Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Stevie P on January 20, 2008, 21:19
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Hi I am new to the site and as I have recently taken over a Horsetail infested allotment I would be grateful if you out there in the world can recommend a course of action to eradicate it.
The plot is on very light sandy soil and had been left untended for approx 3 years till I took over in August 2007. Since then I have tried to clear the plot firstly by removing surface weed and burning it and then started digging and weeding the roots. These have been removed and dumped at household waste site but I fear I have missed up to 30% of the horsetail root and wait for Spring growth.
I have not added any organic material yet as I think this might well encourage this weed to proliferate.
All options are possible although I prefer an organic route if possible.
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Hi Stevie and welcome
your approach to mairestail is the best way IMO it is just a matter of weeding and weeding and weeding untill it has gone there is unfortunately no quick fix with this weed :cry: but try to get all the weeds out :wink: good luck and get a pic of yer plot on here :wink:
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Hi stevie p welcome to the forums :D , like JR says no quick fix just plant up and go keep pulling it up as soon as it emerges and eventually it will give up long haul tho' you can't dig it out the roots go mighty deep.
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Deep Root or Rootout.
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Mare's tail has been around since the dinosaurs. It's a persistant little bogger, all you can do is pull it out before it releases spores. I think the roots go down about 10 miles :(
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you just got to keep digging it out - get as deep as you can - without breaking the root - it's a hard one to get rid of
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I have a plot which had a lot of mairstail. We dug it over thoroughly and removed as much root as we could from the top spit of soil. But obviously not the deeper roots. When spring came last year I chopped off any spore bodies that appeared only to read later that the spores will only germinate in boggy conditions :roll:
The best tip I got from another plot holder was "Never let it see a Sunday"
So I hoed it down at least once a week (sometimes twice). It will weaken and not be a problem, but I doubt it will ever be eradicated completely :evil:
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Hi Stevie P,
Welcome to the forum. Horsetail can be very invasive and extremely difficukt to eradicate. :? I use a slightly different approach to the advice you have been given. You see, you will NEVER clear it by digging it out. My method is to wear gloves and rub the plant between my hands to break its surface sheen and the jap it with Roundup. :roll: The manufactureres claim that it IS organic and that when it comes into contact with the earth it gradually decomposes into a harmless, and organic, substance. :D The choice is yours - dig or spray. :o
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Hi Stevie P,
Welcome to the forum. Horsetail can be very invasive and extremely difficukt to eradicate. :? I use a slightly different approach to the advice you have been given. You see, you will NEVER clear it by digging it out. My method is to wear gloves and rub the plant between my hands to break its surface sheen and the jap it with Roundup. :roll: The manufactureres claim that it IS organic and that when it comes into contact with the earth it gradually decomposes into a harmless, and organic, substance. :D The choice is yours - dig or spray. :o
Never worked for me, if you look at lawns you will never see it why "never let it see Sunday" :wink: (sorry off to naughty step), I have reduced mine down to a few strands here and there by tilling once a week and chopping it before it starts to convert its food. Keep digging and make sure as soon as some appears dig as much as you can and starve it to death.
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Roundup. The manufactureres claim that it IS organic
I cannot agree with their assertion, sorry.
A Search for glyphosate will match 142 posts on these forums, many of them in http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=10019 so you these may present a more objective balance.
I, for one, would not trust Monsanto to honestly tell me the correct time of day, let alone anything which might affect their share price.
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if you look at lawns you will never see it why "never let it see Sunday" :wink: (sorry off to naughty step)
Oh Aidy - you get a credit note for quoting Aunty :wink: :lol:
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I have a plot which had a lot of mairstail. We dug it over thoroughly and removed as much root as we could from the top spit of soil. But obviously not the deeper roots. When spring came last year I chopped off any spore bodies that appeared only to read later that the spores will only germinate in boggy conditions :roll:
The best tip I got from another plot holder was "Never let it see a Sunday"
So I hoed it down at least once a week (sometimes twice). It will weaken and not be a problem, but I doubt it will ever be eradicated completely :evil:
I've got to agree with Aunty. My last plot was covered with the stuff, and no amount of digging could shift it. I just learned to live with it, hoeing it off when it reappeared. It doesn't seem to affect cropping in any way.
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I've got to agree with Aunty. My last plot was covered with the stuff, and no amount of digging could shift it. I just learned to live with it, hoeing it off when it reappeared. It doesn't seem to affect cropping in any way.
It doesn't like competition much either - so close planted crops will weaken it too - eg potatoes
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Hi Stevie - we have it too. At first it was daunting, but we managed quite well last year by pulling it up wherever it popped up (the first year on our site which hadn't been cultivated for 20 years).
At first I panicked, but eventually I calmed down and relaxed.
It doesn't hurt the crops and it is a pain to keep weeding but that is all part of the growing experience.
The plots near us which have been worked for longer than ours have all managed to keep it to a minimum - so if they can do it, so can we!
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I'm trying a slightly different approach on the new plot which is also covered in marestail and bindweed.
Last summer I used glyphosate over the entire plot - most weeds and couch grass died but the marestail and bindweed did not. Since the end of July I covered large areas with thick black plastic and I have started to cut bed size holes (in a raised bed theme because the area is also prone to waterlogging during very wet seasons like now), dig over the bed and add compost/manure etc, then recover with the plastic I cut out and/or cardboard. I am going for a few summer fruiting crops (tomatoes, squash, sweetcorn etc) and will plant these through the plastic (there won't be many plants in each bed this year, so watering shouldn't become such an issue)
The theory is that all plants need sunlight, but in perennial weeds a food store is then built up in its root system which is why it keeps coming back. Remove the sunlight over a long period and it must eventually die or be very weakened as it uses up that food store. If it works, I admit it may take a few years but I've already had experience of trying to dig up bindweed over and over again, hence a different (ahem, lazy) approach this time....
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The theory is that all plants need sunlight, but in perennial weeds a food store is then built up in its root system which is why it keeps coming back. Remove the sunlight over a long period and it must eventually die or be very weakened as it uses up that food store. If it works, I admit it may take a few years but I've already had experience of trying to dig up bindweed over and over again, hence a different (ahem, lazy) approach this time....
Tried this too and it did kind of work, it certainly knocked it back to a managable level and then to coninue with digging has almost cleared it, it is THE most persistant weed there is in my books and it takes a lot to beat it.
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Thank you all for your advice and encouragement. I will get a photo soon and will just get my head down and keep weeding at present. I do have some Roundup and may well try it in small areas this Spring.
Now to chit the early potatoes
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Thank you all for your advice and encouragement. I will get a photo soon and will just get my head down and keep weeding at present. I do have some Roundup and may well try it in small areas this Spring.
Now to chit the early potatoes
Round up is most effictive in the autumn as thats when the plant is storing food, in the spring it is using the stored food so wont take as much down to the root.
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if you look at lawns you will never see it why "never let it see Sunday" :wink: (sorry off to naughty step)
Oh Aidy - you get a credit note for quoting Aunty :wink: :lol:
Is that a get off the step for free card then Aunty? So I can be a naughty boy and not get told off, yippeeeeeee
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... and hoeing it where you can. It's hard to shift, but actually isn't too much of a problem if you keep on top of it.
I prefer not to blast it a weedkiller, because I'm really not convinced that any weed killer can get right down to the roots of the thing.
For the sheer hell of it in my first year I dug a hole round one to see how far the root went ... well ... I was digging the hole with a trowel and when I was arm deep in the hole and in danger of falling in, there was no sign of the root doing anything other than keeping on going downwards!
I know weeding is hard work but every now and then though you get a good tug on one and several feet of root comes out ... now how satisfying is that!!
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if you look at lawns you will never see it why "never let it see Sunday" :wink: (sorry off to naughty step)
Oh Aidy - you get a credit note for quoting Aunty :wink: :lol:
Is that a get off the step for free card then Aunty? So I can be a naughty boy and not get told off, yippeeeeeee
But only ONCE :lol:
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Roundup. The manufactureres claim that it IS organic
I cannot agree with their assertion, sorry.
A Search for glyphosate will match 142 posts on these forums, many of them in http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=10019 so you these may present a more objective balance.
I, for one, would not trust Monsanto to honestly tell me the correct time of day, let alone anything which might affect their share price.
Can I just say I agree totally with what WG says :shock: glyphosate is not "organic", the only context to correctly call organic is in it's chemical make up as it contains carbon this makes it an organic compound in the chemical sense but not IMHO in the agricultural sense.
So monsanto can hide behind that statement, I'm sure neither the HDRA or the FOE would consider the use of glyphosate good environmental practice
"Glyphosate is a weak organic acid. Its chemical name is N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine." sourced from www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/impacts_glyphosate.pdf (http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/impacts_glyphosate.pdf)
I'm sure that some of the chemist's on here could add or clarify/amened the above. Long while since I did chemistry at school :lol:
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I know that horsetail favours acidic conditions so I wondered how people fared when liming their soil? I have taken the digging/roundup/weedproof membrane approach which is weakening the horsetail but it's still there. I will be liming the soil for brassicas next week so it will be interesting to see if the horsetail comes back as strong.
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liming didn't seem to knock back the ones in my garden, but to be fair I didn't put that much down
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I know that horsetail favours acidic conditions so I wondered how people fared when liming their soil? I have taken the digging/roundup/weedproof membrane approach which is weakening the horsetail but it's still there. I will be liming the soil for brassicas next week so it will be interesting to see if the horsetail comes back as strong.
One thing I did notice the first year I grew sprouts was I gave the ground a good doze of lime, it knocked them that year but a couple of years down the line and it came back witha vegence. I have learned to live and control it as I know I will never get rid.
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I've got it to. Roundup did make a difference on my plot. It didn't kill it just made it stop growing and look sick. I have dug a third of my plot up a pulled as much as I could including the roots, which go all the way to Australia!!!. My plan is to have a mix of raised beds with bigger areas for the bigger veggies such as potatoes. I don't think I will ever get rid of it either - just manage it. Hope it means my veg will grow just as well.
Lulu :lol:
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It depends really how they phrase it. I mean, is it "look at me, i'm organic" or is it "list of ingredients - organic acids etc etc"