Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: Paulines7 on April 06, 2006, 17:33:13
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I was dreading having to dig out the couch grass in my new vegetable plot which had never grown anything other than grass and weeds before. I kept putting the job off as I thought it might be too painful for my back. The chickens have been using it as a run for a few weeks and many of the tufts of grass protruded above soil level where the chickens had pecked around them.
Yesterday, I took a spade in there with me and the heavy brigade decided to help me. I would dig out a tuft, turn it over and then the chickens frantically picked at it with their beaks and used their strong legs to loosen the soil. The result was that they cleared most of the soil out of the tufts which can now be put on the bonfire. The chickens are not just pretty faces!! ;D ;D ;D Here are some pictures of the task force coming in to help and one really hard at work.
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Are they for hire ;D ;D
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I was about to ask the same thing SMP. I spent a couple of hours on Sunday digging out a little bed for bulbs and it took ages to get the couch grass out. I hasten to add I cleared lots of it from same bed last year when I took over the plot.
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Sorry, but they are going to be too busy working for me to be hired out. ;D ;D
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That don't look like couch to me ???
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You are probably right Merry Tiller. I don't really know what couch grass looks like. What is the difference between couch and other grasses? The chicken in the picture is having a go at the root, so how do couch grass roots differ from other grasses?
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Looks like long strands of spagetti - well mine does anyway ;D
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Well, every couple of inches it has a pair of little red horns along the root....and if you look closely (you may need a magnifying glass for this) the numbers 666 imprinted on it... >:(
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Brilliant Robin ;D couldn't agree more!
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It's long and sphagetti-ish, but if you look closely it's segmented. It branches, or produces shoots or fibrous roots, from and nodes between the segments.
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Ah, I think I have couch in my flower bed from your descriptions. As I pull a root up I find it going along just under the surface of the soil to another clump of grass and so on. The bits the chickens and I have dug up so far have not been like that but then so far we have only dug out a few. :(
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I don't know what couch grass look like either. I'm in the middle of cultivating a new plot and the plot is full of bind weeds and grass. Don't know if the grass is couch or non-couch. I googled couch grass but couldn't find a picture.
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If you're familiar with bindweed, then it looks like a grassy version of that.
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Mmm I might have couch grass then :( Are their roots as brittle as bind weed? The one I have in my plot is quite tough and I can't snap it easily like bind weeds. Also they have hairy bits on the roots unlike bindweed.
Maybe I should try taking a pic of the said weed and post it here for ID. :)
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Couch roots are a lot stronger than bindweed or ground elder, making it easier to get the whole thing out if you dig along it carefully.
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(http://www.blackthornarable.co.uk/photography/gweed/Img_T321-031%20couch%20rhizome.jpg)
Evil stuff, I lifted some rhunarb recently, and found couch rhizomes growing right through the rhubarb roots, literally punched holes through, you could pull it out and see right through.
I have heard it can do the same to spuds.
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Amphibian,
I'm pleased you posted the point about the penetrating ability of the 'beast'.
For those who think that planting spuds will 'clean the ground' - think on!!
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There's always an upside:
http://www.purplesage.org.uk/profiles/couchgrass.htm
;)
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I found this through a Google search.
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/grasse34.html
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I've had the odd spud with a couch root through it, back in the days when I was still overwhelmed by the stuff.
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Thanks for the pic, amphibian. That looks exactly the same as the ones I have! :'( :(
My plot is absolutely covered by them. Do they establish from a small section like a bind weed? I was thinking of rotovating the plot and cover it with a black sheet while I tackle a small bed. Is it a bad idea?
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There's always an upside:
http://www.purplesage.org.uk/profiles/couchgrass.htm
;)
They can also be added to a butt of water and when rotted away used as a great liquid fertilizer.
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Great link and site, thank you onions! :D
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I was thinking of rotovating the plot and cover it with a black sheet while I tackle a small bed
Don't rotovate couch! Even a tiny piece of root will sprout so unless you intend to keep that black plastic on until the end of the decade you will just make the problem worse. Sorry. About the only guaranteed solution (well it worked for me) is digging the lot out in declining quantities year after year (although a search of this excellent forum will bring up any number of alternative suggestions which I understand others have found effective. Turnips, for example)
Good Luck anyway.
Mike
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That was my solution, though I now regard it as a mistake, certainly for a big plot. I had two years of the Era of Mad Digging, when I did little else but dig out ever-regenerating turf, and grew next to nothing. Then came several years of the Era of Eternal Struggle, when the quantity was finally diminishing visibly, but it was always trying to take over again. Couch is now a minor nuisance, but ground elder is still pretty bad in places.
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Wow, great site, Onionhead. On the favourites list. :)
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Thanks for your advice! I'll dig manually then. :( I'm finding it really difficult to keep my spirit high. I can go to the allotment only at the weekend so I've no idea how long it will take me to dig the whole plot!
Yesterday I was digging there and noticed even a tiny segment was sprouting vigorously. Scary! The sprouting bits actually did look like little horns although I couldn't find the number 666... :P
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The grass roots in the pic aren't couch; what they ARE I don't know. Know what breed the chickens are though!
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Looks like long strands of spagetti - well mine does anyway ;D
COUCH ROOTS!!!
That up there is a two pence piece... don't you just love it?! lol.
Think I've got the wrong board for this though... should be in swap shop... ;) ;D
(http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/457/1746/1600/Allotment%20030.0.jpg)
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I must take a picture of the 5' mound I have of couch rhizomes.
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I had masses of couch and bindweed (and creeping buttercup and nettles and dandelions) when I took over my allotment, and felt I was getting my own back as I steadily dug it out and bagged it up. After two years it was dead as a doornail and made good compost (reputedly nutricious). I also remember the days when the potatoes were speared through with couch, in another neglected garden I was trying to bring back to life.
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Don't rotovate couch! Even a tiny piece of root will sprout so unless you intend to keep that black plastic on until the end of the decade you will just make the problem worse.
Sorry, that's not right, I very successfully rotavated mine into submission, you just need to use the correct technique
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Which is...?! Would be pleased to hear your technique.
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Do a search, it's been discussed on here before
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Helpful.
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Basically you control it with rotovation by rotavating, then waiting for regrowth, when the couch reaches the four leaf stage you repeat rotavation, and you continue this process until regrowth no longer occurs.
The way this works is that rotavations shreds the rhizomes into tiny segments, each of which will regrow, however if it is allowed to regrow only to the four leaf stage all the energy for regrowth has come from the rhizome and photosynthesis has not yet occurred, each subsequent regrowth further exhausts the rhizomes until eventually they die. The soil can not be used for anything else while this process is completed and couch may regrow from seeds in the soil.
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Thanks very much amphibian, that really was helpful!
All the best. ;D
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Seedling couch takes a while to start producing rhizomes, so if you keep reasonably on top of things it can't become a problem. ou keep reasonably on top of things it can't become a problem. It's established couch which is the nightmare.
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Helpful
Sorry, your search button not working then?
Do you not think that it might be HELPFUL to others if you were to do a search for yourself instead of asking them to repeat things that have been posted on here before? And then being rude when they make a suggestion, classy
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I could say the same to you Merry Tiller, saying that other people are wrong and then hinting at the solution... do you not think it would have been HELPFUL for you to have pointed us newbies to allotmenting in the right direction with a link?
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Seedling couch takes a while to start producing rhizomes, so if you keep reasonably on top of things it can't become a problem. ou keep reasonably on top of things it can't become a problem. It's established couch which is the nightmare.
Thanks a lot R_B, that'll be an encouraging thought next time I break my back. ;D
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I attempted to help you by suggesting that a search on the subject might be appropriate, if you had done so you would have found all you needed to know. On the other hand the "Helpful" comment tells me all I need to know
You have now joined a very exclusive group (there are only 2 others in it) , people who's postings are blocked from my PC, well done
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Been taking those grumpy pills again ??? ???
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from looking back MT it looks to me like you came into the thread telling people that they were wrong to say that couch can't be rotovated, which is fine if it is true,reading on you say that it can be done with a proper technique but then don't let on what your technique is,I find it odd that you felt it necessary to let us know that your couch killing technique was so good without actually telling us what you actually did,I am just a bit puzzled as to why you went to the effort to join in with the thread when you really couldn't be bothered giving any usable information.Isn't it ok for people to ask questions that may have been discussed before? maybe what they found in a search didn't quite give them what they were looking for.I am sure that many people here don't mind repeating advice which has been given out many times before,at the end of the day the reason we are here is to share knowledge gained and for the more experienced to pass on tips n tricks that might help us new folk out. At least I hope thats why...... bring me sunshine eh?........
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OK
1. If in searching somebody doesn't find what they were looking for then they didn't search thoroughly enough, fine but if that's the case then being rude is hardly going to encourage others to provide assistance
2. I'm not in fact here to help "new folk out" as you put it, I don't mind giving a little guidance or encouragement but I am not a free information service. This is a forum where anyone can come to chat, waffle or even to be downright rude to others if the fancy takes them but please don't expect me to accept rudeness gladly
3. "Give me sunshine" is not a request, it is an obscure reference that I don't care to explain, to someone I admire a great deal
4. I don't need pills to make me grumpy, a simple offhand remark like "helpful" in the right context is sufficient
5. I don't actually know why you have decided to involve yourself
6. If you don't like my remarks, don't read them, thats cool with me 8)
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i involved myself for the same reason you decided to, isnt this a forum where people can come to chat?
It is nice to hear you admire me a great deal. thanks for that and for helping to build the community spirit. ;D
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Likewise
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To get shut of couch feed it with a liquid fertilizer get it all nice and leafy then spray it with Glyphosphate (Roundup.Tumble weed etc ) after about 4 weeks its dead... ;) but dont wait till back end of season to do it .. Cheers Jim..
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Good idea Jim, many thanks. :)