if pollinated.

If you choose to grow a Victoria, plan for a lot of space. A single plant can cover 15 feet in diameter. Pots for these plants are recommended to be up to 60” by 18” deep and need warm water, lots of sun, and fertilizer to grow. Some have tried to dwarf these by growing in smaller pots. One goal of modern hybridizers is to create a consistent dwarf Victoria that can be marketed for smaller ponds. This would be nice for backyard ponders, but I bet this will take a while.

There are many books written specially about this one plant that has fascinated the botanical world for centuries. Check one out or at least Google “Victoria Water Lilies” and learn more.

Victoria Longwood hybrid, back of leaf

BIO-FILTERS

By Mike Kandt Good water quality doesn't just happen. It requires a little planning and some maintenance. Decaying debris from leaves, fish waste and other organic stuff that finds its way into your pond can add nutrients to the water as it decomposes. Ammonia, also from fish waste, also adds nitrogen to the water that is toxic to fish and will cause algae blooms. The more fish there are and the larger the fish, the worse the problem is. The solution is a bio-filter properly sized and maintained. A plant bog can be a bio-filter, but for this discussion, I will address fabricated bio-filters. Many think that those little foam pads in their skimmer are their pond bio-filter. Nope! They only function to keep the pump in the skimmer from clogging. If you have a larger bio-filter, you can actually remove these foam pads and not have to clean them daily. The finer debris should go through the pump and get caught in the bio-filter. Some ponds have a container at the head of the pond, sometimes called a “bio-falls”. While this may do some bio-filtration if it has media, it is usually too small and usually less than 30 gallons. So what is a bio-filter and how does it work? A bio-filter not only filters solids from the water, it uses bacteria growing on filter media to consume the ammonia and convert it to non-toxic nitrites that plants will use. It will remove suspended solids and dissolved ammonia. It helps to add some oxygen by splashing the water coming into the filter or by adding an air line and bubbler. This keeps the good bacteria (aerobic) alive. The bad anaerobic bacteria will stink. This is the stuff that grows in a septic tank. Good aeration will help prevent this. The bio-filter media can be anything that will not corrode and has a lot of surface area. I started using gravel and lava rock, but it worked so well that it packed up quickly with pond muck and was impossible to clean. I then switched to plastic media of various types. I tried "bio-balls" specifically made for this. Worked, but too expensive. I now use plastic shavings. Plastic scrubber brushes work well. I've even heard of someone using recycled plastic spoons. Crumpled plastic window screen can work in a pinch. Put the media in net bags (laundry bags from Walmart), fill with media, and put in the filter container, trying to seal any open water paths. Use enough bags to remain submerged and almost fill the filter but not block the water exit ports. To properly let the bacteria do its job, there needs to be plenty of media and surface area. There are many variables in this calculation, but I usually use a rule of thumb: 100 gallons of filter media container per 2,500 gallons of fish-filled pond. The bigger the filter, the more fish it will handle and the less often you will need to clean it. Try not to push too much water through the filter. Slow-moving water allows time for the bacteria to work on the water to clean it. Pumping 2,500 gallons per hour (GPH) through a 100-gallon filter is about right. This is roughly 80 feet per minute velocity. This also turns the volume of the pond at least once per hour. You need to clean the filter. The better the filter works, the more debris it takes from the water and the clearer the water becomes, but also the faster the filter clogs up. But if the filter is not cleaned periodically, it will just return that crud to the pond. My goal is to clean my bio-filters every month, but honestly, I'm lucky if I get it done twice a summer. When cleaning the filter, remove the bags of media. They will be full of muck and heavy. First swish them in the filter water to remove most of the muck. Then toss them on the lawn and hose them until the water is clear. It is best to use unchlorinated well water so to not kill the bacteria. If that is not feasible, add bacteria such as Microbe-lift, to the cleaned filter. Drain the dirty water and muck from the filter tank. My nearby flower beds and compost bins love it. I use a wet/dry shop vac to remove the last bit of muck from the tank. Replace the media bags and start the pump, refilling the filter tank with pond water. Top off the pond if necessary. If you don't have well water or rain barrels for this, be sure to treat the chlorinated city water. As mentioned before, if you did wash the media in city water, let it dry in the sun or otherwise kill the bacteria, and add new bacteria now. A properly sized bio-filter should keep your pond water quality-free of toxic ammonia and relatively clear. But do keep in mind that the bacteria by-product is nitrates. This is non-toxic to fish but can still feed algae. So keep plants in the water or stream and they will eat up these nitrites. There are many kinds of pond filters. Your selection should be based on size of pond, number of fish, filter location, your tolerance for maintenance and, of course, budget. But a properly sized and maintained filter will give you the water quality you always wanted.

The KOI CHRONICLES By Wanita Wright

Quarantine Procedures We talked about isolation tanks last month. Let’s discuss quarantine conventions this month.

• Koi and goldfish are social, so be sure to provide a “buddy” for your quarantined fish. If you add a small fish from your pond (your least favorite, maybe?), it may also help to determine if your newcomer is harboring any bad bugs that might harm the rest of the pond. In my mind, this is imperative if you do not go through a chemical treatment to handle all potential parasites and bacterial infections. I would recommend a buddy fish even if you go through a chemical treatment process.

• A hiding place is also appreciated and will aid their adjustment and/or healing. A PBC pipe sawed in half lengthwise will do nicely.

• Refuse or waste on the bottom of the tank is easily removed with a small fish net.

• An ammonia test kit is invaluable. I used it religiously until I became familiar with the volume of fish my system could handle. Learning this simple chemistry lesson via the test kit is more economical and a whole lot less stressful than losing that new fish. And it costs under $10.

• Be sure to cover the tank with a net to avoid the inevitable suicide jumpers. Also, make sure there are no holes in the net they can see. These guys are a lot smarter than they look!

• Your pump should turn the water in the tank at a minimum of 100% every hour. I would recommend three or four times per hour. A high turn rate is the most beneficial thing you can do to achieve a beneficial environment, in my opinion. Plus, it adds additional air as it splashes into the return.

• I also recommend a holding tank or some other means to add fresh water quickly when needed. You may not need physical equipment, but plan ahead.

My tank is indoors in my sunroom. The 110-gallon tank can handle six or seven 8-inch fish. The pump turns the water every 20-30 minutes, and the pressure filter is designed to handle 1,000 gallons/hour. It was invaluable when we were originally stocking our pond. Now, it’s just nice to keep some fish ready to give away or just to enjoy watching them indoors during the winter!! I would recommend the quarantine process also include some treatment for potential parasites and bacteria. Salt will treat all parasites except flukes and anchor worm. Dimilin or Express IDI can be used for anchor worm and fish lice. Flukes can be treated with a fluke medicine. OR potassium permanganate can be used to treat for all parasites, including anchor worm and fish lice. We will talk next month about a detailed plan for the quarantine process and how many days to do this.

Wanita

Kansas Pond Society

CAR CARAVAN SEPTEMBER 9TH Join us for a Saturday excursion to the Oklahoma City/Edmond Pond Tour,

presented by the Water Garden Society of Oklahoma City Where - Meet in the southwest corner of Towne East Square, 7700 E Kellogg (our usual meeting place).

Time - 8:00 a.m.

Cost - $10 PER PERSON, Please contact Wanita Wright by Aug 31 so she can purchase your tickets and secure your maps. Contact info 316-733-6626, voice or text or e-mail: wrightd9@aol.com We will car pool/caravan. Let Wanita know if you are willing to drive. Gas will be split by all the participants. We will grab a sandwich for lunch and eat in Edmond for dinner before driving home in the evening This should be great fun!!!

FISH TALES by Susan Kandt ON BEING IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME… You know how it feels sometimes like Ol’ Man Fate seems to be following you around, getting all up in your face and messing with your karma? And how it’s suddenly like, regardless what you do and when you do it, you’re just always in the right place but at the wrong time? And then you know how every once in awhile you actually beat the socks off the ol’ bugger, you keep your karma squeaky clean, and you – yea, team! -- come out ahead against all odds? Well, I’m here to report that Mike and I experienced an entire week and a half of this phenom. It was our summer vacation, but it was the complete opposite of a Chevy Chase summer vacation. This was, boys and girls, a vacation where everything went totally right. It was like the less effort we put into trying to make our trip perfect, the more perfect it became. Okay, here’s how the whole thing went down. Mike and I (well, mostly Mike) belong to an organization called the International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society. This is a group comprised of some seriously serious folks who are invested in working with, promoting, selling, and in some cases actually hybridizing aquatic plants. Most of these people own their own businesses. They install ponds for clients, they handle impressive stocks of water plants and supplies, and they know just about everything there is to know about waterlilies, lotus, and anything else we want to have happily growing in our ponds. Some of them have even written books on water gardening that you may have sitting on your shelf. They live and work in various places in America, Canada, Australia, Asia, and Europe. I kid you not, gentle readers. These are the real deals in aquaculture. But there are a very few of us in this organization who are merely hobbyists. Wanita Wright, our esteemed KPS vice president, belongs, too. A couple of friends we met in Kansas City a couple of years ago are also hobbyists. Duane Van Dolah from Garden City, whom many of you remember as our water lily guru at the Botanica lily divides before he passed away two years ago, was another avid hobbyist member. So here you have all these people from all over the world, many of whom are famous in aquaculture, and then you have our little Kansas contingent who…well, help keep these people in business. (I get a tad intimidated around some of those folks, but our little group from Oz seems to sort of impress them with our stubborn interest, so again – yea, team! And the new president of the Society, Susan Davis of Water’s Edge in Lawrence, is even a Kansan – which I like to think gives our Kansas bunch a little more cred.) But I’m not going to dwell on the IWGS symposium itself, because I’m sure you’ll hear all about it from Mike and Wanita. I enjoyed the four days we spent in Pennsylvania at this yearly convention, but what I was REALLY looking forward to was the time before and after that Mike and I set aside as pure vacation. Neither of us had any desire to fly to Pennsylvania. For one, we wanted the freedom of a car going up there, going wherever we wanted while there, and taking our time coming back while seeing the sights along the way. We wanted the luxury of being spontaneous on this trip. And secondly, the whole “romance” of flying has LONG worn off for me, what with the long waits, the manhandling by the TSA, the sardine can seating, and all the rules and regulations regarding what I can take with me. And Mike, who endured a lot of flying around the country before he retired, has pretty well had his fill of the whole thing, too. So, aware that both our vehicles have considerable years and wear on them, we elected to rent a car here, drive to Pennsylvania, staying a couple of nights along the way, and after the symposium, take a leisurely week coming down through Virginia. I’m kind of a history buff, and I could hardly wait to see Mt. Vernon, Appomattox, and other Revolutionary and Civil War sites.

Fallingwater

Mount Vernon. Washington’s Home

Once we reached Pennsylvania, we decided to take a detour over to Fallingwater, the famous house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed and located at the top of a waterfall. Everything in my Pennsylvania guidebook said that you need to make reservations far ahead to tour the house. But in keeping with the spirit of our “summer of spontaneity tour,” we hadn’t done that. I called the place, and they told me that, sure enough, they were booked up, and no rezzies, no tourie. But for a mere ten bucks apiece, we could walk around the grounds. We decided to just take our chances. We got there, looked pathetically at a nice lady, and she told us to give her our cell phone number and if somebody didn’t show up for one of the tours, she’d call us while we were strolling the grounds. And lo and behold, while we were admiring the outside of the house, we got a call that two people had cancelled out, and we were in. Wow. That was luck. The house was wonderful, and what a good vibe for our vacay’s start. From there, we went to the IWGS symposium and enjoyed it immensely. (Well, aside from the achy, creaky muscles and joints we’d acquired from all the climbing and walking at Fallingwater.)

Once the symposium was over, we headed for Mt. Vernon. I’d always wanted to see the home of our first President. But were we going to be able to get in? Good Lord, there were about a million vehicles parked in all the parking lots. But hey, spontaneity rules, right? So we parked the car and walked our achy, creaky selves a block and a half to the grounds. Our good karma was intact, because we had enough time to eat breakfast and then just walk right into the house for a tour. So far, so good. All the right places at all the right times, right?

Next on our agenda, we headed toward Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s very grand (from what everybody had told us) house. And the scenery all through Virginia was gorgeous. We drove through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachians. It was a lot of road time, but the scenery was worth every mile. I’d like to add that we were also being entirely spontaneous with hotel accommodations. We didn’t make reservations anywhere. We just blew into a burg, found something acceptable in the vicinity of where we wanted to be the next day, and got a room. Luck continued to rule! I consulted our handy-dandy Virginia map and spotted what seemed to be the closest burg of any size to Monticello. We’d depend once again on good ol’ Saint Spontaneity to stay on our side, and we’d breeze into town as usual and get ourselves a room, even on a Saturday night in the middle of tourist season. Well, about that time, my cell announced I had a text from our daughter, Stephanie. Here’s the gist of the text: “Mom, whatever you do, stay away from Charlottesville, Virginia. There are Nazis in the streets carrying torches and guns and the whole town is in riot mode.” “Good grief,” I said to Mike. “That girl has the weirdest sense of humor.” Then it struck me, and I sat up straight and added, “But how in the world does she know we’re headed for Charlottesville?! Does she have some super app that’s allowing her to track us?!” So I texted her back with those exact words. Seems she didn’t know we were on the outskirts of Charlottesville; she just knew we were in Virginia and wanted us to know where the hot spot in the national news just happened to be that night.

Appomattox Civil War Surrender

Botanica Volunteer Info *** Annual garage sale; September 1, 2017 from 7:00 am-2:00 pm. *** The Volunteer Dinner - Thursday, August 31,2017 at 5:30 pm-8:00

pm. Hawaiian Dress. *** needing a volunteer to sell tumblers at Tuesday on The Terrace. *** need a group of 15 or more people that would like to work a night at

Illuminations *** Need a fruit sculptor for Volunteer Dinner. If you are interested, contact Rene' Sellers, Botanica Assistant Volunteer Services/Weekend Manager, 316-264-0448, ext. 103, RSellers@botanica.org

Well, we decided she was probably exaggerating (she is my daughter, after all) and proceeded into town. No signs of All Hell Breaking Loose. We strolled into the local Days Inn, where we waited in line behind a bunch of folks who were being told there was no room at the inn, and that the town was in the process of being locked down because of…well, exactly what Steph had warned us about. So we hit the car running, blew town, and headed to the next burg on the map, 30 minutes away, in what became a blinding rain at 9:00 at night. We found some skuzzy little Norman Bates motel and took refuge, feeling like we’d just perhaps literally dodged a bullet before our nice heretofore karma-blessed vacation suddenly went south. Again, literally. Well, long story short, we decided to skip Monticello, but before we got the heck out of Virginia while we were ahead I just had to see Appomattox, where the Civil War came to its bloody end and General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant. Would we be able to get in? Yep, kids. We got in. We then put Virginia in our rearview mirror and drove into

Kentucky. Mike wanted to see Mammoth Cave, so we headed there. We called and sure enough, all tours were sold out. We looked at each other, grinned, and sailed on in. It was just before closing time, but we talked to a nice man behind the counter who confided that they always hold back 16 tickets for whoever is standing in line at 8:00 in the morning. Feeling like luck was still with us, we decided to take our chances on the Mammoth Cave Hotel. Did they have any rooms available for that night? Well, yeah, they just happened to have ONE cabin left. No AC., no TV, but hey! It had a roof, it had running water, it had electricity, it was in a nice quiet wooded setting, it was a beautiful, unseasonably cool night, and it was within a 5-minute walk of where we needed to be first in line at 8:00 in the morning. Once again, long story short, after a good night’s sleep we got our tickets for a tour starting within the hour and had time for a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. To cap the whole thing off, we were headed for St. Louis for our last night on the road when we got a desperate text from our old pal Kathy Hopple, who just happened to be stranded in St. Louis at a business conference because her flight reservation to Wichita had somehow disappeared in the dark hell hole of American Airlines’ computer system. So we traded her a ride home with us for a free night in her plush Embassy Suites hotel suite. So. What could have turned into a disastrous vacation nightmare was instead a great time with luck on our side at every turn. Whether it was a case of always being in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time, it was all’s well that ends well. Fate was thwarted, our karma is smokin’ hot, and all’s right with our world. My only regret is that the same couldn’t be said for Charlottesville. Virginia was good to us at every turn. I wish our good luck could have extended to the innocent folks of that lovely city. See you in September.

Susan

Kansas Pond Society 5615 N. Sullivan Wichita, KS 67204