whats this weed called

Will get one walnut.

Geoff and garlic.......

creeping buttercup technical

 

It can survive shallow burial and cutting of the leaves but not cutting and removal of the crowns.
To be honest i don't find this buttercup difficult to remove. You can easily whip off the crowns and then pull up the runners with the daughter plants. Compared to nettles that have underground shoots everywhere or dandelions who's roots snap off or docks that root down to Australia its a doddle.

 

Quote from geoffhandley

Are you certain it is coming from next door Geoff? I think I'll continue to believe the experts who all say it is pernicious.

 

Thank you for the http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=3 link Sarraceniac. I am satisfied that the re-infestation I get comes from the persistence of the seeds. Certainly the variety I have only has surface stolons & your link confirms that that is the sole means by which it propagates itself vegetatively.

 

Yes I can follow the runners across the border!
What do you mean by pernicious?
The web page was very interesting and explains its habits in my garden. As the border and next door's lawn are damp it does not set seed and instead spreads vegetatively. If i find one in the lawn then it is simply a matter of slicing shallowly under the crown and lifting out.
On a commercial scale where operations are carried out using machinery then I imagine it is a difficult weed to contend with. However on a garden scale where much weeding is done by hand then I find it straight foreward to deal with. it does not interwine with my herbaceous plants as couch does and you do not have to worry about root reminants regrowing.
So you don't have to worry about heavy forking out. For a non chemical method it can be removed with less effort and is less fiddly.
I would not recommend just hoeing as it will reroot. You need to pick them up afterwards

 

Ive never found flame guns effective, even tried them on a comercial scale ie a 8' tractor rig using four 40kg gas cylinders. My experiance was that docks or dandelions would come back even after reapeat treatments. Never had any problems with roundup!

With shallow rooted weeds like butercup I just weed out with a hand trowel folowed by a hoeing with a reticulating hoe. Deep rooted weeds eg dandelion or dock get forked up.

If you hoe regularly ie every three days or so with the exception of weeds growing next to the crown or stem of plants even bindweed can be virtualy eradicated.

Willow,I notice your disabled have you tried using a long handed trowel, this may make things a bit easier.

 

OK. This is getting ridiculous. I always say that if you ask 20 gardeners a question, you will get 20 different answers, most of them right.

With Pro Gard's latest we are now arguing about flame guns, as well as creeping buttercup.

I respect walnut's advice and I'm getting a flame gun (and not just for buttercup). I just like torching things.

Garlic. I do not agree with what you are saying but I will defend your right to say it.

Geoff. You may be right, but I believe you are only right if you want to spend the rest of your life fighting buttercup. (Have you worked out which way the runners are going?)

I have put my evidence in. The jury is out. (The other members of GC). I think any further discussion would just send us round in circles again so I am not presenting any more evidence.

Except I was asked one final (somewhat irrelevant) question. The answer:

pernicious

Let's just agree to differ, and if the original questioner is confused then I'm very sorry. But I know my answer works. And I reckon walnut's does as well.

Ciao.

 

Its a weed we have all come across, not sure if its pernicious or noxious, but I do know as Geoff says, you only need to remove the crown, the roots dont regrow.
Having said that, a carpet of it is a real pain in heavy clay.

 

merrymeet all, Wow wot a can of worms i have opened haha.I love all your advice and a good argument. I have used long handled trowels etc but i have MS so grip is a bit dodgy. Im going to try one of those flame thrower thingys.

Thankyou all for your advice.

(in the meantime i will try and think of another poser for you all-wink!)

 

Pro Gard what's your answer to getting rid of horsetail? most weed killers including roundup are inefective tried all the methods including bruising the stems before applying it even tried believe it or not growing turnips which produce allelopathic substances which inhibits the growth of runners all to no avail, the flame gun in my oppinion is the bees knees any weed if its constantly deprived of top growth by cutting off,burning or chemically castrating will eventually die even dandelions and the like I think the flame gun serves this purpose,Willow take care they are easy to use the tip is 3ft away from you and it has an auto ignite button, you will even be able to roast your can o' worms with it

 

In general I only use weed killers on gravel or hard surfaces.

For horsetails I always hoe off any that emerge, If you hoe regularly you will always be redistributing soil therfore no weed can establish apart from by the stem or crown of plants and these can be weeded out with a hand trowel. Any deep rooted weeds I fork up.

If I had a bad infestation in my own garden I would be tempted to let individual borders go fallow for the season and spray four or five times with roundup and Mixture B (a profeshional use adjuvant / sticker that breaks down the laef surface tmake the glyphosphate easyer to absorb)

How many aplications of heat do you find it needs to kill say a dock?

When I was involved in farming the farm I worked at turned organic and a thermo weed tractor mounted flamer was bought. Even two aplications of heat with a slow forward groundspeed failed to work on docks.

The best control was to plough and power harrow folowed by three or more pases (over several days)with a chain harrow to spread the roots and let the sun kill them.

Ive tried flame weeding using a roofing torch before and whilst it killed grass weeds and worked quite well on established bindweed it failed to work on docks and dandelions.

 

My Lord, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury,
Unable to afford legal representation, I have chosen to defend myself in this tragic case. I apologise in advance for any breach of Court protocol.

Summarising ... my sole piece of evidence was indeed thoughtfully provided by my Honourable friend. Please study Exhibit A, http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=3, which refers to "deep ploughing" and "repeated cultivation". Horticulturally, I paraphrased this as "Any that get through a thick mulch are easily hoed off". :rolleyes:

I also rest my case and apologise for an appalling waste of Court time.

 

But the point I was making is that they are easy to get rid of. You just slice under them and lift. Easier than pulling out most weeds.
"(Have you worked out which way the runners are going?)" - Yes, they go sideways. I did not make an issue of that, it was just a statement. I can lift one up and the runners lead to the next and eventually go through the fence. As the border had been weeded months before logic determines the direction of spread. Its no big deal with me. I don't expect my neighbour to stop them. She can have a garden full of weeds as far as I am concerned. Its my responsibility when they come over my way and she has no problem with me zapping a colony of nettles that are on both sides of the boundary. It would be different if it was Japanese knotweed but then it would be me doing the donkey work in her garden.

I asked that question because the word seems a bit inappropriate to use for such a weed.I am afraid that your link does not help either bcause they all refer to something that causes considerable harm or damage as does the OED. Some people might consider referring to such a question as being irrelevant as a cheap way of scoring points. I would like to think I am more charitable than that.
I did put off making a comment on weed wands before but I do tend to side with Pro Gard on that and not to score points. My wife bought me a flame wand because it is quick but I only use it for seedling or annual weeds. For a long time I have owned a Sheen Gun that uses vaporised paraffin. That is so hot you get hit by exploding concrete when using it on a path. Useless with dandelions and docks. I used to have a heavy clay garden infested with...guess what?.. Creeping buttercup amongst every other known weed and it wasn't a lot of use. Heat is OK if the weed has a thin stem but those buttercups have a thick little crown. To kill them you would have had to stand there doing one at at a time....and life is too short and paraffin not inexhaustable. Flame guns are brilliant for accidentally setting fire to your manure heap. You cannot imagine how much water you need to put the thing out before your precious heap disappears. :eek:

 

Hi guys, would I be right in saying that ALL plants (including weeds)require light to survive? Cheers...freddy.

 

Yes. This is why I am so fond of mulching as a means of controlling weeds. It kills everything if given long enough - but with two caveats ...

bindweed roots will wander for quite a few metres in search of the edge of the mulching layer

horsetail (which thankfully I don't have) is reported to be able to spring up from its root system after a long period of dormancy