Tackling Japanese Knotweed - eek!

It's not a pest or disease in the normal sense, but I don't want to call it a wildflower or herb!! So I'm posting this in here, and if needs to be moved, Mods, can you do it please?

I've got a new customer who has a problem with this lovely plant coming in from the farmer's field next door. We can't use systemic weedkiller (even if I was in favour of that....) as there are sheep in the field.

So, the question is, are there any other or better ways of tackling this than keeping on discouraging the blasted nuisance by constantly chopping it down?

 

No you have to keep at it until you weaken it - 5 years perhaps. we had some at school and I asked one of the advisors how you would tackle it if you had it in the garden. He felt that the easiest solution would be to move house!
If it is in the farmer's field is the farmer doing anything about it? If not then it will keep on invading.
I am thinking that it might be notifiable and he might be liable if he does not control it or at least make the effort. Might be worth investigating that aspect.
At school each year I would show the kids what it looked like and send them out with a spade at lunchtime, with the instructions to work out their frustrations etc. After about 5 years or so of being thrashed by kids it was definitely pretty weak.

 

Have a look here:

http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/sitePlant.php?plantid=3502&name=Reynoutria%20japonica&name=reynoutria-japonica

And here:

http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/siteProvider.php?providerid=585

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for that both of you - nice (I think!) to have my opinion confirmed...... So, dogged as does it, then..... ho, hum! :rolleyes:

 

It was mentioned on Gardeners world tonight. Someone said that a new method was to inject a herbicide into the base of the hollow stem, but that would take 3 years. He did not mention the name of the herbicide though.

 

My problem is twofold (says she portentously.... - sorry!)

1 - I don't like using chemicals unless I absolutely have to....

2 - to use anything professionally, you have to do the appropriate courses. I started to do one last year, but decided that I REALLY didn't want to go down that route, and stopped, and can declare myself organic, although I probably can't prove it.....

Anyone can use the stuff on their own garden, but I can't do it in somebody else's garden, unless just as a friend!

 

What is the farmer doing about it? This thing has roots that go down 2 metres and that can come up through tarmac.
It is the worst weed I have ever come across. I noticed when i was in West Scotland a few years ago they had a real problem with it and the councils seemed to be fighting it. Heavens knows what they were spraying it with.

 

Have you looked at the specialist companies, Dendy? I googled "Japanese knotweed eradication" and came up with several including:

www.jksl.com and
www.landtechuk.com

I realise that their methods are probably chemical, but I don't know of any realistic method otherwise. Could the farmer put an electric fence round the affected area while treatment is carried out? If it's occupying a large area his field will lose value anyway, because the grazing area is reduced - I'm sure his sheep won't eat it. So surely it would be in his interests to co-operate...wouldn't it?

[ 26. May 2007, 12:13 PM: Message edited by: Hyla arborea ]

 

http://www.cabi-bioscience.org/html/japanese_knotweed_alliance.htm

B****** its not notifiable and its not an offence to allow it to grow on your land and no obligation to control it so that line is out. Sheep will eat it but will come back when grazing pressure is removed.

 

Ohhh, RATS! What a pain. I'd always felt that sheep were reluctant to graze on it - and after it reaches a certain size, I still doubt if they would. Reckon the Agriculture Minister needs to do some serious thinking - but politicians don't want to upset farmers and landowners these days, perhaps - after foot & mouth and the farm payments fiasco, I bet there's an unwillingness to put more responsibilities on them! And it might cost money!
But let's not get started on what we'd like politicians to do... we'd be here for ever!!!

 

quite frightening when they tell you it can force its way through concrete.

 

Oh, I've seen it do that, Eastex - there was a load of it forcing its way up through tarmac and bricks beside a path up to a supermarket in Hemel some years back, and within a very short space of time, there was no space to push a trolley! :eek:

Don't think the farmer's doing anything - he doesn't have a real problem with it....

 

Well at least your new customer will have plenty of work for you. You have a machette I persume and it will keep you fit.

 

I do indeed have a machete, and am prepared to use it!

 

Have you tried the local council Dendy??? Here we have a number to phone if we spot any of this stuff and they come and sort it out. They could advise you if their methods aren't what you are looking for perhaps??????