mares tail growing in paths

Whats the best way to eradicate this troublesome weed. I sprayed all the paths with sodium chlorate and that has killed everything apart from this weed. Is there a glyphosate based gel that can be used to smear the stems with and kill the rhizomes?

 

FP you will have a hard job trying to kill off Marestail because the roots can go down a long way.A surveyor friend of ours said years ago the roots were found over forty foot down.

A lot of people on our allotments have tried Roundup, first stamping on the greenery to allow the roundup to penertrate through the plant,but it has often been a hit and miss affair.One of the plot holders had it growing on his plots so he converted the land to grass through seeding and then put a flock of lambs on there.Within two years the Mares Tail had gone.

Some people just keep chopping off the tops hoping that it will weaken the plant eventually.Sodium Chlorate will stop all weeds coming up for at least six onths and I raed somewhere years ago that it can creep through the ground and will kill anything it comes in contact with.

You might just have to go with the head chopping bit to get rid of this horrible weed:eek:

 

I spoke to a civil engineer who specialises in land reclamation recently.
He suggested that weedkiller could be injected into the marestail using a needle and syringe.
Or make up wallpaper paste which has your weedkiller dissolved in it, coat the marestail with this - he says that at some time the plant has to breath and it will draw in the weedkiller.
HTH

 

one of the myths around using weedkiller, is that, bruising the foliage encourages the plant to absorb the killer. This is incorrect, if the leaves are damaged, the plant bypasses them. for weedkiller to work, you need healthy, flourishing foliage. With Marestail, the only way, allegedly, to kill it with weedkiller is to treat it before the fronds open. Once open, they have a waxy coating which just lets the liquid run off.

 

Sodium clorate is unlikely to work with mares tails as the roots are so deep, more likely youll just polute the soil.

 

There was a special formulation of glyphsophate / roundup in the garden centre the other day labelled "Kills mares tail". I didn't look closely, but I was struggling to think what would be different from regular roundup.

Supposedly ammonium sulphamate crystals will work better than Roundup / Glyphosphate - they are sold as 'Deep Root' by 'Growing success'. Haven't been able to find any to try as yet.

I was doing some work at Monsanto many years ago, and they recommended adding a wetting agent to Roundup - to get it to "stick" better I suppose. I seem to remember that farmers used to dilute it with diesel, and a mate of mine sold an additive which meant you only needed to use half the recommended dose (At the time I had several acres of young woodland that I was trying to keep weed free so that the trees could get ahead). I expect that was just a wetting agent.

"to kill it with weedkiller is to treat it before the fronds open"

Like this?

hoe, wait for new growth, spray immediately, hoe a few days later, repeat?

 

Basically Kristen, it needs to be sprayed every day throughout the growing season. As has been said on this site, the root can go down 40 ft and more, so hoeing will not work. It needs a sustained effort with Glyphosate, and even then, that is not a guaranteed success.

 

I have growing in all my paths too, the only thing that temporarily sets it back is a flame wand, but even then it soon recovers. I have largely dug it out of my borders, purely by hard work and diligence but have given up trying to dig it out of the paths etc. There was a post a while ago which said to simply get yourself in the habit of regularly going round and picking out as much as you can. 10mins every week or so should usually keep it down. In terms of eradication, I give up! :D

 

"It needs a sustained effort with Glyphosate"

Ok, let battle commence I may be gone some time ...

 

My dad always used to put a squirt of washing up liquid in with the Round Up. This is the same thing as a "wetting agent".

By breaking the surface tension of the liquid it stops it forming into globules and droplets which just run off. He used to find it essential when trying to battle against waxy leaves like ivy.

More will stay on the leaf, it will spread over a greater area of the leaf and is more easily absorbed.

Hope it helps.

 

I have found Roundup to be of no value against this weed
I have used two products (both glypsophate based) .. Kaspar and Challenge. Both work fairly well, but they would not be available at your local garden centre. You would have to go to a farm supplier
Nevertheless it is a constant battle, and one you just have to try to keep on top of
This is a before pic:


and this is an after pic:

 

will i spread] it by leaving chopped bits of horsetail in compost and then use the compost around the garden ?

 

Best not to put mares tail (or roots of bindweed or ground elder etc.) in the compost heap. They will survive unless your heap get very hot, and the temperature is throughout the whole pile - which is pretty hard to achieve in a garden compost heap, as compared to an industrial one.

 

The wetting agent you refer to is Sold as 'mixture B' and is availalbe trade, i use it tankmixed with roundup for spraying knotweed.

Roundup has never been mixed with diesl, the chemical that can be is timbrel and this is used as a brushwood and stump killer.

Personally Id either use casoron G granules (diclobenil) or Bayer Pistol however these are both expensive and only available trade.

 

Like dave I use a flame wand it's the only thing thats made an impression on it every time it pops I zap it, it's definitely getting weaker.