[Snowboar]

Hi all what’s best way to get rid of it and how deep are roots  gutted thought I’d escaped it

[Aunt Sally]

The roots reach down to Australia.

Our advice is “Never let is see a Sunday”  Gently pull it up as soon as it’s big enough to grasp.  Pull gently, it gives great satisfaction to see how long a piece you can pull out of the ground.  It hates competition and rich soils. So increase you fertility and “Never ……”.

[Snowboar]

Don’t think I could pull has the ground is quite hard pack I here that weed killer won’t absorb through the skin of the weed could I inject it with a large stringe I use glue syringes at work that have about a 2 mm nozzle do you reckon that could work

[geordiekev]

Mares Tail has a waxy skin so to speak. I have heard tell that if you crush some of the foliage then spray it that works.

[AndyRVTR]

If you add fairy washing up liquid to your chosen pesticide it acts as an adjuvant helping it stick to the plant longer.. the best time to kill marestail/horsetail is just when it's starting to grow and before spores are released. If its existing 'green' plant then it needs bruising before application!

[Aunt Sally]

It’s not easy to remove and will take years (if ever).

This is John’s advice

This is the RHS’s advice

This is Garden Organic’s advice

[Rob the rake]

I used to have lots of the stuff on a previous plot - my garden there was at the bottom of the hill so was subject to waterlogging at times and Mare's tail loves the wet! The most effective solution for a no-poisons gardener was simply to hoe the stuff within an inch of its life, which never fully killed it out but kept it under effective control for the ten or so years that I gardened there. Watch out for the fruiting heads that carry the spores and remove them immediately.

[Snowboar]

I got some stuff it includes an adjuvant like andy rvtr just mentioned also some stuff called spore stop got it all from pro green cost me 60 quid like but if it helps thanks for advice everyone greatly appreciated

[Tina Buckley]

A lot will depend on what your neighbours gardens are like. My experience of Horse/Mares tail has been a constant battle for a good 5+ years simply because my immediate neighbours aren't interested in gardening and let the stuff grow so much it looked like a forest. It ended up me clearing their gardens by cutting down to within an inch of their lives and then using a garden burner wand to prevent growth. As soon as any start to grow again, I'm out there with my wand and for the last couple of years it has become so much easier for me to keep a control of it in my own garden whereby I only have to pull the odd ones up now.

[Russell Atterbury]

A good spray with that wonderful, multi purpose product WD40 will kill it off. No need for bruising it either, as the spray eats through. Dead in a few weeks.

[mumofstig]

Dead in a few weeks.

all the soil life where you've sprayed will be dead as well. It may be a good idea on path areas, but I wouldn't spray it where I want to grow veg....

[Aunt Sally]

WD40 May kill the top growth but will not kill roots/rhizomes. 

It’s just as quick and far safer to hoe off or preferably to gently pull out.

[Debz]

I've been pulling it out of my plot that I got 4 years ago.  Hardly see any now and any that is brave enough to come up gets tugged out pretty quick.

[Learnerlady]

Had lots of this on the new allotment and have used a number of things to control it to the point that after 3 years of adding compost and digging to improve drainage  have very little in the beds but still have to pull up on paths etc. and have an un worked adjacent plot that has loads of the stuff so have resigned myself to "control" rather than eradicating it. First couple of years I tried weedkiller but need to spray at just the right time and too much to keep trying to bruise it before spraying. In another couple of years will uncover a couple of areas covered in plastic with raised beds on top to see if now usable but not optimistic....Thankfully the battle against brambles, bindweed and buttercups going much better....

[snowdrops]

I’ve had it on my plot for the last 16 years but it’s definitely less, To begin with I tried digging it out, but when I got 2 & 3 spits down & it was still there I knew I couldn’t keep that up. I did try bruising it & spraying with roundup (glyphosate) but it didn’t appear to make any difference. I eventually read that the best way to control it was to allow it to grow between 7-10cms & then gently tease it out (this doesn’t include the fruiting spores that look different anyway), this eventually weakens it as it expands a lot of energy to get to that stage. I’m not sure if the advice was from on here or elsewhere. I’ve been doing that for over 10 years when any pops up but it is now much,much less, just a couple of bits here & there in the beds, mostly. But if I turn my back on it I have no doubt the plot would be covered once again