[zither]

Hi all,

I'm having a bit of a problem with an outbreak of coltsfoot on my plot (think it was triggered when I removed a broken old section of path of that's possible) and was hoping for some advice on getting rid of the stuff! (apols if in wrong area but wasn't sure where it should go)

[Springlands]

It really depends upon where the coltsfoot is and whether you want to be organic or not. You could try to hoe it every time a seedling appears and before it gets established but that can take a long time as they will come back from the rhizomes that are in the ground. Alternatively you could use a weed-killer containing glyphosphate (sp) such as Roundup which will travel down the plant and kill the rhizomes (but be aware that there are also seeds in the ground which may also germinate but using the hoe will see them off.

[Goldfinger]

Got rid of ours taht was there last year by making a small cut in the middle of the plant and using an ink cartridge refill syringe, injected neat glyphosate down the stem.

Worked a treat on those ones, the ones that pop up this year will get the same treatment....(evil smile!)

[compostqueen]

I like coltsfoot and I allow a patch of it to grow on my plot.  It seems to rare these days in our neck of the woods so when I noticed it growing on my plot I've let it be ever since. It seems well behaved enough    Bees will appreciate it and we need all the pollinators we can get 

[zither]

Thanks for the tips. I've always taken the organic route but 3 years after taking over a very overgrown plot I'm getting tired of digging up huge volumes of perennial weed roots!! I'd thought about round up option but been put off as only flowers out at the minute, the leaves come later apparently and didn't think spraying the flower heads would be particularly effective - hadn't thought about the injecting option - would seem to be safest an most controlled way of using the stuff but I guess labour intensive. Will repeatedly hoeing off the flowers/leaves as they pop up eventually kill off the rhizomes?

[Goldfinger]

We only had around a dozen weeds or so, so it wasn't hard for us to get on top of them...

[Springlands]

Thanks for the tips. I've always taken the organic route but 3 years after taking over a very overgrown plot I'm getting tired of digging up huge volumes of perennial weed roots!! I'd thought about round up option but been put off as only flowers out at the minute, the leaves come later apparently and didn't think spraying the flower heads would be particularly effective - hadn't thought about the injecting option - would seem to be safest an most controlled way of using the stuff but I guess labour intensive. Will repeatedly hoeing off the flowers/leaves as they pop up eventually kill off the rhizomes?

It will make the rhizomes weaker but only over time - it would be a long term project.    That is why I suggested the non-organic route but as you said you would need leaves to be actively growing for it to work.