Here's how I Messed up...Farm Pond Basics most don't know! 

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I'm in Texas and can relate to your comment about green algae/slime blooms in the hot summer peaks. I made a few bags out of burlap and fill with ground horticultural cornmeal you get at the feedstore. I put about 10-15 lbs into each bag then tie off with some twine so I can anchor to the banks. Throw them as far as you can into the pond (they will sink) and in a week or two that algae with be gone. In the fall I’ll pull out the bags to be used next year. It’s all organic, safe to use, and inexpensive.

I'd like to offer two pieces of construction criticism, if you're interested: 1, aerating your pond will increase fish habitat, reduce algae, and generally improve the health of your pond (I'd suggest a surface aeration system with a draw tube that trails down into the bottom third or so of the depth where it is placed); and 2, avoid applying chemical fertilizers to the grass adjacent to the pond, because it can lead to excessive algae growth and a host of other problems in the pond ecosystem.

I built one on my homestead, I dug down 4 feet and water started pouring in, kept dig down to 12 feet, attached it to my year around creek that comes off a reservoir, the reservoir is fed by four natural springs, we allow 1,100 gallons a minute to come out of the reservoir and feed my creek and some irrigation ditches on the ranch next to me, the reservoir never drops the level of water in it, so basically the springs feed as much water into it as we take out of it plus evaporation. We have clay soil here so it holds the water, I built banks up along my creek and around my pond to bring the water two feet above ground level, then I buried irrigation hoses into the sides of the banks to gravity feed my crops, gardens and pastures. Glad I watched this video I learned about grass karp.

As an environmental science student I really appreciate the work you've done here! I'm glad to see you've done the research. It looks amazing.

This is an awesome video. We purchased a small piece of property that has the beginning stages of a pond. Unfortunately the previous owner used it to dump pallets, trash, etc and need to cleanup before we can do anything else.

When I was a teenager,15, I spent a summer on a big farm near Buchanan, VA it was on the James River on its Easter border. It was a pretty big farm that my grandfather was managing for a rich Doctor from Roanoke. It was 1968 so it was a human labor intensive farm with old tractors and strong backed men. I think they milked ten cows and raised a dozen or so beef cattle and then a big pig operation. 50 or so pigs for fattening and to sale. Chickens for the house , eggs & meat which my grandma to care of she was able to accumulate a large number eggs over 10-14 days which we dropped off at a local store on our way to the big grocery store which was every 2 weeks. We took the extra milk to the main road every morning,where the farm access road started, to be picked up by the milk man. Usually 4-5 big steel metal jugs. They raised corn for hog feed and hay for the milk cows plus they had a very large group of pastures which they rotated on every 3 or so days, which way my main job during my stay there . Cows had their routine and knew as soon as the gates were open were to go. After the cow patties dried we walked around picking those up to put in with the barn manure & pig pens. Grandpa pilled all the up to compost for awhile then spread it around where it was needed. Oh I almost forgot they grew a lot of sweet corn to be delivered at a farmers market in Ronake during season. I sure enjoyed that summer.

Love that blue water and green grass! Your years of hard work are really showing. You've created your own little paradise! 👍

I used drilling mud ( bentonite ) in our pond to seal it. Old timers would fence in pigs around a new pond dig, add a bunch of leaves between them walking and pooping that would seal up the bottom.

Josh great info your sharing! Your neighbors is manicured and yours is more natural and fitting for a busy farmer.

Much prefer the pond with habitat over the golf course style ponds.

The ponds are beautiful!! Who doesn't like water features?

Lessons learned and lessons shared! Thanks.

Thank you for this video! So much great information, and perfect timing since we’re about to dig our first pond on our country property.

thanks for the pond updates. great video. have a great day

Thanks for sharing! Great to see examples in real time.

Thanks for explaining all this, Josh!

Our pond has been here for about 30 years, we’ve had a family of geese come back every year. We also have transient ducks that come and go. I love watching the geese grow up.

Man josh the place is really coming along and the ecosystem for everything you e done is just amazing. I can't wait to see where its at in another 10 years.

Your work here is amazing! I just enjoy these videos.. These talks and milling at Stoney Ridge. Keep em' coming!!

I have a small pond. Only had 6 big catfish first two years. I'm having a problem with keeping the weeds down around outside of it. But since it got overgrown I now have a bunch of catfish of all sizes. Previous owner neve r let anything grow. I'm working on weeds but not the grasses in the pond because from the amount of fish, I did something right. I forgot, frogs so loud u cant hear youself think. I was against turtles untii i watched one eat a snake tail first. Decided i like them. 2 years ago i added brim. Assume they are still there. Pond is basically in my backyard and is spring fed. No problem with skeeters. Thanks for the info.

Really excellently done. Always wondered about farm ponds. You have learned so much.

Very well explained, without getting complicated... well done!

Josh this was a very informative video. I have a property in NW Missouri we have owned about 8 years. It has a pond on it we call the cesspool lol. this video has given me some great ideas on how to correct some problems and I have a great dozer man that does pond work. Thanks for the great content on your channel!

There is a lot more to making a pond than I had imagined.

Great video! So helpful. I learned so many things to help me with my pond! Much appreciated.

I really enjoyed this video, you really need to have a pond to appreciate all the work that goes into keeping a nice one. Ours was an existing pond which was overgrown and had a huge muskrat problem. After years of work we can finally enjoy it with minimal up keep. Your video touches on the main issues of owning a pond and as you point out they don't take care of themselves.

Great information for future pound making. I love what you have accomplished.

You must have been reading my mind… I need to expand our ponds. Great info

Great info man thanks- been fighting lily and algae for awhile - be well brother

Thanks for the info and the grand tour, good stuff. Wooooo!

Excellent info! Thank you for sharing😊

Thank you so much for sharing the video with great content, wish you good health and always success in life

Thank you so much for sharing your successes and failures I have learned so much from you 💜

Very interesting. We are newbies and need to fix our pond. Good info.

Excellent info about ponds, you do a great job

Awesome information! Thank you for sharing your knowledge & experience.

Hey Josh, excellent topic. Water is the sustenance of life. It is all about a reliable clean source and working with nature. Good you have those ponds for the SRF. Take care.

Great information.. thank you. saved some of us a lot of work

Man Dope video. I love the whole thing. You really know how to capture the audience and give great descriptions 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

WELL DONE MANY THANKS

Fond of the ponds...i ponded the like button

Great video contents, informative, educational and therapeutic.

Thank you so much for all the good information

Outstanding video and great info!! Will watch more

Thanks for the great information

That looks like a small Lake. your neighbor place is nice.

What a beautiful farm you have !

Great video on ponds. We have one thats 1/2 acre. They are nice to have. Thanks for the tips. 👍❤️

Well done Josh nice instructive pond info. Best David

Great video about homestead and farm ponds. Thank you

I really enjoyed the video, you have done a fantastic job with the farm and everything else that goes with the farm, a far sight better than when you started, I remember when you were just beginning living the dream, great video!!!

This is a great video. Thanks for the tips! We’re building our own pond from scratch now, gonna use this info!

Great video. Very informative. I need to remove some trees from my dam and double my grass carp.

Great content as always.Thanks for sharing

Josh, Duckweed is actually a very nutrient dense pig feed additive/supplement that is obviously organic and free f you harvest it from your pond.

Some very good ideas and tips, thank you for sharing 👍

Great video. Thank you sir!

Great information Josh Thank You for sharing 👍

Great video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I learned a ton.

Thankful for the information

Great video thank you

Excellent! Thank you.

Working on our farm pond, too!

Hello Dr SE Louisiana. We aren’t far from Mississippi. I’m in agreement with everything you said. We must come together as a country and defend our Constitution 🙌

Great video! Tons of great information.

Great info. I have never had a pond and have no idea on what it takes to have a healthy pond. Have been looking at buying homes in Tennessee with acreage and some have ponds.

Great information there Josh

Informative! Thank you.

Pond depth is determined by two things: How deep you need it to be to provide reliable habitat, and how long you need it to supply how much water in a drought. Heating in sunlight is controlled by depth, and evaporation during a drought is measured in depth too. Deeper water will last longer!

Great points.

Awesome video. Glad I found your channel!

Super helpful stuff! Thanks!

I have 2 ponds on my farm in southern Ohio. One is 1 1/3 acres and 17 feet deep maintained by ground water and field drainage, the other is 1 1/2 acres, 25 feet deep and spring fed and is cold. The back pond has silver channel cats, bass, several strains of bluegills, yellow perch, crappies, walleyes rainbow trout, and northern pike. The other pond has cats, bluegills, crappies, yellow perch and bass, a typical southern Ohio bass pond. Both ponds have been set up with the help of Fenders Fish Hatchery, Baltic Ohio. I highly recommend his book on ponds. Every spring and fall, I add 1000 fathead minnows to each. Both ponds have fresh water clams and are clear, and tea stained.

You've come so far- it's beautiful!! 👍 EDIT: Don't forget a few bass! 😋🐟

Good info. Thanks!

Thanks soo much, learnt so much I own a 20acre beautiful property Build a pond which enhanced my land But got my answers by watching your educational video on ponds God bless you and your loved ones

I want one like the neighbors!!! Good video!

Thank you

Very helpful. Thanks

I've never heard of anybody skimming the algae off the top of a pond as a way of controlling that. But if somebody did, it seems like a way to remove the excess nitrogen. Maybe it could then be mulched, or dried out and turned to charcoal and tilled into the pasture dirt upslope from the pond. I would also enjoy experimenting with solar-powered aerators and pumping water to troughs for deer to use so they don't approach the water and poop in it. The animals I would most hope to allow to flourish in a pond are aquatic salamanders, newts, and the least-common turtle species for the area.

the rocky shoreline is a habitat...it is considered live living rock..and is good for water purification and provides habitat for natural live fish food....

My friend ran DEC fish hatcheries in NYS. He told me any pond will support X many pounds of fish. This could be one very big fish or thousands and thousands of tiny fish. Good video Josh. Thanks.

Great video Josh!

Very informative

you can also put gourami fish in your pond, it is a good plant-eating fish, and it doesn't seem to disturb the ecosystem in the pond 😊

Great video, thanks

Wow so awesome to have a pond on a property.I don't own a 🏡 house on a property.Anyway,I love relaxing near the pond just beside my apartment.I felt so close to nature🌳🐦 Yeah,its a perfect place for stress out.😊

I "planted" duck weed in my pond, but my 2 carp eat it faster than it can reproduce. I'm wanting to use it for chicken feed, fish feed, etc. Pond dye and Pond Bacteria are definitely needed.

Awesome video tks for sharing

I dont have a pond and will likely never have one. But I watched from start to finish. very educational and entertaining and so well done! thank you : )

Been having a pond for about 2 decades now here in South texas. It's a great ecosystem tons of wildlife, even have some trophy bass swimming around. Only problem is every year it gets a little more shallow. When I was a kid it was close to 8 feet at its deepest, now in my 30s its only about 3 to 4 feet max, even shallower along the sides. Every summer I try to dig out some muck but I'm just one man and don't really make much of a difference. Just been trying to keep it alive

Awesome video!! Great and short detail.

Just found your channel. We are hoping to leave central New mexico for central kentucky or east Tennessee in the spring. Looking for a property with a pond. Thanks for sharing your experience and wisdom

Beautiful property 👌

Thank you so much! Great video!

Love ponds and loved that info👍

Excellent video!

I’ve had ducks in my pond for 10 years. I feed them floating Catfish food and cracked corn. Love my pond 🥰🙋‍♀️

I do really like they way you run these ponds :)))