Author Topic: I'ts Back! AaaaaH! (Read 4164 times)

faeflowers · « **on:** April 11, 2006, 22:10:09 »

Hello everyone.... has anyone else got field horsetail? I've had the allotment now since November 2004, it hadn't been worked for quite awhile.

It came up all over the place last spring, I'd never seen the spores in real life before, apparantly the plant is pre-historic, it certainly looks it!

I spent all season trying to weaken it by chopping it off as soon as I saw it but there is just so much of it! :'(

I covered loads of the ground with carpet and black plastic in the hope of depriving it of light, and even grew my potatoes through membrane instead of earthing up, I'm not going to use weedkiller on my veggie beds, can anyone help? Any advice would be really welcome.

Fae

SMP1704 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 11, 2006, 22:23:01 »

Me, I have :'( Shall we set up a horsetail support group.

I've been digging and weeding since January and now a pile of roots that's about 2.5 feet sq.

The problem is that the roots go down so deep, some books I have read say 30 metres :o :o

I'm using a bed system and covering the paths, so I'm hoping that will make the problem a bit more manageable.

I have resorted to Roundup - people recommend bruising the outer coating on the leaves and painting on the Roundup. I think the combined effect of weeding and poisoning will weaken it and maybe, possibly, eventually several years down the line, KILL IT 8)

I don't think there is an easy answer, but chopping off the heads before it has a chance to grow has got to weaken the rhizome - an alternative approach to Roundup. My lottie neighbours just accept the fact that it is there and work around it.........

faeflowers · « **Reply #2 on:** April 11, 2006, 22:40:20 »

Hi SMP1704

Thank you loads for the advice!

Aaawwww! A support group sounds good to me! ;) I just couldn't believe the massive root system that had developed under the potato membrane, yards of it!

The oldies on our site think i'm a bit bonkers, jumping up and down on all the paths in the midday sun (last summer), stamping and stomping on the flippin stuff! Almost hoping the hot sun would dry it out and kill it????? I've been using Roundup too on the paths but not the beds.

I'd love to be able to work round it but unfortunately if I tried that, there'd be no room to plant anything! ;D

SMP1704 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 11, 2006, 22:55:52 »

I don't understand how they work around it either ???

My lottie neighbours keep telling me that the horsetail will be up soon and I keep pointing to the root pile and they nod and smile sadly - do you think they know something I don't. ???

busy_lizzie · « **Reply #4 on:** April 11, 2006, 23:04:34 »

We live with them. When we first got our plot three years ago we had loads of them, but we just keep digging them up and they have lessened over time, and I don't think of them as a problem now. Just as soon as you spot one you dig it out straightaway and try to get as much of the root as you can. They do say that they often grow where the ground is quite wet as those are the conditions they like, so might be worth sorting out any swampy areas you might have.

faeflowers · « **Reply #5 on:** April 11, 2006, 23:38:14 »

SMP1704, I really sympathise, I even managed to rope my Dad in last year ( I needed him, things were getting just too much, when in trouble call 'the Dad' ) ;D He went at that horse tail like, well, a proper DAD!!!! And still it's there, he reckoned it was something to do with snapping the roots, they love it, a genuine opportunity to grow more baby horse tail >:( His solution was a JCB or Dynamite, or even 10 ton of cement ???

busy-lizzie, I was so worked up about this weed last year, I had dreams! Waking up ready to go stomping and digging! ;) Cold shivers just thinking about it. I'm hoping sheer determination and downright persistance will pay off, if not, I'm going to start potting it up and selling it as a British Wildflower on ebay! ;D

Taraven · « **Reply #6 on:** April 12, 2006, 13:29:49 »

We've almost (but not quite) cleared our garden of this horrid weed and it has taken us many years. It still lurks in hidden corners but as soon as we see it we try to pull it up getting as much of the black root as possible.
As soon as you see it try to get rid of it immediately because if it gets to maturity and you try to grab hold of it to pull it out it shoots out thousands of spores that look like tiny curled commas, all potential new plants :'(
It reproduces in so many ways it's unbelievable. :o The tiniest bit of root or green stem will grow and form a new mare's tail plant, but I think those 'spores/seeds' are the worst to contend with.
Good luck to everyone trying to eradicate the stuff, it is hard work!!

Taraven

pakaba · « **Reply #7 on:** April 12, 2006, 19:49:04 »

Hi

fortunatley i haven't got it on the lottie BUT the garden is covered in the stuff.

2 years ago dh dug out one border completely and replaced the earth with top soil.. he managed to get rid of alot of it but i have already dug some up this year. As for the main border last year DH got so fed up he got the choppers to the whole thing with the intention of digging it over when the ground was easier (like now) and replacing with top soil so we shall see.

When we first moved in i got so excited at this plant coming up everywhere, :o :-[ i hadn't ever seen it before :)... little did i know that the devil was sleeping beneath my garden!

Paula

Taraven · « **Reply #8 on:** April 12, 2006, 22:04:15 »

Paula, I agree, I was exactly the same when I first saw all the 'little Christmas trees' in our garden when we first took over this house. I thought that it was such a pleasant change from all the broken glass, buried barbed wire, old tin cans and other nasty debris we were clearing ::) Little did I realise :'(
Keep at it and try to get into the habit of either carrying a long narrow trowel around with you or have anything that will dig down fairly deep down close at hand, so that you can dig out any just as they appear through the soil.
Whatever you do try not to break any of the stems at the segments (they are so brittle and it's just another reproduction form) and do your utmost to get as much root as possible. In time you will see less and less of the nasty things.
Someone once told me that they are coated with a waxy substance so any weedkiler simly runs off and bruising just helps break it up so that all the little pieces can form new plants. >:(
You'll win your battle, take it from me, but it will take time and determination.
I'm sure that if the human race were to disappear from the face of the earth mares-tail would take over every available space :D

Taraven

Mrs Ava · « **Reply #9 on:** April 12, 2006, 23:32:30 »

Like Busy Lizzie I don't tend to worry about it to much. I have it, and couch grass, and thistles, and brambles, and creeping buttercup, and another pretty little yellow flower which spreads like the clappers, and nettles, and white rot, and I think club root and I do just fine. I pull it up as I see it and put it in a sack and never on the compost heap. It isn't thick and chunky and floppy like nettles, doesn't smother like couch, and doesn't wrip my skin open like the brambles.

SMP1704 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 14, 2006, 14:15:01 »

Was at the lottie yesterday and noticed that some Horsetail had dared to show itself >:( Not in the beds that I have thoroughly dug and weeded (think CSI) but in a couple that had only just been turned over.

They are not there any more (cue manical laughter) ;D

Sad?........who said that.............

SMP1704 · « **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2006, 21:26:19 »

3 hours at the lottie today, had so much planned to do............but then, what's that I see? HORSETAIL - EVERYWHERE - Arrrggghhhh, ***!!!@@??//&^^

In a bed that I have already dug over 4 times, I still managed to half fill a bucket with the evil root and then I planted the calabrese and cauliflower. I wanted to get the peas in, but before I could do that - yes more digging and weeding, a full bucket this time.

I then got really mean and used the newly sharpened hoe to hack the heads off of those on the paths.

It seems that my lottie neighbours did know something that I didn't, but at least no-one has told me so - yet or perhaps they have seen the hoe blade glinting in the sunlight....... :o and decided to give me a wide berth ;)

I think it might have to be double digging this autumn :'(

saddad · « **Reply #12 on:** May 10, 2006, 21:28:12 »

This is one menace I am spared, couch, brambles, bindweed even ground elder is preferable... I have them all but not Horsetail!
:)

barkingdog · « **Reply #13 on:** May 12, 2006, 13:08:21 »

I too have the dreaded marestail/horsetail (not sure of the difference..if any!) and ground elder, creeping buttercup, nettles etc.

I have just been pulling up the marestail as soon as I see it so hopefully I will defeat/diminish it at some point?!...I hope!

Oh well, I like a challenge!! ;)

barkingdog

saddad · « **Reply #14 on:** May 12, 2006, 21:08:01 »

Stinging nettles aren't really a problem, just keep cutting the tops and use as compost accelerator or mulch, or leave them for the Ladybirds etc., got creeping buttercup as well! They poison the soil as well (take up loads of ntrients and leave behind inhibitors!
>:(

Robert_Brenchley · « **Reply #15 on:** May 13, 2006, 00:10:38 »

Creeping buttercup is a real niuisance, but if you keep pulling it out and don't let it flower, it does disappear in the end. I had it all over, but only minimal amounts now.

saddad · « **Reply #16 on:** May 17, 2006, 18:12:04 »

May I recommend a little light reading(Weeding?)
"How to Enjoy your weeds" Audrey Wynne Hatfield 1969, Still available from PlumTree Publishing Worcestershire, ISBN 0 9533646 0 7
Pages 75-78. Marestail is an aquatic plant. Horsetail, quotes experiments at Wisley, prefers poor neglected land, " have shown that it disappears aftera few seasons of improving cultivation; by generous, deep enriching mulches, and hoeing to exhaust the weed's efforts as it pokes through the mulch."
???

SMP1704 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 17, 2006, 18:32:36 »

Thanks Saddad, that makes me feel so much better ;D

I had read on the internet that it prefers uncultivated soil. I have a four stage plan of attack

1. Dig out as much as I can

2. Hoe the tops off or pull by hand

3. Bruise stems (whacking with a spade) and spray with roundup

4. When all of above are too exhausting, scavenge copious quantities of heavy duty cardboard and smother the lot >:(

here's a before and after shot of a 'work in progress' part of the plot

Oh I haven't put them in Photobucket - back in a mo....

SMP1704 · « **Reply #18 on:** May 17, 2006, 18:44:54 »

Sharon 1 - Horsetail 0 (but not for long)

This is what happens when a third of the plot is behind a blackberry hedge

sorry - don't know what has happened to that one - just picture a h/t field..........

I'm putting the pumpkins here - they like moist soil don't they?

here's what can be achieved in an hour with a sharp hoe

ACE · « **Reply #19 on:** May 17, 2006, 20:41:26 »

One plot I used to have was smothered in marestail. I started by double digging the plot, removing as much root as I could see. Then as I planted each bit, I dug it again, once again removing the bits of root. After that I used to hoe it as it poked up out of the ground. It was always there but not what I would call a nuisance.

The ground stood for about 8 months when I moved to another plot and then the new owner rotovated it. Result, back where we started.

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Author Topic: I'ts Back! AaaaaH! (Read 4164 times)