mares tail

Hi Guys, me and the family have just got our first allotment after along wait.
Today was the first day we ventured down to the plot and its a lovely plot you just need to look past the overgrown mess. Its a big plot but two patches in particular are overgrown with marestail weed? Now i know this weed is not good but i don't have a clue how to tackle this? Can anyone give us any tips on how to rid this horrible weed.

Thank You

 

Hiya

AFAIK, the only way to get rid of it, is to dig it out, and even then it'll probably come back. I guess it's one of those weeds you can only try to keep under control. I have it in my garden, a bit of a pain, but I dig it out as I see it, and it isn't too invasive doing that Maybe others can add more...

 

I had it all over the place a few years ago now, you just have to be vigilant and make sure you dont leave any little pieces behind that it will grow back from. I still get it popping up here and there but nowhere near as bad as it once was.

 

I think it was Shiney that said its roots have been found 70 foot down in a coal mine

 

Ha! i've obviously inherited a good plot then maybe some matting down and raised beds for the first few years?

 

As already said here, best way is to dig it out as much as you can, then use the old adage..."Never let it see a Sunday". This means that once a week you go round the garden and pull up any you can see growing..this will weaken the plant.

I have it in my garden and I keep mine under control this way, I have found that by pulling gently but firmly at the base of the weed I can also pull a couple of inches of root at the same time. As the years roll by it will become less of a problem for you.

Attack it, dont cover it as the roots will keep growing and just spread elsewhere.

Steve...

 

Conventional advice is to "damage" the marestail plant (beating it with a cane, for example) and then treat with Glyphosate. If you have a major infestation this will definitely help, as it will give you an 80% kill - its getting rid of the other 20% that is harder! but I do think it is worth trying the first time to get an immediately level of control. Whether it is too late this season I'm not sure - you need the plant to be actively growing and we are getting late into the season for that; however, it tends to be late into leaf in the Spring, so it being in an allotment that's probably bad news in terms of being able to plant early next spring ... so, on balance, I think worth having-a-go this Autumn, and sooner-the-better in terms of improving your chances.

Some other thoughts:

The "problem" with Marestail is that it has a waxy coat, so is "waterproof", which is why weedkiller is generally not much good, and hence the benefit of damaging the plant first to improve the absorption - but you are still only getting a relatively small amount of absorption.

Time was when we sprayed it with paraffin or something like that (I've forgotten) that "dissolved" the waxy layer, and then sprayed with Glyphosate. That's banned now ... might be suitable wax-dissolving chemicals available though?

Also, we used to use Ammonium sulphamate, which was far more effective than Glyphosate (even without initial "bruising"). That hasn't been re-licensed under the latest EU rules, but it is a very simple chemical and I am sceptical that it could cause environmental harm (government should pay to have "old faithful" products tested and re-licensed rather than encouraging pharmaceutical / agrochemical companies from developing ever more complex chemicals for which the side effects don't become known for years ...). Ammonium sulphamate is available as a compost accelerator (from Dax). It leaves a residue in the soil (for about 6 weeks I think) and then breaks down to Ammonium sulphate - which is a handy Nitrogen fertilizer

 

Thank you all, some great comments to help me overcome this problem. I've been down today before reading these comments and with a fork i turned the soil, i can not believe how many roots come off one weed! I now have the roots all over so i need to pick them out, if i was to spray the soil how would this effect my planting next year?

Thanks

 

I don't think its worth trying to dig the roots out ... they are very brittle and each bit that breaks will grow. Obviously everything that you do remove reduces the amount that comes back ...

Glyphosate etc. weedkiller only works on the green that it touches - so you cannot spray on the soil, has to be on the actively growing green stuff. Glyphosate breaks down on contact with the soil. I grow organically, whenever possible (I will spray to prevent total loss of a crop, but I can't remember the last time I had too ...) but I would not think twice about using Glyphosate on a new area for vegetable growing.

You need to make your own mind up on that though, there are all sorts of rant sites on the internet saying that it damages this, or that, but I have never seen one that had responsible, peer reviewed, science or one with citations to proper peer reviewed science. Glyphosate is harmful to fish / aquatic wildlife, so should not be used on weeds in water.

Whilst marestail is a nuisance, its not a very strong plant, so easy to pull up etc. and doesn't choke the plants (and probably doesn't compete for nutrients much either), so I would suggest that you wage chemical war now, and then just pull up whenever you see it from next year onwards - and make sure you never leave it more than a week - "never let it see a Sunday" as quoted above.

If it is in your plot it will be in surrounding plots, so will come back again from them, so vigilance is going to be your best weapon going forwards, and after your initial chemical attack I don't think you will find it a significant burden.

 

I tried the chemical approach on Mares tail, it only killed the foliage..nothing more. I tried bruising and glyphosate, same result. I then tried bruising and placing the foliage inside a plastic bag to keep it wet when sprayed..same result, dead foliage living roots.

Only way in my opinion is to dig up what you can reasonably do, this just lessens what it can grow foliage wise. Then weekly walks to gently pull out what has grown the last seven days.

I am now in the situation where the mares tail entered my garden via roots from an adjacent church yard, they now go through my garden and on to others but I never have more than a dozen or so sprouts to pull in a week. The young sprouts are quite brittle so pull them very slowly with gentle steady pressure and you'll get a few inches of root every time too.

Steve...

 

Don't know how to get rid of them, but I do know that they shouldn't be disturbed when the spores are ready as that will spread them even more. Not sure when that time is though..............

 

I would say earlier Shiney, April perhaps - by June the leaves are showing.

The spores come before the "leaves", the spore-carrying-stems then die down, and then the "leaves" appear.

 

At my old house it was just beginning to make an appearance in the surrounding area. The closest colony(?) that I knew of was three quarters of a mile away, so I assume that the spores can travel some distance on the wind?