Allotments 4 All

I am one to agree with the grawrc approach - ie weeding. The trick though is to hoe consistently, so as new shoots come through they are constantly hacked back. In view of the amount of effort required, it might be prudent to concentrate on a small area at a time. Once the bulk of the marestail is removed, it becomes easier to manage.

Before we went on holiday for 2 weeks I had cleared both plots but came back to foot high thistles and rampant growth of everything except what I had planted. One positive was that the chickweed etc around the Frewnch beans had acted like a mulch and kept them from drying out.


Still weeding! Booho! :-[ :-[

Just purchased- at great expense-, a container of Round Up Industrial strength to treat yet another nasty case of Japanese Knotweed on my drive at home. It says in the destructions that it will not give an acceptable control of horsetail!and there was I thinking it would kill everything in sight. :(  Oh well, back to the drawing board (or hoe)

My neighbour used roundup diluted to triple strength and applied using a small hand sprayer to the marestail in amongst his gooseberry bushes. The result was very impressive, his bushes are now free of marestail.

There is hope then  ;D

Double checked last night and my marestail resides in a slightly acid soil on a clay base, so Digger's old boy may be correct.

Are these conditions similar with others?

OC
PS Japanese knotweed (JKW) now appears to have an industrial strength solution judging by some railway embankments I saw recently. Emaggie it might be worth a check with a specialist.

However you end up dealing with marestail, it is a slow and arduous journey ...