[beanqueen]

My plot is full of the damned stuff, I tried planting brassicas through weed fabric last year but it just kept raising upand they got leggy. This year I planted them through cardboard covered with a bit of soil and they are FAB

I planted onions and garlic in the autumn and in spring rakes back the earth between the rows and lay down newspapers and covered them with the earth. Have had the best onions and garlic ever ( maybe coincidence)

My spring planted onions had the same treatment apart from the last lot cos I ran out of paper so decided to leave them as an experiment. They did not do as well

I have never managed to grow leeks before as they just got too chocked but when ready for planting I dibbed a hole in the newspapers in between the onions and they are doing great, just the odd little bit of marestail poking through where the papers have ripped, and now easy to hoe along the strip inbetween where the onions were

Squashes etc grown through plastic, just a bit of weeding in the hole to do, globe artichockes planted this year through card are really strong

This probably sounds obvious to the more experienced gardners but may help a newbie

Anyone have any other tips for fighting the dreaded marestail?

[Pete C]

Well, you're doing better than me. My plot is heavily infested with the stuff. I cleared an area around my shed, laid double thickness weed matting, sand then slabs. The stuff still comes up in the cracks between slabs. Same thing has happened with my compost heap......mares tail comes straight through weed barrier!

[azubah]

Thanks for the tip, beanqueen. I have more than my fair share of mares tail. No more  newspapers for the recycling bin!

[Yorkie]

That's a great achievement beanqueen, really well done - hopefully your tips will be of a help to others too 

[kelvin]

excellent i will be trying this, my current technique has been digging down to the clay then spraying with roundup complete had also planned more poison later in the year forget what it is called but is designed to kill tree stumps

[Yorkie]

Just a word to check the residual effect if you're planning on using something other than glyphosate, Kelvin - if it's sodium chlorate, it's not licensed for use on land where crops will be grown, and the ground isn't usable for at least 6 months afterwards in any event.

If it is a glyphosate based weedkiller, don't leave it too late to apply as the plant needs to be growing strongly for it to be absorbed and taken down to the roots - and you'll probably still need to bruise the mares tail leaves so as to enable it to penetrate the silica coating.

[peterjf]

mares tail,

wait until spring when the dreaded mares tails is still brown and looking like tall thin fungi,

damage the plants by way of raking rolling ect , then spray with 50ml round up to 5ltr sprayer ,

the silica in the mares tail starts to reseal the damage within 10 minutes,

what we did was , rake and bruise the mares tail in an area of 2 square metres and spray them ,

our has been cut back by about 1/3 so far ,

we going to keep up tackling the mares tail this way , it seems to work ?

[DD.]

That concentration seems very weak, Peter. It's usually 30ml to a litre. 5 litres would need 150mls. I can't see a weak solution being very effective.

Anyway - always read the label.

[Aunt Sally]

Wee had loads of mare's tail on my plot when I took it on 3 years ago but I have almost none now.

I (meaning Worzel) gave it a good dig over and removed as many roots as possible to begin with.  We keep the hoe moving through the growing season "Never let it see a Sunday" - Easy

[spud]

I'm a firm believer in permaculture as a means of growing ... you might find your answer in this video ...

WVq-ZQm1R-E
Cheers

 

[Goosegirl]

I have the beast all through a "seashore" bed and it has got into the lawn and is merrily travelling into to my herbaceous borders. I tried some Doff "Knockdown" weedkiller spray and boy did it not like it! We'll see if it regrows this time. I have used some Clinic in Jeye's fluid which it wasn't too keen on but it eventually regrew (should have persisted perhaps). I will also try some Round Up diluted in Sainsbury's vinegar as acetic acid is supposed to help the glyphosate to enter its system - I think the fatty acid does something to the silica. I will also try diluting some Clinic in vinegar if the Round Up doesn't get to it sufficiently enough to kill it. Let's hope the Doff does the trick!

[Stan160]

I try to never have bare soil on the plot.  If it's not growing veggies, then green manure, or thick mulch.  The mares tail which formed a forest in my first season two years ago is still present, but very much diminished because its being crowded out.  Any that does emerge from the mulch or between seedlings gets hoed off or pulled out as soon as I notice.

Ian

[beanqueen]

Thsi year I also planted loads of nastsursiams around the beans and sweetcorn and this seems to have  helped. Layers of comfrey on the bare bits also work sbut you need loads of it

[Yorkie]

Please note that as Jeyes fluid is not legal to be used as a pesticide / weedkiller, we can't condone other members suggesting it as a course of action - whether combined with other products or alone 

[kelvin]

thanks for that legal advice yorkie i have checked and it is glyphosate based so is OK have used a full round up omplete pump and go on my first trial section whih i dug a trench pulled out all the roots i ould see then sprayed the soil so any roots i missed hopefully would have been killed, on the area done none has ome back so far so fingures crossed will stay that way,
 so next weekend will buy my gravel boards and get my first raised bed constructed will have to inorporate some fine mesh netting on it as well as i came back from holiday yesterday went straight to the allotment and found alot of yellow eggs on the underside of the turnip leaves