[simonwatson]

I have made a mistake. I moved some raspberry plants from my plot to my home veg patch. The reasons are sound, but I've brought marestail with them. I brought them bare rooted, but must have missed some. I'm not averse to chemical gardening, especially against such a vicious enemy. Should I just take the rasps out and go nuclear on the bed to prevent the marestail getting hold or can I prevent that by judicious daily weeding, given that they can't have gone deep yet? Anyone got any experience of this?

[polly nator]

Horrid stuff!
My daughters garden is full of it. I would probably blitz it if there is just a bit.   

I did read an interesting tip on this forum which I have experimented with on my veg plots at my daughters. I read that marestail doesnt like having manure dumped on it .... so I dug out some of the raised beds and put in a thick layer of fresh raw unrotted horse muck and then replaced soil on top.  I compared the results with an untreated bed...... and yes the marestail activity was considerably less on the treated beds. I am waiting to see what happens this year to find out if I need to repeat,.

[snowdrops]

i have marestail all over the allotment plot I have swapped to  If I were you I would dig the raspberries up & thoroughly & systematically sieve/clear any sign of the m/tail out. You could do as polly suggests & refill with a load of manure,perhaps pot up the raspberries in the mean time to check there is no weed growth within them.

[tribs]

I had a fair bit of horsetail in my garden at home. I went the organic route and removed as much as possible by hand, not least because glysophate is not that effective at killing it.

It does occasionally pop back up but when it does I just pull the shoots out before the leaves open. It is easily manageable this way. If it is not allowed to produce leaves it cannot make any more food for its roots and will eventually die.

If I were you I would let it pop up in between the raspberry canes and then follow it back into the earth and get as much of the roots as you can. Try not to let the leaves open and you shouldn't have too much of a problem. I wouldn't bother with the removal of the rasps and blitz it as your bound to miss a bit. Let it pop up then you'll know where the roots are

[savbo]

can i be the first to say.... never let it see a Sunday...

I would just keep on top of it, and it's not the biggest problem in the world even if it does spread...

sav

[gavinjconway]

Horrid stuff!
My daughters garden is full of it. I would probably blitz it if there is just a bit.   

 I read that marestail doesnt like having manure dumped on it ....

Sorry but It loves being smothered with manure.. I loaded a dalek compost bin with manure and after 8 months I toppled it over to use for my spuds the other day and by jove!!! mares tail grown right through it..


Simon.. I think you have 3 options.. 

1.You dont say how much you have and when you brought it in. If its recently you could possibly dig down a "few" feet and follow the roots till you get them out..
2. As sav says - dont let it see a sunday!! Just keep cuting it back.
3. Get some Glyphosate type weedkiller, crush the stems so you can get the solution to penetrate the plant.. This is the only way you might kill it.

or just move house...

[simonwatson]

There's very little of it. I've seen maybe five heads so far so I could keep up with hand treating each one as it emerges.

I'll follow the next one down and see where it takes me.

[gavinjconway]

You may end up in Australia..    
 

[simonwatson]

Looks like it hasn't had the time or energy to grow down yet. The piece I took out yesterday evening only had about 4 inches of root on it. That kinda makes sense as if it had been loads longer than the raspberry plant's roots I would have noticed it.

[gavinjconway]

How long ago did you move the rasps?

[simonwatson]

I only moved them in Feb/March, when it was still cold.

[gavinjconway]

I only moved them in Feb/March, when it was still cold.

Ok I'd assume the roots would not bee too deep yet so dig them all out asap and I reckon you should be ok..

[andy dewar]

Weve got it on our allotments and no way can you get rid once it takes hold its got to be the worst weed going and the roots go on forever