[chickenlittle]

please help guys - I've got a field that i'm renting and ahve split into thirds 1 third is for me chooks, 1 for veggies and the other.....is full of japanese knotweed.
any tips for getting rid or am istuck with it??
please help as there is roughly 50 SQ metres of the stuff
thanx sam :cry:

[mushroom]

japanese knotweed is regarded as a pollutant by agricultural authorities. You need a licence to dump it.

advice from the Environment Agency

http://www.netregs.gov.uk/netregs/processes/367836/?lang=_e

more info from DEFRA

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/non-native/knotweed.htm

non-government sites:

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=6568
http://www.cabi-bioscience.org/html/japanese_knotweed_alliance.htm
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/japknot.htm
http://www.japaneseknotweed.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_knotweed

good luck.

[GrannieAnnie]

Kill IT!

We bought some Clinic Ace from our local horticultural suppliers.  It's farm strength.  It was £18 a gallon, but is better than anything else we tried.

I tried digging it out, but apparently it's roots can go down 20 odd foot!!!!

[mushroom]

Kill IT!

We bought some Clinic Ace from our local horticultural suppliers.  It's farm strength.  It was £18 a gallon, but is better than anything else we tried.

I tried digging it out, but apparently it's roots can go down 20 odd foot!!!!

yeah, the advice i've read about it say to kill it in situ. they don't want it dug up or pulled because it spreads by vegative budding - a tiny bit of the root can start another plant. it says you've got to kill it 3 or 4 times before even considering rotovating. glad it's not on my plot!

[gregmcalister]

Japanese Knotweed is extremely invasive and will push it's way through paths, roads and anything else that gets in its way.  There is no option but to write off that part of land for the meantime, use a series of herbicide applications - as many as it takes - and burn what's left.  There are companies that specialise in eradicating knotweed but it doesn't come cheap.

[shaun]

if its on council owned land they are responsible for removing it and that goes for any land owner.

[Sally A]

I'd never seen JKW in full flow until I took a wrong turning in Wales. I was in Maesycwmmer and popped up a residential road to turn around.  I couldn't believe what a hold it had taken on the verge, and was surprised to see new build houses going up nearby. I stopped the car, got out and could see where people had tried t chop it back, but it was so ferocious it was coming through 10 fold.  I even had a look over the new build gardens to see how they had coped with it, but obviously the contractors had just lobbed the tops off the make it disappear.  Poor new home owners.

Still I'll probably be on someones CCTV and possibly Crimewatch nosing around the rather posh estate.

I must say it's not until you see the swathe of JKW it can produce that you realise it's full devastating potential as a pest.

[fatbelly]

Earlier this year when I got my plot, it was infested with Couch, Dock and Mares Tail.
I tried the Nuclear option but the Mares Tail in particular just came back so I covered the whole plot with thick black fabric which stopped all light to the weeds. Click here

Why don't you get some of this thick weed fabric and deny the Knot-weed the one thing it cannot survive without.......... Sunlight.

You won't be able to plant much this year so why not cover the knot-weed until next spring and no matter how invasive a weed it is it cannot live with Photosynthesis. Although the fabric won't be cheap it will probably be a cheaper alternative than repeated use of Round Up et al.

[muntjac]

sorry fatbelly mate jap weed will lay dormanyt for years waiting to pop up

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

Why don't you get some of this thick weed fabric and deny the Knot-weed the one thing it cannot survive without.......... Sunlight.

so why not cover the knot-weed until next spring and no matter how invasive a weed it is it cannot live with Photosynthesis. .

Ooooohhhhh yeees it caaan to be said in a loud panto style voice  
it is evil invasive stuff and very little can kill it off completely.

The Victorians introduced it into Britain, it has a particularly strong foothold in the Welsh valleys, I have seen it in action and it destroys roads drainage walls all sorts, it seems to have an inbuilt mechanism to just keep on growing until it find the surface, in a way you have to admire it, but it is scary stuff.

Sally A I live a few miles further up the road from Maesycwmmer and huge swathes of the valley are infested with the stuff, our council even
set up  a specialist team a few years ago a bit like Ghostbusters  who dealt purely with knotweed, such is the problem.

[Sally A]

I must admit WGA, it's not very often I stop the car just to have a good poke around.  I did so cos I thought I had some dubious growth in my garden so wanted to compare plants. I hadn't even seen it before but it stuck out like a sore thumb. Luckily I don't have it but it might be a distant relative - ie looks similar but is much much smaller by comparison.

Seems like the "weed busters" gave up and went home.

[shaun]

removing knotweed has cost the olympic games 70m so far  :shock:

[Sally A]

Can't they just give it back to the Japs when they compete?

a bit like returning the Elgin marbles to the Greeks?

[chickenlittle]

just found this about the blooming stuff  :x


Japanese Knotweed is the most invasive plant in Britain. Originally introduced into the UK during the nineteenth century as an ornamental plant, it has spread throughout the UK and Europe. If left uncontrolled, it will damage drains, foundations, walls, tarmac and concrete surfaces and can spread rapidly to seriously degrade its local environment by smothering native plants whilst providing no habitat for native fauna. It is a particular problem in the context of Building Development sites. In these cases it renders commencement of works impossible until the situation has been remedied.  
 
Biology  
Japanese Knotweed is a perennial plant, of which all colonies are a clone of the original plant; therefore all plants found in the UK and Europe are female. Without the presence of male plants, it is therefore unable to set viable seed. Japanese Knotweed regenerates vegetatively. Very small fragments of rhizome (as little as 0.7 gram) and fresh stem material are able to produce viable shoots and roots. The rhizome network underground (a type of modified root system) may extend to a depth of up to 3 metres and 7 metres around the perimeter of the stand.

Japanese Knotweed dies back in late October each year, leaving only dead brown hollow canes above ground, to indicate its presence. In late March,  the rhizome system starts to throw up new shoots (which look rather like asparagus on emergence.) These shoots grow rapidly, reaching 2 metres by the end of May and 3-4 metres by the end of June, and are identifiable by their bamboo-like nature and fleshy green/red tinged colour. The leaves are light green and heart shaped, and in late August the plant produces clusters of small, cream sterile flowers.

It should be noted that is is an offence in the United Kingdom deliberately  to cause this plant to grow in the wild under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act and any waste material, such as that arising from cutting, mowing or excavation, should be disposed of in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Duty Of Care) Regulations. The use of equipment which is likely to result in further spread of Japanese Knotweed, such as flail mowers, is strongly advised against.

[itsonlyme]

The upside is it can be used for winemaking and in place of rhubarb in desserts etc!