Bob F wrote:
songbird wrote:

glyphosate will work on horsetail eventually.
it helps a lot to stomp on it and using a
good wetting agent to spray. i have wanted to
spray every time i see horsetail anywhere on
the property, but the bad result is that it
opens up the ground for other invasives and so
it seems like it just replaces one problem with
a half dozen others. not counting the trouble
of erosion if it is along the ditch.

My experience has been that spot spraying of weed-b-gon kills horsetail better
than glyphosate.

when i was spraying (several years ago)
it took several applications no matter what
was used. but the roots had gone under
surrounding edges and they could travel
and come up quite a ways away from where
it started. as it was all a perennial
garden i didn't want to dig up or disturb it
very much.

once i'd decided to turn that garden into
a veggie garden then i ended up digging it
out. that took a lot of effort but it did
knock it back significantly within two
rounds. i only had the one corner and
two edges to finish up (about 95% less
area than before).

spot spraying would have meant a lot of
herbicide going into a place i wanted to put
veggies ASAP. 300 - 400sqft (about 1/3 of
the garden).

now i just have a little bit of one edge to
finish and i'll be done. don't expect to see
much horsetail next season in this garden, but
will keep a close eye on it.


songbird