Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: surbie100 on June 26, 2014, 10:18
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I've now got it popping up on my plot thanks to my new neighbour only weeding the centre of her plot. It's appearing in my permanent fruit bed, which makes it difficult to attempt to dig out.
I have double dug and removed all weeds from my new beds, thinking I could then perhaps go 'no-dig'. Before I go into full-scale panic mode, can those of you who have it tell me if it is actually a big deal?
I know it's difficult to get rid of, it pops back up regularly and can 'jump' across to unaffected soil. But does it interfere with anything growing?
My Committee have been swayed by another plot holder on my field to think that it's nothing to worry about.
And realistically, looking at her 2-hr weekly visits, my neighbour is not going to get rid of the main cause of it arriving on my plot.
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We have a lot of it on our site. It's a nuisance rather than a problem. It doesn't compete too much for food and water as it's roots are so deep. It can, however, if not kept under control, compete with smaller plants and seedlings for light. And if allowed to grow unchecked it will very quickly become rampant.
If you can't dig out a lot of the roots, as in your fruit area just keep pulling it out. If you hold the stem as low down as you can (preferably where it is brown rather than green) and very gently pull it upwards you can sometimes pull out a long length of root.
If you don't allow the plant to photosynthesise it will gradually weaken. "Don't let it see a Sunday" - so pull out or hoe off regularly.
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Hi Surbie I took on a plot that is riddled with it the autumn before that wet washout of a summer. It really got to me & I got really hung up on it. Then this year I just decided not to worry about it, I fully echo what Aunty says. I can understand your concern when you have double dug & cleared though. I've found that now I don't seem to have the epic problem of it now I'm not worried about it :). I pull it out at about 7-10 cms as read on here as supposedly it has then expended a lot of its energy by then & it checks it better.
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Mares tail is like Sal says a nuisance more than a problem.
Keep on hoeing and pulling it up.
Its been around on the planet since the time of the Dinosaurs so its survived Ice ages, Fire, drought, flood etc etc.
You will never get rid of it but you will greatly weaken it by hoeing and puling it up.
Off with its head(s)
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Had to look at your location to check I wasn't your neighbour!! I have got loads and there is no way I can keep on top of it. The guy before me who had the allotment for 30 years didn't either. Pull it up when you see it it's not too much of a problem. The only thing it's stopped my growing so far is a bed of asparagus, though to be far maybe it wold work. Doesn't effect other perennial crops like fruits bushes, strawberries and rhubarb.
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The very name Mares tail tends to send shivers down every gardener's spine maybe because it has a "look" about it and is so hard to eradicate. Does it actually damage growth, flavour or reduce crop harvests? I don't think it does - it's just got a bad name, but I thinnk there are other weeds that are just as bad.
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I agree entirely GG. Now I'm not scared of it or it's reputation it doesn't seem to be as bad. Yet to try it as a pan scourer.
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Thank you all for your replies. My heart did sink when I saw it poking up in the strawberries. Particularly given how much hard graft has gone into prepping. I probably feel extra precious about it because I have no garden.
Anyway, will do what I can to keep it to a minimum. Good to know it doesn't interfere much. Apparently you can eat it. Anyone tried?
Had to look at your location to check I wasn't your neighbour!!
Boddy, I'd move back up to Yorkshire in a heartbeat if it were an option, marestail or not! God's own county... :)
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The growing conditions that horsetail likes are those that mimic the conditions that existed millions of years ago – acidic soil (low pH), low oxygen (wet or compacted soil), and very low nutrients. Moist or boggy soil provides all three conditions, but in many cases dry soil is also acidic, compacted and lean. So on a bit more of a long term basis you can create soil conditions that it doesn’t like.:
First of all, acidic soil can have the pH raised by the addition of lime at the rate recommended on the package. Wait at least two weeks before adding any fertilizer, since lime and fertilizer tend to cancel each other out if applied together. Meanwhile, water in the lime. Then dig as much compost, manure or other organic material into the soil as you can (removing any mares tail roots you find). This will open up the soil structure and aerate it. It will encourage worms, that will also aerate it and will improve the nutrient content. These treatments will create a soil that Mare’s Tail will not like. Repeat on badly infested areas again in subsequent years.
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Where in Yorkshire are you from?
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Thanks AS. If it gets out of the fruit bed I will try that too. At the minute I am debating 'spilling' a certain compost accelerator down a bottle and onto it when on my way to the daleks... ;)
Snowy, I'm not, I'm from here, but I lived in Sheffield for 5 years and fell head over heels in love with the area. Am down here because my job is.
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Ah, I didn't think you sounded as if you were when we met. I can usually hear a fellow Yorkshire wo/man at a hundred paces :lol:
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Ah, I didn't think you sounded as if you were when we met. I can usually hear a fellow Yorkshire wo/man at a hundred paces :lol:
I've lost any accent I adopted... :D
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:lol: mine was never strong but I drop the t when I get excited, cross or upset :lol: oh & when we get over the border my hubby says.
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The very name Mares tail tends to send shivers down every gardener's spine maybe because it has a "look" about it and is so hard to eradicate. Does it actually damage growth, flavour or reduce crop harvests? I don't think it does - it's just got a bad name, but I thinnk there are other weeds that are just as bad.
Like bindweed here...
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Like bindweed here...
Bindweed can be effectively spot treated with Glyphosate gel, wish the same were true for Horsetail. ;)
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Like bindweed here...
Bindweed can be effectively spot treated with Glyphosate gel, wish the same were true for Horsetail. ;)
Thank you Raptor! I must have been asleep when this was proved!
When will be the day that just a single swipe with a weedkiller is enough to eradicate these nasties, eh?
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We did our plot inspections last night, including the plot behind mine. The horsetail/marestail there is totally out of control and has spread significantly across a neighbouring plot to the extent that the paths are covered in it and it's visible in the majority of the beds.
The rest of the Committee (all on the other field where there is currently no marestail) are finally considering how it could be kept under control/eradicated, including moving the tenant to a vacant plot and hiring a contractor to spray a few times.
Has anyone had any good results with either Kurtail or Broadshot to deal with marestail?
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I had my plot sprayed with Kurtail last year, but it's still come back this year. It's worst around the edges where it's obviously coming in from the neighbouring abandoned plot, but even in the middle of the plot it's still popping up. I just pull it out when I see it now and have stopped worrying about it as it does little harmand is preferrable to bindwind. Unless you're prepared to spend a couple of years spraying I don't think you'll get rid of it, but a couple of applications should knock it back hard and slow it's spread.
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Thanks Nobbie. I would say 75% of the plot is now marestail. Spraying it once to knock it back would be great to buy us time to deal with it by digging out as much as possible. We're looking at spraying the half she hasn't touched now and then the whole thing in spring, with help in the meantime to at least manage its advance.
The current tenant obviously can't cope or doesn't have the time for a plot and so it doesn't make sense to leave it to go (even more) rampant.
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Has anyone had any good results with either Kurtail or Broadshot to deal with marestail?
We used Kurtail (legally) on a number of our vacant plots last year; three treatments. It knocked the mare's tail back well but still requires vigilant weeding this year.
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I have heard that if you bruise it - maybe by trampling on it - then apply a glyphosate weedkiller treatment with added liquid soap, it is supposed to knock it back quite a lot.
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Has anyone had any good results with either Kurtail or Broadshot to deal with marestail?
We used Kurtail (legally) on a number of our vacant plots last year; three treatments. It knocked the mare's tail back well but still requires vigilant weeding this year.
Thanks Aunt Sally, good to know.
I have heard that if you bruise it - maybe by trampling on it - then apply a glyphosate weedkiller treatment with added liquid soap, it is supposed to knock it back quite a lot.
Unfortunately at the height it is now trampling snaps it. :(