WEEDS....how do I get rid of this??

I have just read through this thread with interest as i am renting my house and the front garden, lawn and driveway is infested with this damned stuff!!

I have sprayed some of it that is coming through the drive and on the edge of the border with a systemic weedkiller and a couple of weeks later, i can see it is starting to die off. There is also fresh growth around the dead bits too though..so i can see that persistance is going to be key :dh:

I can't really spray the borders because of the plants that are there but this stuff is coming up through those plants. It isn't my house so i don't feel i can dig out the plants to try and get rid of the horse tail, yet some of the plants are dense and so i can't get at it to try hoeing (sp?) regularly. From what the neighbours tell me though, the garden is infinitely better than it was since we have been here (and i am no gardener!!).

Any advice for the stuff growing through the plants in the borders? Those same plants are being choked by couch grass too :(

 

I'm not going to suggest this as it's illegal but if i had that amount of infestation i would make up a very strong salt solution. wouldn't be able to grow anything other than brassicas or sea beet there for a season but i doubt the horsetails would survive it.

 

i lifted some of the nasty pink, yes pink paving slabs that cover the gable end of my garden an there were roots everywhere, spongy black ones that fell apart as soon as you got old of them, which i presume are the horsetail.

Does Horsetail lie dormant too? i have broken through a concrete path two weeks ago, an where i have gotten the concrete out im seeing emerging horsetails!!!

my work has just bought some "Roundup Pro Biactive" to get rid of the weeds around our offices, it says on the container that you only need 100ml or so mixed with water so i will give it a whirl with that an let you know how i get on

Bullet, i will drop you a PM an tell you how this Roundup stuff gets on (sorry for hijacking your thread too!!)

 

Try using straight vinegar in a spray bottle, i use it on weeds and grass that i dont want here, and it does work, just re-apply after a rain.
Just be careful of things you dont want gone, it may take a few applications but it will work.

 

Hmmmm......I wish I shared your optimism!

I once tried a bottle of this Roundup stuff on plain and simple little weeds shooting through the driveway slabs. Turned 'em brown for a week or so and then they came back in full bloom!

On the other hand I have had some success with Deep Root on the Mares Tail weed I have in the back (see photos). Doubt my neighbour has any of this **** or even any roots 'n shoots as they are fanatical gardeners. I think they trim their lawn with nail scissors and they are always playing around with plants and fiddling with flowers!

There is a company working on what was previously a derelict building site preparing it for a new build, and there is a large notice on the gates.....Japanese Knotweed Solutions, a company based in Manchester and this is their website; http://www.jksl.com/

I'm tempted to give them a call or go and pay them a visit whilst they are working to see if I can cadge some industrial poison from them!

 

No need for any apology Robocod. I thought i'd got problems.......till I saw your jungle!

Maybe you can 'persuade' your work to let you do some Research and Development with the Roundup? Never know, they might even pay you!

 

Why is the use of salt illegal? Is it because it's cheap and Garden centres can't make enough money out of it?

In my case I dont want to grow anything.......I just want to annhilate the lot!

It's no use me pretending to be a gardener because i'm not and never will be......but I do seem to be successful at growing the worst kind of weeds imaginable!

 

I have had no experience of Horsetails. But I have read, and done it myself on bindwed, that when you use a glyphosphate weed killer you should put some in a polythene bag and then stuff the foliage into the bag (after bruising it) and seal the bag. That way it can keep the plant in continuous contact with the Glyphosphate for two weeks or more and it doesn't matter if it rains.

 

Blimey....i'd need a few hundered bags then!

As for 'robocod' he will need a polythene marquee! I can see the point you make though.

As for bruising these Horse/Mares tails before spraying with weedkiller, does anyone have suggestions to the most efficient method? At the moment I am currently going around squeezing each stalk with a pair of pliers....not only time consuming but damned back breaking work too!!

 

Could you not just stand on it to bruise it?

 

quick update guys, i was in wilkinsons with my mrs on the weekend (im often dragged shopping i think as a carrying mule) an spotted some weedkiller called "Wilko Glyphosate Systemic Weedkiller Concentrate" so i mixed that up an gave everythign a double dosing to what was written on the back of the bottle.

so far (2 days later).....no effect on the horsetails, sycamore seedlings look abit brown, elderberry saplings look a bit brown too, spikey weeds (god knows what their real names are) uneffected

and so the battle has started!

 

Afraid there won't be either. That was the exact stuff I first started off with as I found some in my Garage....and it was from Wilkos too!

This Deep Root is beginning to show some sign of working, but it's a slow process and a constant battle between varying weather conditions, most of which enable the damn stuff to grow fast whilst you are unable to stop it.

I'm going to try and contact the company I mentioned (professional killers!) and see if they can help.

 

hi all well i finally got my hands on some "roundup biactive", its like gloop (technical term) in the bottle, i got my trusty spraying implement out an gave everything a good old spraying, the sun was cracking the flags here in liverpool today so hopefully its been soaked into the leaves good and proper......i will keep you posted

i tried walking over some of the weeds to "bruise em up" but all i found that did was crush them, will that still have the desired effect?

if i keep pulling any mares tail up that i see growing will that eventually kill it off? surely im starving the plant of its way of producing food?

 

spray with diesel mid summer. It will turn black after a couple of days and wont return next year