Topic: Identifying perennial weeds for newbies

[Sparkly]

This is one area I had no idea about as a newbie, so I am hoping this thread will help others. Perennial weeds are the ones you must remove from your plot as they will keep returning from the root system year on year. These are the 2 worst offenders on our allotment.

Couch grass:



You can identify this as it has broader leaves than standard grass. It also has white roots that send out runners, rather than a fine root ball.

Bindweed



You can identify this from the thick roots (quite a few mm thick)

Please feel free to add on information about other problem weeds. Hope this is useful to some of you!

[ipt8]

Erm, have I missed the point, before you start you want everything out, so you consider everything as weeds, then you plant in rows so the weeds are obviously not in the rows or are different from the vast majority of plants in the row ???

[chilli queen]

Thanks, I had no idea what bindweed looked like. 

[Ant]

Erm, have I missed the point, before you start you want everything out, so you consider everything as weeds, then you plant in rows so the weeds are obviously not in the rows or are different from the vast majority of plants in the row ???

yes you can do that, but some take on a plot that is in fairly good order and there is no real reason to remove annual weeds (as long as they aren't seeding) as you can just dig then back in and return their nutrients to the soil.

In our case the whole plot was bindweed, so it was easy enough to say whatever is there can go  :)

[star]

I think its a very good idea to be able to recognize weeds and wether they are perennial or not. Not everyone knows the difference if they're just starting out with an allotment or garden. ;)

 

[sarah]

i agree, this is a very good idea for newbies.  unless you plan on nuking your plot then come summer youwill have a variety of weeds coming up and being able to identify the nasties before they take hold is a good thing (as opposed to annual weeds which are less damaging as Ant says).  couch grass and dandylions are my main weeds and bindweed.

i havent visited the wiki for awhile and dont know if it is still in action but it might be a good place for this thread.

[Baccy Man]

This site has a lot of pictures & information about weeds which could be useful when trying to identify them.
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/weedlf.htm

[bupster]

ipt8, I've had my plot for three years and I'm still not even close to clearing it all of perennial weeds, I think this is a great idea and would have been dead useful when I started out. Some people must have an awful lot more time on their hands than me!