[asdaboy]

hi can any one tell me the best way to get rid of marestail as it dose not want to go away away as it is hard to get rid of new member
dennis

[peapod]

Hi asdaboy and welcome to the forum

theres been a thread about this recently, horrible stuff isnt it?

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=42827.0

[sunshineband]

Hiya asdaboy, and welcome to the forums. Lots of useful ideas here 

Peapod has pointed you towards a good thread.

Just bear in mind that controlling marestail might be the best you can do, rather than eradicating it forever. At least that's what my friend in Leeds says, and she's had her plot ten years 

You can control it though 

[janette]

Hi  You could use your marestail to make a spray to control blight on tomatoes . Put a good bunch in a bucket and pour over some boiling water to cover leave to get cold then you need to dilute it to spray on you toms. I t's keeping mine under control at the moment

[MoreWhisky]

Hi  You could use your marestail to make a spray to control blight on tomatoes . Put a good bunch in a bucket and pour over some boiling water to cover leave to get cold then you need to dilute it to spray on you toms. I t's keeping mine under control at the moment

Anyone else tried this? , i might give it a go myself. Thanks Janette.

[Bigbadfrankie]

roll it to damage it
round up
same again

or sell the land

[Terrier]

roll it to damage it
round up
same again

or sell the land

There's an argument to say that, as Roundup is a systemic weedkiller and works best on healthy, growing leaves, then bruising the Marestail is counter productive. There again, the leaf area on Marestail is so small, Roundup has little effect although regular doses do seem to control the plant to an extent.

[Bigbadfrankie]

roll it to damage it
round up
same again

or sell the land

There's an argument to say that, as Roundup is a systemic weedkiller and works best on healthy, growing leaves, then bruising the Marestail is counter productive. There again, the leaf area on Marestail is so small, Roundup has little effect although regular doses do seem to control the plant to an extent.

marestail seem to be water proof without bruising

[Yorkie]

Marestail has a silica coating on its leaves which is why bruising is necessary - to damage the coating and allow the chemical access to the leaves and thus to the system of the plant. 

Otherwise the roundup simply runs off the leaves without penetrating the coating.

[peterjf]

the best time to start to get rid of mares tail is in spring whens looking like a fungi , brown and no leaves ,

damage the "fungi" with a lawn rake and spray with round up , we do a squre metre at a time ,

we have been getting rid of our mares tail for 2 yrs and we can now see the difference after all the work ,

you can also help by weakening the mares tail in its green form by hoeing , the old guys on our site say, dont let mares tail see 7 days sunlight ,

hope this helps ?