[robbodaveuk]

The bottom 20ft of my garden and 50ft of next doors is covered in the stuff. Some of it on the neighbours is over twelve foot high. I know it is a long process to get rid of it, but does anybody know the best way to kill it off.

  Dave.

[Aunt Sally]

:shock: Move house  :!:

[Rampant_Weasel]

ask a russian for some cheap nuclear weapons...just a small warhead would do

[Aunt Sally]

repeated glyphosate treatment would be my choice.

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/japknot.htm

[Johnny Norfolk]

I would cut down and remove as much as possible. As soon as new growth appears spray with SBK mixed with Roundup at its strongest measure. Keep spraying as it re appears.

You could of course put pigs on the land they get rid of everything

[gobs]

If your neighbour does not co-operate, you won't get anywhere though.

As nothing to lose, you could try if your local council is willing to help you out.

[robbodaveuk]

Thanks guys and gals. My neighbour is totally with me in getting rid of the knotweed. I am reluctant to repeated use glyphosate as I am unconvinced it is harmless, I don't want to be a guinea pig for the chemical company. What I am doing is letting it get to about five foot in height and then taking all the growth off, it snaps very cleanly at the base. Then when it grows, which is about two inches a day I am taking it off again before it gets higher than a couple of feet and the leaves form properly. I will keep doing this for as long as it takes. I am also taking out without digging or breaking any roots that I can and burning them.
My theory behind it is that a lot of energy and reserves must be used for growing and for me to keep forcing it to grow new shoots is going to weaken it. Also by not letting the leaves form, it cannot take in any goodness from the air and sun. Also at the end of the growing season when all shoots and leaves die of normaly and all the reserves go back to the roots, there is nothing there to go back, hence a weaker plant to attack again next year.

  Dave.

[Johnny Norfolk]

Why ask the question then if you dont want advice.

[robbodaveuk]

Why ask the question then if you dont want advice.

Erm....where did I say I didn't want advice? I asked for advice in my original question, then I said what I was doing at the moment and that I was reluctant to use glyphosate.If anybody knows a better way I am all ears. Maybe you should go back to bed and get out the other side, oh and put some glasses on so you can read what I wrote.

 Dave.

[owein]

I had the same problem and adopted the same approach as yourself, it was hard work, but after a couple of years it did weaken significantly, however I never finished the job as I moved house

You do know it is illegal to transport any part of the plant on public highways dont you? You need to burn it all on site, and well. At least that's what I was told four years ago.

Good luck

[gregmcalister]

I'm afraid that cutting the stems as you're doing won't really have much effect on the knotweed. The underground root system will spread for a long distance and the plants in your neighbour's property will be connected to yours. Then anything outside your properties will be connected.  If you wanted to weaken the roots you would have to cut down every single piece of plant in the vicinity. I know you're not too keen to use chemicals to kill it but short of digging up every single piece of root I don't think you've got much choice. It is extremely invasive and will even push its way through tarmac. If it gets close to your house then you can imagine the problems it could cause.

[johnathome]

Do you live near a railway line? I understand the victorians used it to stop the embankments from crumbling.

The firm where i work had 2 acres of land between our buildings and the railway line, sold it and started to clear it, then they found this knotweed.

It held everything up for 2 months, the area had to be fenced off while they got the Enviromental people in and discussed what to do.

In the end they used a digger to dig down about 10 feet and covered everything in weedkiller. It's an extremely aggresive plant and i dont think repeatedly cutting off the top will kill it.

Maybe get some advice from the council. Then again they may quote an obscure law which demands they descend on your garden dig everything up and spray with a dangerous chemical which prohibits growing anything for a few years.

It is probably better to seek professional advice, if you do then let us know how you got on.

[noshed]

I had some on my plot and I found glyphosate quite effective - if you spray it regularly.
I know there was a load on the Olympic site and they had to use heavy diggers to get it all out, then burn it.
You're not supposed to put it in the normal bin so if you can't burn it you better ask the council. The only thing is they may come in and use something which really will tie up the soil for a couple of years.
Glyphosate is the best of a bad job I think. Just be careful when using it - gloves, long sleeves and trousers, boots. Only use sprayers or watering cans you won't be using for anything else.
It's not toxic in itself, just very invasive.

[SalJ1980]

A friend of mine works for one of the companies which have formed this joint venture specialising in Japanese Knotweed removal:

GroundCoverDBM

It's aimed more at land developers than individuals, so whatever solutions they have will probably be waaaaaaay too expensive, but they might be able to give you some idea of what would work.

Hope this helps!  

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

In my area knotweed is notifiable - you have to let the council know if you have it and then they have a hit squad who will deal with it. It is very aggresive and as gregmcalister said it will push through tarmac also concrete and anything in its way it just keeps going until it gets to the light. I think its one of the plants like horsetail which has been around since the time of the dinosaurs and will resist almost any attempt to kill it off.