Pond "muck" as organic matter?

[RGrizzzz]

Dad is about to dig out our small pond. (renting an excavator) There's a fair amount of "muck" in it. Two large floods over the last 5-10 years have deposited run off into the pond. Does anyone have any thoughts on if there is significant amounts of organic matter in this stuff? Could it make sense to try to spread some in food plots to increase the organic matter content? Or is this asking to add more weed seed into the existing seed bank? Will this stuff just form a hard crust and be of little value?

I have no idea how to actually spread it evenly, withough making a huge mess/effort. We do have a tractor with a bucket. Maybe pile it and let it dry out, then try to spread it.

 

[KSQ2]

Sorry, I can't help with this one, but I'll be interested to hear if this can be beneficial.

 

[T-Max]

We had our pond cleaned out a few years ago and the silt piled below the dam. There is still nothing growing on the pile, but it has dried out enough by now that it could be spread with a manure spreader I think. That stuff was muck for a full year after we got it out.

 

[Drycreek]

I don’t know about a pond but I did clean several yards of silt out of a creek crossing on my place and placed it in some spots where only clay was showing. It now grows grass like the rest of the area.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Nothing wrong with that stuff,, use it just like topsoil, because that's what it was before it washed into the pond. That muck is high in minerals and nutrients, but its also very acidic, and should have lime applied wherever it's spread out. If you can spread it out very thin like fertilizer it is ok to use it right away, but most people will keep it on a pile on a well drained knob for a half a year to a year to dry it out and break down some of the acids, and then spread it out, typically on low spots in a field. In our neighborhood a farmer scoops sediment out of a large creek behind a low head dam and piles it up, then sells it to builders for making lawns at new houses.
Some people will try to scare you and say that it's too contaminated with whatever, but it's mostly constituted of whatever people have been putting on their fields, and even if it has some pharmaceutical contamination or something, a field is the best place for it, because soil bacteria can break down most contaminates found in normal environments.

 

[BoneCrusher20]

worse case scenario you can have yourself mud wrestling tourny!

 

[THE LLC]

ATV bog!!!

 

[Fishman]

We hired people to rework a roughly 70 year old cattle pond on our place 5 years ago. After the dam was breeched, a dozer deepened the pond and pushed the old bottom material out through the broken dam and spread it out over a large area. We planted some trees in that area along with the surrounding area. The trees and plants currently growing in the muck area are no different or larger than the trees and plants in the surrounding areas. It probably won't help your food plot much, but it probably won't hurt it either.

 

[mattpatt]

We cleaned out a pond once after breaking the dam and I used a couple loads of the muck that came out of the bottom and mixed it with some peet moss for a raised bed garden. My thought was that it should be very rich in organic matter. That was the worst raised bed garden I’ve ever had. I tried all kinds of things to amend the soil and never could get jt right. Finally gave up and had to use a tractor to load all that dirt up and get it out of my yard. Still to this day stuff doesn’t grown very good in that spot. Even weeds have a hard time.


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[KSQ2]

We cleaned out a pond once after breaking the dam and I used a couple loads of the muck that came out of the bottom and mixed it with some peet moss for a raised bed garden. My thought was that it should be very rich in organic matter. That was the worst raised bed garden I’ve ever had. I tried all kinds of things to amend the soil and never could get jt right. Finally gave up and had to use a tractor to load all that dirt up and get it out of my yard. Still to this day stuff doesn’t grown very good in that spot. Even weeds have a hard time.


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Interesting…

 

[massey]

It can be good soil. It’s very acidic. Needs a ton of lime, but loaded with nutrients and organic matter.


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