[Candide]

It's in a couple of beds;  one has the fruit in so can't dig it.  Used glyphosate which makes it keep its head down for a bit but it shoots up again.
I'd got the impression that it formed a mat underneath the surface.  If all the roots are an interconnected network then maybe the glyphosate should get into it all.  Hmm, but it doesn't.
So the premise is false.  Can anyone explain what the roots do do underground

[missmoneypenny]

The roots are a food  store for the winter/ for when it gets cut down. You can kill it slowly by digging out and flipping it upside down so the roots are exposed and the leaves are in the dark. It will take a few weeks to give up the ghost, then you can dig it in. The advantage is you don’t loose any topsoil that way.

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

I've found that glyphosate is very effective against couch but you do need to achieve good leaf coverage for it to work. It sounds like it works for a bit with you so maybe the new growth is coming from some growth further away that you think.

You may need to be a bit more persistent. Spray carefully as soon as it emerges. If you are able to dig carefully around the fruit do that first then carefully spray the new growth.

I generally manage to keep on top of couch by digging it out carefully when the soil is wet and reserve use of glyphosate to bits of bindweed only that pop up and the odd bramble that's tricky to dig out

Use of it is going to be banned at the end of 2025

[Growster...]

Depending on how many fruit bushes you have, you might want to cut your losses, and dig everything out, then replant the fruit bushes.

We had the same problem some time ago, and the couch was so tightly rooted around the raas, they were literally being strangled!

The soil was so compacted, I had to use a pickaxe to loosen it all! Couch is a menace, and IMHO, it has to be dug out and burned, but that's a big call on a large fruit area!

[Contadino]

I have couch grass a spit and a half deep on my plot. The only way that I have of growing perennials is to clear a patch, then plant leaving a margin of 1m around the edge. That margin gets dug and cleared 3 times a year - March, May/June and September.

[missmoneypenny]

If it’s on currant bushes I cover the grass around the bush’s base with horse manure to exclude the light as much as possible. If you keep r e applying it will weaken the grass, sometimes it eventually gives up.

[Growster...]

If it’s on currant bushes I cover the grass around the bush’s base with horse manure to exclude the light as much as possible. If you keep r e applying it will weaken the grass, sometimes it eventually gives up.

That's a good possibility, Miss MP...

I found that you could actually spray the glyphosate around the roots of the plants, (not the time above), and it didn't affect the raaas, but it never got rid of all of the stuff, and as I left the plot soon afterwards, I never did find out what happened!

I reckon it's worth a try, Candide!

[rowlandwells]

I've never had a problem getting rid of couch grass with the proper roundup containing glyphosate mixed to the correct strength and only sprayed once we have no coach grass on the plots and i also spray roundup on ground when crops removed before cultivation and found it keeps the ground more weed free

[Aunt Sally]

I've found that glyphosate is very effective against couch but…

Use of it is going to be banned at the end of 2025

Not necessarily.

The picture below is from:
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PB-0043/POST-PB-0043.pdf

[Snow]

Double overlapped layers of cardboard and then a mulch (compost or woodchips etc) is effective. You will still have the problem of it working it's way in from the edges and probably around the  base  of the fruit bushes, so you would need to stay on top of that. Benefit of much improved soil as well after a couple of years

[rowlandwells]

lucky I bought plenty of roundup to last me for many years before they ban it then Auntie couch grass and most weeds not a problem with [glyphosate] Roundup I'm part of the no dig weeds out club