Allotments 4 All

what is the best way to get shot of this pest of a grass ???

you will never get rid of it totally.
The best way to keep it down is to dig out the roots & burn them.
Or there is allways weed killer.

They say that if you cut it back 4 times when it gets to 4", it gets disenchanted!

We spoke about this in another thread - new allotment holder's queries;
My plots were covered in couch grass when I took over. I adopted many methods in different areas to get rid of it. Here they are:
Dig up all the grass and stack it up (upside down) in a really high heap for at least 3 years. The plant in the clean soil.
Dig up as much as you can and sow turnip seed really thickly, then rotavate in. Did this twice. Some still came up but only in small patches.
Cover with high quality woven plastic membrane for 2 years (some still came up the year I removed it, but weaker)
Rotavate once a month from March through to October, two years running. Surprisingly, this did not seem to make the problem worse, (as I have read here that it does) it came up but again only in weakened patches. Earthworm population appeared to recover too.
Apply a glyphosate based weed-killer such as Roundup (I used the Ultra 300 version) in Mid May, then scraped off the dead grass after about 3 to 4 weeks and dug and planted veg. This was the most effective and quickest method.
Once the soil was clear I made sure that something, anything, was growing in it. I started sowing poached egg plant, (Limanthes dougasii I think) and find that this is good to keep the ground relatively clear of the twitch.
Hope this helps.

It doesn't take three years in a soil pile to kill couch, one will do it comfortably as long as it's covered. Bindweed takes two, but I just pick the roots out and put them in a dalek. Eventually they do die and rot like anything else.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on August 03, 2005, 20:43:41
It doesn't take three years in a soil pile to kill couch, one will do it comfortably as long as it's covered. Bindweed takes two, but I just pick the roots out and put them in a dalek. Eventually they do die and rot like anything else.

I read in somewhere that six months in a covered pile should surfice. Though couch is so annoying I am leaving it for a year, just to be sure.

thanks for the info gang i think round up will get the go a head >:(

When things say that regular close mowing should kill off couch, how close are they talking? 10mm, 12mm, 15mm, 20mm?

Is it the kind of job that could be done with a strimmer?