Its that time of year when the dreaded Mars-tail starts to appear, does anyone have any ideas on how to rid this pest from my plot ???
We have it on our plot, when I see it & get the hoe or trowel & take it out as far below ground as I can get. We don't use chemicals at all.
Thats what we have done for the last 6 or 7 years but it seems to get worse each year, just hoping there is some way we can reduce the amount of time we spend fighting with the mares-tail.
Perharps you need to 'give up' and learn to live with it.. ::)..it's not easily done, but maybe just keeping it down will do?..and if you still end up with plentiful crops..wouldn't that be enough?
Does anybody know how it spreads?
There is not on our site, but there is plenty coming up through the pavements nearby.
We have it on our site to, Its really not to bad on on my plot when I see any bits spring up I just chop it off.But the plot holders that rotavate and oh boy do some of them rotavate bl@@dy stuff is everywhere.
our whole site is covered in it, it usually appears early May, but it was out in force the end of March this year, just thought if anyone had any ideas I could spend my time on more enjoyable things with at the allotment.
I think this weed spreads with its roots that run deep and they are black, a horrible weed to get rid off, witch I don't think you can,if there is a chemical out there that dose kill it I'd use it ,I wouldn't normaly but it's a monster :(
Someone on our site got rid of it but his chemical collection is huge. A sort of 'pill for every ill' type of person.
a couple of plot holders used kibosh last year, they used it on areas they were not cultivating, it did kill it but it seems to have come back just as strong this year.
Have been told kurtail/kobosh gets rid of it but haven't tried it.
We have it in a corner of our site.
Quote from: Chrispy on April 13, 2012, 07:45:42
Does anybody know how it spreads?
There is not on our site, but there is plenty coming up through the pavements nearby.
If your site has been "improved" over the years it will be lurking under the surface... it prefers poor soil/conditions as it can prosper without the competition from softer plants like grasses! :-\
iv at war with it and use kurtail weed kill from www.progreen.com mix it with vinegar and washing up liquid..this is my 3 year and am getting less of it,,,keep a look out for the gray/wight stems coming up cover them and pull the up ,,,burn it all ...
Ahh - Mares Tail. I remember it well. I got rid of it.....I moved house and allotment.
Seriously I battled with it on my last allotment for 20 years and lost. I think you just have to live with it. Hoeing off regularly kept it manageable.
My last allotment was by the side of a cemetry and the grave diggers said they could still see the roots going down after 2 metres. :(
the plant is waxy so bruis the plant, this lets in the weed killer-then paint with a mix of parafin and round up = parts
i am told this works but not tried it as i dont av any to try it on....thank god!!
I have taken a new allotment and it has been coming up the last few weeks. The first signs were the spore heads. It lurks in an established raspberry bed and that is a task for the autumn: to lift the new suckers to a fresh bed and attempt to clear perennial weeds from the old bed.
I'm finding that if I loosen the area around a new stem with a spade one can extract a 6 to 8 inch root of it. I know it has plenty of reserves so more will come up but I am taking more than just the top growth for it to replace. I chuck the stems on an old dustbin lid to dry out and its filling up nicely. I expect I will keep you informed as my frustration level rises!
This must be the most discussed weed on the forum, i think its more popular than veg.
Mares tail is just one of those weeds you have to live with because you wont ever beat it you may knock it back but it will return.
As the roots have been found in shallow cast mines you wont ever dig them all out and no weedkiller will travel far enough down the root to totaly kill it.
Does anyone know if it is edible? It might taste of Samphire or asparagus.
What a bonus if it did. It could feed nations.
Gave up half my allotment 3 seasons ago. New tenants thought it would be jolly to grow their own veg. I think they have been down to it 5 times this year. Now i have a miniture Sherwood forest of Mares tail next to me. I make a fortune from guided forest walks, telling everybody to pick-their-own :D :D :D :D ;)
No experience with it just a bit of googling
Horsetail rhizomes have been found several metres below the soil surface. They thrive in poor soils but have no great preference for soil type. The Horsetail family produce two types of stem; the first is a short (20 to 50cm), usually brown coloured 'Asparagus-like' stem that emerges early in the year and bears a cone structure at the tip containing large numbers of spores.
These spores function very effectively to spread the weed to any remaining parts of your property that weren't previously blessed with it. The second type of stem is taller (up to 60cm with Field Horsetail), dark green in colour, sterile and emerges when the first have died back
http://www.progreen.co.uk/Weed-Killers/Total-Weed-Killers/Kibosh-0-5LT/prod_2.html
the kibosh (now called Kirtail) weedkiller is a professional product and is non-selective. ie it will kill all green material that it is in contact with. Its £28 a bottle and I wouldnt entertain it. The progreen company say that you will have to re-apply each year anyway.
Horsetail (Marestail is an aquatic plant and is mis-named)
dont try to dig it out - you'll not succeed.
dont rotovate if you have HT - you'll chop it up 100-fold and kill the allotment for ever.. for the next person after you give up because of the HT.
Vinegar will acidify the soil. Boiling hot water is best, try keeping a big pot on the boil over a small charcoal fire and nuke the whole site in one day? when it comes back - simply pull out the tops before they get to more than 5cms (2 inches old money) else it will photosynthesise and send nutrients back to the Rhizome. If you can do this for approx 8 months without fail - you will starve the Rhizome. Leave it to long before pulling the tops (eg leave to grow to 7cms or more) and you will have to start again. Its a networking root system and it will learn not to come back on your plot if it is being starved there..it will travel under the sub-soil and come up elsewhere.
The answer to ultimately remove it is in putting back deep goodness into the soil - the reason why the HT appeared in the first place.
Compost the dead HT leaves for 2 years - to put back the silica that the HT has removed from the soil.
Wiki - the fountain of all knowledge says:
''If eaten in large quantities, the foliage of some species is poisonous to grazing animals, including (somewhat ironically given its common name) being poisonous to horses.[9] On the other hand, the young fertile stems bearing strobili of some species are cooked and eaten by humans in Japan, although considerable preparation is required and care should be taken.[10] The dish is similar to asparagus and is called tsukushi.[11] The people of ancient Rome would also eat meadow horsetail in this manner, but they also used it to make tea as well as a thickening powder.[12] Indians of the North American Pacific Northwest eat the young shoots of this plant raw.[13] The leaves are used as a dye and give a soft green colour. An extract is often used to provide silica for supplementation. Horsetail was often used by Indians to polish wooden tools. Equisetum species are often used to analyze gold concentrations in an area due to their voracious ability to take up the metal when it is in a solution.[12]''
I've had my allotment two months now and apart from the raspberry bed, I have not tolerated a single shoot to grow. A spade goes vertically in close by and the soil loosened and I pull up up to six inches of bootlace root. I do it on the paths too. If it does eventually get ahead of me, it will have wasted a couple of months without getting any photosynthesis at least. The roots dry out on a bit of tin. With its silica, it might be useful as a pottery glaze.
You can use a bunch of it like a brillo pad.
In days of yore, bunches of marestail were to be found in country kitchens, to use as pot scourers. Have used it in the field to clean aluminium mess-tins, works a treat!
This problem comes up time and time again. Mares Tail is a ancient weed and was even around in Roman times. The roots go way down and have been found in mine shafts, so the chances of digging it out forever are impossible. We have had our plot for nine years now and some of our plot was covered in it when we first got it. They way we deal with it is to just keep digging it out with as long a root as possible. As they pop their heads up dig them up and you will weaken the root. Over the years this is what we have done, and they seem to come up less and less. We don't have a problem with them now, and just continue to chop them off when we see them. I think there are more troublesome weeds, like bind weed and couch grass. We have never found the need to go the chemical route, so I couldnt give advice if this is the way you want to deal with it. busy_lizzie
Horsetails predate the dinosaurs by a very long way. They're not going to go away!