Topic: How deep do couch grass roots go?

[bikegirllisa]

I had one bed, 4 x 2m, completely covered in the evil stuff.  So I set at it with a hand fork, digging out everything near the surface.

Then I spent two hours turning over the entire bed with the garden fork, and pulling out evey other scrap of root, big and small I could find.  I am a broken woman

Now I'm wondering is that enough, or should I double dig the bed and make sure it's gone?  ???

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's quite shallow-rooted; if you've got roots going deep, it's because someone's dug them in down there. If you've done the top few inches thoroughly, you can afford to leave it, and if any comes back, dig the roots out individually.

[pigeonseed]

Yes shallow, but bits will inevitably end up getting mixed back into the soil. If it's muddy, they get covered in mud and blend in!

But if you keep pulling it out eventually you can get rid of it - the trouble is, if you don't keep on at it, it can re-colonise quite quickly, which is disheartening. But if you just pull it up when you spot it/have time, you'll start to win!

If you compost it, cover it and leave it for maybe up to a year, and then even the little bulbs and fat roots will be composted. I'd say a year - what do you think, Robert?

[Vinlander]

Yes, couch is shallow rooted when it has a free run, seldom more than 15cm, but it will dive down at least 30cm if it is obstructed - be doubly careful not to present a down-angled barrier which can deflect it even deeper.

The only good thing is that it does a great job of breaking up the soil - really crap clay may still be crap afterwards, but much better and looser than it was...

Also, don't believe hysterical rumours from panicked codgers  :o :o :o - if it's dry you don't need to burn it and waste all that fertility - just dry it to the state where it is brittle (use a wire mesh hammock in wet weather).

When it is dead it's dead and you can compost it. If it's dry enough to burn without choking everyone nearby then it's dry enough to compost. If it isn't then don't poison your neighbours by burning it!

Cheers.

PS. Bindweed dries even easier (it doesn't have that skin on its roots) and is just as dead when it does.

[gypsy]

If you have grass paths it can be in there too, and can easily grow back into the bed from the sides. It can go under paving slabs, carpets etc. I keep digging it out but there 's always more to come. Just part of the routine for me.

[saddad]

... but it does make good compost!  :)

[pigeonseed]

It does, doesn't it? Smells all soft and mushroomy.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I find it composts quite easily. A large dock or bindweed root can survive till the following year, though it'll be too weakened to do anything much. Couch will be long gone.

[Digeroo]

I would recommend growin something large in it.  Broadbeans or courgettes which are very easy to weed and hoe around.  I had one strip of it and was just very persistant at pulling it up.  Now after three digs it has more or less gone though it is trying to recolonise from the path and a few bits are popping up around some calabrese.  I still have not put anything fiddly to weed like carrots in that area.

[pigeonseed]

Do you get the little bulbs on your couch grass though, Robert? I find they will survive quite a long time. I think they call it onion couch.

Definitely good to grow large plants on newly reclaimed land, Digeroo, I agree. Worse than couch are brambles and nettles. They're just so big and pushy. Mind you the biggest louts of all are my volunteer potatoes! I'm forever trying to prise them up from under my poor little onions and shallots.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I remember onion couch from my father's allotment, but I've never had it so I can't answer that one.

[Vinlander]

I find it composts quite easily. A large dock or bindweed root can survive till the following year, though it'll be too weakened to do anything much. Couch will be long gone.

Surface perennials like creeping buttercup can go straight from the hoe into the compost, but anything underground-perennial is dug onto the wire hammock until it is crunchy-dry - then it's dead and I can guarantee I won't have to sift the bloody compost next year.

Bindweed is the first to dry out. I tried drowning weeds once but it is slow, slow, slow - and it stinks.

Cheers.