Kitchen Garden Forum

Can anyone advise me on a lily problem, please? Lilies have completely choked the 3 acre lake at the bottom of my garden, to the extent that I can no longer cast a line for the carp after the middle of May. Cutting doesn’t get rid of the roots, so I thought of taking the boat out and carefully spraying the leaves with a herbicide such as Tumbleweed, so that it gets absorbed into the roots. (I think I could do this without poisoning the water if it was calm day with no rain forecast). But do lily leaves absorb chemicals, like other plants, or are they impervious to herbicides?
Thanks, John N

Dear JohnN, i really don't know if that is a good idea spraying the Lilies, i think you will end up poisoning the fish, and i'm not even sure it would do the job anyway.
Is there no way of pulling them out by hand, i do understand it would be a mammoth task.

One more thought, i'm not so sure you won't be breaking the law by spraying onto a water course anyway.
Maybe someone will be able to help more than i have.

Hi John,
Glyphosate is dangerous to fish and I suspect you would be in breach of the law if you were to use it as you suggest.
Who owns the lake. If you do not then there is little you can do about it. If you do own the lake
and the lake is not too deep to stand in then I suggest that you wade out with a rake and pull a load up. I have known them to be trawled from the bottom with a weighted drag line. If you could clear just a casting area it may help but Carp have a habit of sucking at the bait then swallowing it then making a mad rush into the reeds. Best of luck!!
JB.