[Turnba]

I'll start by apologising for yet another creeping buttercup thread, but I'm afraid I'll loose what's on the patch otherwise.

I just took over an allotment. There is a fruit cage established with many raspberry canes as well as a very solid looking blackcurrant bush, both of which I would like to save. I got two gooseberry buses as Christmas presents so I was keen to get them planted, but it's turning into a gift of a lot of work!

However, the fruit area is overgrown with creeping buttercup. I know that fruit areas should be particularly weed free as the plants will be in there for a good long while. I've already spent hours digging deep and shaking the soil to free up the buttercups, then sifting through the soil for those little white tendril roots that get torn off. Is this being too particular about it?? Can this weed really grow again from fragments of little roots?

From what I've read on here I'm glad I didn't put any of it in the compost heap. My problem now is getting in around the raspberries and the blackcurrant bush. I dug as close to them as I could until I started to see the roots of these plants appear and stopped, hoping for a magical solution from someone that means I can keep these plants!

Can anyone offer some fruit-saving wisdom?

Thanks!!

[sunshineband]

If t'were me (and just mho I must point out) I would dig up the raspberries and clean off all the tiny little bulbils of creeping buttercup, enrich the ground with some blood fish and bone and replant the best looking canes, to create as clean a bed as possible and


then never let a single leaf of it stay between site visits.

With the blackcurrant you might get away with cleaning around it

[Yorkie]

Yes it can regrow.

I suggest that you continue as you are. Also, if you are not completely organic, consider using a very targeted amount of weedkiller (glyphosate) on the leaves when the plant is actively growing later in the season.  If you don't spray it around with abandon, it shouldn't affect the fruit bushes because you'll have avoided their leaves.

[Salmo]

Agree with Yorkie.

I would also consider spraying glyphosate now. You will need a dry day but it will work, especially if conditions stay reasonably mild. Do not expect quick results. I sprayed some weeds 10 days ago and I can just see a very slight change of colour today. It will not hurt woody stems. Use a course spray so that it does not blow on to other plants. I use a "Mr Muscle" spray bottle and get in close for spot application.

Some say that it does not work in the Winter but my experience is that it does. Creeping buttercup is  suseptable. You should be able to kill those inaccessable ones in the centre of bushes.

[Spana]

You could paint the weed killer on with a paint brush.

[Turnba]

Thanks all for the advice! However, I think it's a bit of sympathy that's necessary :-P

I'll keep on top of it once it's all dug up, as you all suggest, but I found a new foe in that little area today... A couple of days ago I was digging and started to find these long roots with regular nodes along them, but didn't get to the plant yet. I traced them back today to one particular little clump at the edge. I did a google image search and my head sunk when I read the name. Anyone want to stab a guess?? (and yes, I am a newbie that's done more reading than has experience!)

[gobs]

Dig them up, whilst they are dormant, weed their roots and replant.

Buttercups are a bit of a pain. I do not think though that they grow back from thin, feeding hair roots. The crowns in the centre - however little - and the creeping stalks/stems - that root readily - you want to get rid of.

Once weeded through, cover with a reasonable layer of manure. They should be mostly gone.

[Yorkie]

Thanks all for the advice! However, I think it's a bit of sympathy that's necessary :-P

I'll keep on top of it once it's all dug up, as you all suggest, but I found a new foe in that little area today... A couple of days ago I was digging and started to find these long roots with regular nodes along them, but didn't get to the plant yet. I traced them back today to one particular little clump at the edge. I did a google image search and my head sunk when I read the name. Anyone want to stab a guess?? (and yes, I am a newbie that's done more reading than has experience!)

I'm guessing bindweed, ground elder or marestail!

Couch grass doesn't have nodes.

[gobs]

Not like that nodes, I hope:

http://www.clearpathherbals.com/image/user/Japanese%20Knotweed%201.76.jpg

[Turnba]

Yup, couch grass it was alright. Maybe nodes isn't the word I want, more like banding stripes along the length. I was guessing those are potential points of shoots coming up so called them nodes. I've pulled metres and metres of the stuff up with surprisingly little going on above ground. Makes me wonder what hidden delights I'm going to see in the spring time.

This isn't my pic btw, I nicked it off the web to illustrate. (http://naturenet.net/blogs/index.php/2009/03/18/weeds_shoots_and_leaves)

[gobs]

Relax. Couch grass is a minor weed problem. As my favourite farmer likes to put it: there is nothing wrong with couch grass, just its roots need moving.

Do hold that in mind, for he is correct.