I have lots of couch grass on my new plot. I'm digging by hand because of this and the dreaded mares tail. The mares tail I can burn as it comes out quite cleanly, but I'm not sure of the best way to treat the dug up couch grass. At the mo it is in a heap next to the compost area. If I keep it covered will it eventually die off or should I compost it now?
Burn it along with your mares tail.or bag it and bin it....dont compost it>
It's probably best to burn it.
if you stash the grass itself in an old compost bag and leave it for a year or two it will rot down ok but i would dispose of the roots as others have suggested
Bag tightly and leave for a year almost everything dies and even the bineweed is easily removed when you get some lovely compost in the spring. Only problem is having enough bags!
Wouln't bindweed fight its way out of a plastic bag?
It tries but if the bag is well sealed it stays dry which seams to stop growth. Amazingly most of the weeds are dead and nicely if not perfectly composted. I was a bit shocked too when I opened the bags I'd been meaning to take to the tip for rather longer then I'd planned but I won't take any more now!
Yes I have left them in a black bag (If you can leave it in the midday sun for as long as possible!) for several months (until you forget about them basically) and then it has all rotted down and I stick it on the compost. It has never grown again if I do that.
Thanks all. Bagging and stashing is what I'll do, as there is quite a lot of earth on some clods and I think it may be difficult to burn.
Looks like I'll have three dumpy bags once I finish stripping lawn etc at my new place,.... they'll get covered in black fabric and left for two years then I'll seive em...
The other problem with leaving stuff in plastic bags is that mice, rats etc chew holes in them- I've got this problem with leaf mould in bags. Maybe a builder's bag would work?
I bag it and use it to weigh down plastic coverings. ;D ;D ;D
Mares Tails doesnt pull out, its just lulling you into a false sense of security. The roots of Mare Tails poke down out through the roof of hell..........the only way to get rid of it is bruising it and then a good dose of Gylphosphate.
i dont use a rotavator because of mares tail..
i prefer to dig myself and pull out as much of the roots as possible,and its working
bind weed can be a pain,seems to be around more this year :(
but with couch i just throw the stuff to one side and cover for a while,then remove the now stubby roots that are trying to find light,the reclaimed soil can now go on the plot
i had so much couch that i just disposed of it in a heap in an abandoned corner - i.e as far from from my plot as possible! Definitely burn/dispose of the horrible stuff.
I've both bagged some and covered some, it does break down. You just have to pull out the old roots afterwards.
The other thing I did to save on digging was to cover an area with manure, then weed suppressant - and it was cleared of couch and pretty much everything else in 6 months ;D
I put all couch and bindweed in buckets, and gradually pour out the resulting mixture by the end of the winter there is only slime left in the buckets.
Got a lot of bindweed got a lot of buckets.
I'm digging through a lot of meadow turf at the moment, skimming the surface 2" or 3" off into plastic bags and pulling the roots out of what's left and adding them to the bag. I stack them for a couple of years.
Others on the site build weed mountains and ramparts that grow energetically - and they've lost all that topsoil and compostable turf; or they barrow it up to the hedges and fling it away. When they give up, they leave these unsightly lumps and ramparts to be cleared up by someone else.
No-one else stacks and then uses the result - but yesterday I noticed a new arrival doing exactly that, which is rather encouraging.
For clearing existing beds (no turf) I am attracted by the slime bucket method!
Quote from: lincsyokel2 on May 04, 2010, 23:34:21
The roots of Mare Tails poke down out through the roof of hell..........
Thank you for that -- it really made me laugh.
Love the picture it brings to mind. Sympathy for the Devil, indeed. ;D
Quote from: lincsyokel2 on May 04, 2010, 23:34:21
Mares Tails doesnt pull out, its just lulling you into a false sense of security. The roots of Mare Tails poke down out through the roof of hell..........the only way to get rid of it is bruising it and then a good dose of Gylphosphate.
Does Glyphosate really do the job? I thought nothing on this earth (or in hell ;D) would get rid of it. I've lived with it for 5 years now, just digging it out when it appears.
drown the mare's tail, maggie, you can use the liquid as a spray, can't remember what it has in it but it's good ;D
Supposedly. I'm not sure anything can finally kill it though. It grows from a root under the Red-Hot Throne itself, where it's fertilised by the devil's farts. You can't kill that.
I've never had a problem with couch rotting down on the compost heap - just make a big effort to get the soil off. Fortunately I've never had mares tail to deal with.
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on May 05, 2010, 17:58:27
Supposedly. I'm not sure anything can finally kill it though. It grows from a root under the Red-Hot Throne itself, where it's fertilised by the devil's farts. You can't kill that.
;D ;D ;D ;D
John-who-backs-on-to-me says he composts couch grass quite succesfully, but maybe I have a good deal more to get rid of than he.
I am stacking all my couch, grot and weeds and have a pile about 3 feet high at the moment. I plan to cover it, put cardboard on top plus manure and grow squashes though membrane on top with the sides etc all covered up. Hope to leave it for a couple of years and then have great stuff left. Fingers crossed that it works!
i tok my allotment on 7 years ago and it was basically couchgrass, brambles aand hadnt been cultivated for yonkers. i dont use chemicals and in my experiience if you have enough land and time cover for a min of 1 year.(no couch grass survives just the odd dock and nettle root. all the weeds rotted down make excellent compost.) whwere i needed togrow produce double dug put weeds under plasic, manure over top and then plastic. planted squashes through plastic, the soil in this bed now excellent. i wouldnt put couch grass in my compost but once rotted in water for a few months its ok to go in the compost. i now use manure over cardboard for weedy areas as plastic not eco and carpets not recommended any more. garden organic have good advice for clearing ground of weeds.
Quote from: manicscousers on May 05, 2010, 16:34:17
drown the mare's tail, maggie, you can use the liquid as a spray, can't remember what it has in it but it's good ;D
Mal I did that once....never, ever again :o The stench of the festering bucket was vile to say the least. I can only assume the spray would be used as a weapon to win a war with. ;D
hahaha, I thought Ray's comfrey bucket was smelly enough ;D
Quote from: Emagggie on May 05, 2010, 10:41:31
Quote from: lincsyokel2 on May 04, 2010, 23:34:21
Mares Tails doesnt pull out, its just lulling you into a false sense of security. The roots of Mare Tails poke down out through the roof of hell..........the only way to get rid of it is bruising it and then a good dose of Gylphosphate.
Does Glyphosate really do the job? I thought nothing on this earth (or in hell ;D) would get rid of it. I've lived with it for 5 years now, just digging it out when it appears.
Mares tails have an armoured outside, you have to bruise the stuff and damage it to allow ingress of the weedkiller.
When i took over my plot 5 years ago i put all my weeds (couch grass nettles etc) that i dug up in it's own compost heap which i covered and left until this winter. It made the most wonerful compost after 5 years with no sign of roots etc left.
I have recently taken on another plot that is covered in weeds and i have already started to fill another compost heap just for all those nasty weeds.
I now have one covered heap and 12 black sacks around the edge of my plot. Not much more to dig now. I will look forward to my compost (eventually ;D)
I inherited a dolly tub on my plot that's been a handy receptacle for couch, It's now full with that and rainwater - a pretty smelly slimy mixture. I read somewhere the liquid will make a good feed. Might get round to siphoning it off soon and trying on the spuds.
I tried the drowning method for both couch and bindweed and it worked, but it took months, stinking, and some of the roots that floated up got enough oxygen to stay alive.
On the other hand a 20cm thick pile of couch and bindweed only took a few weeks to dry out because I put it on a wire mesh and angled a shabby bit of ply over it to keep the rain off.
Roots so dead they are crunchy and crumbly - and no smell.
A similar pile on mesh with lots of claggy soil in it dried in just over a month despite having no cover - the rain washed most of the soil through and soon afterwards it dried right out.
I damped some of it and put it in a bag to see if it would revive like dracula in blood but it stayed 100% dead. Perfectly safe in the compost heap now...
If you have a lot of perennial weeds make a chicken wire hammock to dry them on. If you can't get enough soil out it will be extra heavy so make the hammock from old wire fencing.
If only I had room Vinlander. Sounds like the quickest solution.
Quote from: Emagggie on May 11, 2010, 22:09:37
If only I had room Vinlander. Sounds like the quickest solution.
If you're short of space try and find an old mesh vegetable rack, then you can dry 3 times as much in the same space...
If you can extract more than that in a fortnight (depending on the weather) then you'll have to stack it until you can clear the rack.
But when you put the top 150mm layer from the stack onto the rack you'll find it dries quicker than the fresh stuff did, and the next 150mm will also be nearly dry when you get to that and so on.
As long as you clear the stack before October then you're fine... just don't forget it and leave it through winter to regenerate itself!
What amazes me is the stupidity of trying to burn it before it's properly dry - choking white smoke.
What's nearly as stupid is burning it when it is properly dry - wasting all that fertility at that point when it could safely go on the heap.