Topic: my war on horsetail...

[gazzaroo]

and so it begins, i seen loads of new growth in the horsetail roots when out turning over the day..ill be getting the weed killer out this weekend,

[grannyjanny]

Learn to live with it ;D. It's prehistoric, is there a weed killer that will work on it????????

[gazzaroo]

last year i started using kertail weed killer on it,,,you can get it at ,WWW. pro green.com,,its not cheap.. i got some good results. i went around picking of bits that grow up between veg ... am going to mix it with friary liquid for better results.   

[woodypecks]

I actually bought a pot of this from local nursery because it does look so wonderfully Jurassic , but now on reading up about it ,I,m thinking I,ll keep it contained in a tub .   ::)

[gaz2000]

I only have a small amount each year,i remove the visable roots while digging and hoe off any during the season

If you use weedkiller your best to squash the plant a little first so it takes it better,it has a waxy protection like bind weed

[Digeroo]

Does lime on the soil upset it? 

I remember going on a Geography field trip at school and being shown that the start of maretail mark the boundary between the chalk of the northdowns and the upper green sandstone below it.  I have one small patch in the garden where the builders left a pile of sand it has never moved in 26 plus years.  All I have to do is water it with tap water (very hard) and it will die.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I don't know about lime, but the reason it doesn't grow on chalk is that it likes damp soil. Water percolates straight through the chalk, and you tend to find a line of springs running along the boundary where it ends and the rocks underneath begin.

[bionear2]

Now is the time to be on the lookout for the pale pink fruiting bodies, which will scatter spores, and start a whole new generation of the b....y stuff.
As soon as they are big enough to grasp, grab them in a tissue(so the spores are trapped) and pull them out.

[pumkinlover]

I actually bought a pot of this from local nursery because it does look so wonderfully Jurassic , but now on reading up about it ,I,m thinking I,ll keep it contained in a tub .   ::)

 :o :o :o

[Robert_Brenchley]

Be careful; it has a tendency to escape through the holes in the bottom of the pot, and before you know what's happening it's coming up all around.

[davyw1]

This could possibly be the longest war in history

[Alex133]

It's even worse than bindweed and ground elder - at least with those the roots are easy to see. I really would suggest to woodypecks - Ditch the pot and not on the compost heap!

[Sparkly]

I actually bought a pot of this from local nursery because it does look so wonderfully Jurassic , but now on reading up about it ,I,m thinking I,ll keep it contained in a tub .   ::)

 :o :o :o

Do not plant it - seriously!!!

[gazzaroo]

you do not want  it ,,iv got it every were and takes lots of work to just keep out with pulling it out..

[Torreya]

  We have a Victorian walled garden, so I know exactly what you're going through! 
  There are a number of 'ornamental' horsetails for ponds/bog gardens that are regularly seen in the likes of 'ripples waterlife' or other aquatics centres. They're apparently not supposed to be so rampant, but I've never risked buying them so can't really say one way or the other!
  There is a really good article here
http://www.btinternet.com/~pigott/equisetum/leaflet.html
which goes into a lot of detail about individual species.
 All I would say is 'Buyer Beware'!!

[garrett]

We had it in my parents' garden and we just pulled it out for a couple of years and it mostly disappeared. They occasionally get one or two popping back, but they're easily tugged out and haven't been a problem since.

[irridium]

Now is the time to be on the lookout for the pale pink fruiting bodies, which will scatter spores, and start a whole new generation of the b....y stuff.
As soon as they are big enough to grasp, grab them in a tissue(so the spores are trapped) and pull them out.

when i took over the lotti early feb last yr, they came in late feb-mar. i was wondering where they go to this yr. do you think the winter has delayed them this season, or is this the normal time. altho' i had a bit of a prob with marestail last yr on some of my beds, i think it's down to the preparation before the new season's growth is put out. do you know if the plasticky, black,papery thin sheaths are their  roots? i've plenty of these in the beds, and it nigh impossible to sift all this out...

[Hazelb]

When I took my lottie on, the person before me had rotavated the plot each spring and then just left it, for several years running....The marestails were like a lawn!!!!

1/2 my allotment spent nearly 4 years under old carpet..That made a huge dent in the plants.

Then I found a weed killer that worked! The old 'root-out' or 'deep root' stump killer. had ammonium sulphermate in it..that worked.

I don't think it's available as a weed killer any more  :-\

[Bacchus]

Now is the time to be on the lookout for the pale pink fruiting bodies, which will scatter spores, and start a whole new generation of the b....y stuff.
As soon as they are big enough to grasp, grab them in a tissue(so the spores are trapped) and pull them out.

Mine are coming up really well this year :(

[JENIAN]

hoe and hoe again ;)