Central Texas Pollen - Update with Storm mess

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stodds

Gold Supporter
Aug 16, 2016
102
Round Rock, TX
Question for those folks out there battling, or recently stopped battling, LIVE OAKS and all their droppings. Be it leaves or the yellow-green fronds (apparently called catkins), the pool's nearby live oak is driving me nuts. OK. The question: I'm getting a ton of these pollen fronds in my pool . . . does anyone with this same issue see a higher chlorine demand due to these things?

So, pool was built and first filled this past November. We've had plenty of sunny days, and sure the water was a bit cooler and the sun's angle is different, but man, the demand spike seems awfully sudden. The sudden spike coincides with the constant dropping of these pollen fronds into our pool. Anyone else?

We are skimming a lot more, brushing more, using the fine filter on the Doheny's Discovery and cleaning it out daily, and keeping an eye on the tree-spooge culprit praying for it to just drop everything and get it over with. And, yes, when it is over, I'll have the answer to my question, I suppose. Just looking for y'alls feedback.

Thanks!
 
Re: Central Texas Live Oak Pollen

Pollen is organic and will consume FC. Run your FC on the high side of the range for your CYA. Just UN-gooed my pool cleaner after having just done it yesterday. After it coats the bag all it can it just balls up on there then. I feel your pain.
 
Re: Central Texas Live Oak Pollen

I live in Austin and the pool is surrounded by live oak. I have had the pump running higher for longer just to keep the skimming action going. Have had to run the robot every day to get the stuff falling to the bottom. Have had to manually skim with net 2 or 3 times daily just to keep up.
I have noticed my FC has been dropping quicker these last two weeks. I attributed it to the water warming up but you may be right, the oak leaves and "katkins" may be eating it up quicker.
 
Re: Central Texas Live Oak Pollen

Seems like the leaves were worse this spring but also this is first year with a pool so maybe it just seems worse. It's been really windy, too, so that's not helping. At least with the katkins out the leaves are done. Now if all the leaves caught in the grass would stop blowing into the water...

FC is taking some more attention in my pool, too. Running the filter/vac more as well. I've been adding chlorine at night, not sure if that makes any difference?
 
Re: Central Texas Live Oak Pollen

I'm fighting the same problem with leaves and katkins Salty, I'm running my cleaner daily and cleaning the skimmers at least twice daily and manually skimming daily. I haven't seen a huge spike in FC usage though, but I am super diligent on keeping everything out of the pool. Don't forget we have been really sunny and on the warmer side for this time of year lately.
 
Re: Central Texas Live Oak Pollen

Sorry to all those in Central TX. I prayed that the tree dropping all the pollen in my pool would "just get it over with." It really tried. The storm last night made a disaster out of my deck and pool. It tinted the water green there was so much pollen in it. Even though I'm 99.9% sure it isn't algae (water was crystal, and properly balanced at bedtime), I'm going to be diligent. What a mess!

Anyone else have pollen / last night's storm stories to share? Buddy says it's the one of the worst he's seen in this 13ish years with a pool in Austin.



 
I think the worst is finally behind us for the catkins. This morning was the second day in a row for me to not find a significant amount floating in the pool or on the deck. There does still appear to be a small amount in the trees however.

I recently found this historical pollen chart on weather.com Tree pollen peaked from the 21st to the 27th, which is exactly what I experienced.

https://weather.com/forecast/allergy/l/78633:4:US
 

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Re: Central Texas Live Oak Pollen

stodds said:
Sorry to all those in Central TX. I prayed that the tree dropping all the pollen in my pool would "just get it over with." It really tried. The storm last night made a disaster out of my deck and pool. It tinted the water green there was so much pollen in it. Even though I'm 99.9% sure it isn't algae (water was crystal, and properly balanced at bedtime), I'm going to be diligent. What a mess!

Anyone else have pollen / last night's storm stories to share? Buddy says it's the one of the worst he's seen in this 13ish years with a pool in Austin.

Click to expand...

Whoa, that's bad. At least they're mostly on that side? In our pool it's been all over the place. Leaves are much easier/quicker to scoop up than these nasty suckers. Stir the water up and they sink but most float back up after you've moved on to a new area.

They're still falling out near Dripping Springs.
 
We have a live oak that hangs over our pool. Our robot and skimmers kept up with it, sometimes emptying the skimmers two or three times a day.

The pollen though ..wow ..i'm sort of convinced it turned our water green for a while! doing SLAM process now just in case its algae, but our water went green a week ago ..no sign of algae, just a green tint to the water. pictures in the fighting-algae forum.
 
Same here - have a Live Oak that actually hangs out over the pool. I had it cut way back this year, mainly because the pool needs more sun and doesn't warm up enough for me (that is a rare one in TX -huh) we barely got up to 86 last summer. I won't get in til 84 or 85 and prefer 88 or so.

To say the least - the pool takes work from September til early April. Acorns start falling in September and go for a couple of months. I just brush the sunning ledge and the Racer runs about an hour and a half a day and does a great job with the bottom of the pool. Some acorns and leaves continue through winter and then March comes around and the catkins (as I've just learned their name from this thread) and dead leaves are horrible for 3 to 4 weeks. I check the skimmers a couple of times a day and use a net at least once a day to keep them scooped up and out of the pool. It stays pretty clean, but it takes work. My chlorine hasn't been too bad - maybe uses a little more this time of year, but easy to keep up with.
 
I now know why palms and all the tropical plants are so popular around pools - thorns and all! We have a forest of green stuff. And it sure is pretty, but goodness gracious all the stuff it blows and drops. It never ends. I don't know what came before the live oak worms as my son calls them, but I noticed the spa spill over was wasn't flowing much and the filter pump had an air pocket so I pulled out a skimmer basket and it was packed! I would have sworn it was a dead bug colony in there with all the black pieces (looked like big dead ants, but we don't have those kinds of ants here!) One of my kids said it was the same stuff that's all over the trampoline and that it comes from one of the trees. I had no idea! It's been so bad I've had to clean the skimmers almost as much with this stuff as when the leaves fall in the fall! And don't even get me started on my neighbors willow tree. It's 200+ feet from the pool but it is the hands down biggest trash tree. If they disappear to Saudi Arabia again for 10 years that tree won't be there when they come back. :)
 
Just noticed this thread, same problem here in Austin. Hopefully it's about over (don't see much left on the trees other than leaves for next year or sooner). These things turn the pool cloudy to green (not algae), and if I don't backwash at least once a week, the pump flow gets so slow, the heat pump stops, and the stenner pump has a hard time distributing chlorine.

If I run my Aquabot twice, almost all the stuff on bottom gets picked up. My poolskim bag fills almost daily (I use a 5 gallon paint strainer). The best solution is keep the solar cover on as much as possible, and sweep most of it. Just ordered a Solar Breeze to hopefully help a bit more once the cover is off for the rest of the year.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 

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