hi all me again

i have that shoking weed horsetail! its not that bad to look at, like a minipine tree.haha. anyway the trouble is i have to keep pulling them up as they are all in my plants.

does anyone know how to get rid of it??

thanks

montuiiri wrote:
hi all me again

i have that shoking weed horsetail! its not that bad to look at,
like a minipine tree.haha. anyway the trouble is i have to keep
pulling them up as they are all in my plants.

does anyone know how to get rid of it??

thanks

Keep pulling.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

In article , montuiiri
wrote:

hi all me again

i have that shoking weed horsetail! its not that bad to look at, like a
minipine tree.haha. anyway the trouble is i have to keep pulling them up
as they are all in my plants.

does anyone know how to get rid of it??

thanks

There's really not much you can do about horsetales. Keep pulling as much
as you can so it doesn't squeeze out wanted perennials, & otherwise
consider it lucky it's handsome looking stuff. Its deep rhizomic root
system, however, travels throughout the neighborhood as a single gigantic
plant erupting here & there along shoots. All you can pull out are the
shoots. Because all the plants for several blocks around are really one
giant plant, it can repair itself wherever it gets torn up or poisoned or
where it gets droughty, nothing phases it permanently, wherever it's at it
stays.

In general a swamp plant but I have it growing back under the eaves in an
absolutely dry location; it could be bringing water to itself from blocks
away, its deep rhizome easily crossing under multiples of sidewalks &amp
roads.

I've found it's controlable insofar as pulling it out now &amp then keeps
it from crowding out perennials & it's not too often it needs removing;
but it is always present in a couple locations providing ferny texture to
the garden. A serious chance to get rid of it would require an entire
neighborhood to poison it at regular intervals & after two or three years
of not giving up, there wouldn't be quite so much around.

-paghat
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:59:33 -0700,
There's really not much you can do about horsetales.


Did I mention compost tea and it's effect on reducing horsetales.....

JUST KIIDDING!!!

Seriously we paid $.50 a stem wholesale for floral designs!!! Go
figure!!!!
Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.
-- Aldo Leopold

i have that shoking weed horsetail! its not that bad to look at, like a
minipine tree.haha. anyway the trouble is i have to keep pulling them up
as they are all in my plants.

does anyone know how to get rid of it??

thanks

An in-law from Eastern Europe was so thrilled with our horsetail, he
said it was a protected species some places.
Basically, you can "control" it, but eliminating it requires
eliminating every living plant-like organism for several years. Then there
is guarantee it won't come back eventually.
Learn to love it, or at least tolerate it, or move. (be sure to do an
intense study of proposed new location....... Siberia?)
Old Chief Lynn in NW Washington State

In article , "Lynn Coffelt"
wrote:

i have that shoking weed horsetail! its not that bad to look at, like a
minipine tree.haha. anyway the trouble is i have to keep pulling them up
as they are all in my plants.

does anyone know how to get rid of it??

thanks

An in-law from Eastern Europe was so thrilled with our horsetail, he
said it was a protected species some places.

Protected?? That might be the jointed or knotted spike rush (Eleocharis
equisetoides) often called a horsetail, or the woodland horsetail
(Equisetum sylvaticum) or meadow horsetail (E. pratense) or dwarf
horsetail (E. scirpoides) & perhaps a couple others vanishing across parts
of their ranges, but I wouldn't transfer such protected status to any
common horsetail. Some are highly invasive pests (like E. hyemale)
spreading wickedly far beyond their natural range, & the most common
horsetail E. arvense is distributed throughout the northern hemisphere &
much of the southern hemisphere, from the Yukon to Brazil, from
Scandinavia to Africa, from Siberia to central China & the Himalayas, &
has even naturalized in parts of Australia & Madagascar & elsewhere where
it never belonged. It's so plentiful in so many places that it's no more
at risk than are dandylions or blowflies.

It was here long before the dinosaurs were here; it'll still be here when
humanity is extinct, even if we kill off everything else before we kill
off ourselves. "The meak shall inherit the earth" means horsetails &
cockroaches.

Basically, you can "control" it, but eliminating it requires
eliminating every living plant-like organism for several years. Then there
is guarantee it won't come back eventually.
Learn to love it, or at least tolerate it, or move. (be sure to do an
intense study of proposed new location....... Siberia?)
Old Chief Lynn in NW Washington State

There's plenty of it in Siberia. None in Antartica though.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson

paghat, now you're making me feel deprived. I've never seen this plant in
Spokane.......maybe it needs a little more than 17 inches of rain a year?
(however, i'm not inviting you to send any over the pass).
"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "Lynn Coffelt"
wrote:

i have that shoking weed horsetail! its not that bad to look at, like a
minipine tree.haha. anyway the trouble is i have to keep pulling them
up
as they are all in my plants.

does anyone know how to get rid of it??

thanks

An in-law from Eastern Europe was so thrilled with our horsetail, he
said it was a protected species some places.

Protected?? That might be the jointed or knotted spike rush (Eleocharis
equisetoides) often called a horsetail, or the woodland horsetail
(Equisetum sylvaticum) or meadow horsetail (E. pratense) or dwarf
horsetail (E. scirpoides) & perhaps a couple others vanishing across parts
of their ranges, but I wouldn't transfer such protected status to any
common horsetail. Some are highly invasive pests (like E. hyemale)
spreading wickedly far beyond their natural range, & the most common
horsetail E. arvense is distributed throughout the northern hemisphere &
much of the southern hemisphere, from the Yukon to Brazil, from
Scandinavia to Africa, from Siberia to central China & the Himalayas, &
has even naturalized in parts of Australia & Madagascar & elsewhere where
it never belonged. It's so plentiful in so many places that it's no more
at risk than are dandylions or blowflies.

It was here long before the dinosaurs were here; it'll still be here when
humanity is extinct, even if we kill off everything else before we kill
off ourselves. "The meak shall inherit the earth" means horsetails &
cockroaches.

Basically, you can "control" it, but eliminating it requires
eliminating every living plant-like organism for several years. Then
there
is guarantee it won't come back eventually.
Learn to love it, or at least tolerate it, or move. (be sure to do
an
intense study of proposed new location....... Siberia?)
Old Chief Lynn in NW Washington State

There's plenty of it in Siberia. None in Antartica though.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson

paghat wrote:

There's really not much you can do about horsetales. Keep pulling as much
as you can so it doesn't squeeze out wanted perennials, & otherwise
consider it lucky it's handsome looking stuff. Its deep rhizomic root
system, however, travels throughout the neighborhood as a single gigantic
plant erupting here & there along shoots. All you can pull out are the
shoots. Because all the plants for several blocks around are really one
giant plant, it can repair itself wherever it gets torn up or poisoned or
where it gets droughty, nothing phases it permanently, wherever it's at it
stays.

In general a swamp plant but I have it growing back under the eaves in an
absolutely dry location; it could be bringing water to itself from blocks
away, its deep rhizome easily crossing under multiples of sidewalks &amp
roads.

I've found it's controlable insofar as pulling it out now &amp then keeps
it from crowding out perennials & it's not too often it needs removing;
but it is always present in a couple locations providing ferny texture to
the garden. A serious chance to get rid of it would require an entire
neighborhood to poison it at regular intervals & after two or three years
of not giving up, there wouldn't be quite so much around.

-paghat

Ho on earth do you tell them from a pine seedling? Now I am
worried that some of the "pine seedlings" may be these
things--and I need to get rid of them ASAP.

--
Jean B.

In article , "presley"
wrote:

paghat, now you're making me feel deprived. I've never seen this plant in
Spokane.......maybe it needs a little more than 17 inches of rain a year?
(however, i'm not inviting you to send any over the pass).

They don't often grow in deserty places even though they do often grow in
droughty places (along railroad tracks or in train yards is very common
for some reason) but there has to be water SOMEWHERE their extensive
rhyzomes can reach even if its a quarter-mile away.

However, if you look around hard enough you'll find Equisetum arvense in
Spokane County even if not in your own neighborhood. Where I live you
wouldn't have to look for it, perhaps in yours it'd be a longer walk to
find it.

In the Dishman Hills Recreation Area for example there grows not only E.
arvense the classic horse's tail horsetail, but also E. hyemale & E.
laevigatum or scouring rush horsetails (from Thomas H. Rogers' list of
Dishman Hills flora). E. arvense can be found just about anywhere the
least bit moist from Walla Walla to Spokane & throughout the Columbia
basin, but there are big ultra-dry areas where it wouldn't send its
rhizomes, so always near water even if only seasonal water. It does erupt
in seasonally wet then ultra-dry prairies especially where prairies dip a
little & hold moisture a while after the rain season, like around Waverly
where the prairie goes up & down. Even in the city of Spokane I would lay
odds if you followed the river to some point where it's not all paved over
on both sides for parking lots & roads & buildings you'd find horsetails
among the few things that don't care how ruined the landscape gets; if
there's a bit of dirt, & if there's water within a few blocks nearby, the
horsetails will survive.

-paggers
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson

"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "presley"
wrote:

paghat, now you're making me feel deprived. I've never seen this plant
in
Spokane.......maybe it needs a little more than 17 inches of rain a
year?
(however, i'm not inviting you to send any over the pass).

They don't often grow in deserty places even though they do often grow in
droughty places (along railroad tracks or in train yards is very common
for some reason) but there has to be water SOMEWHERE their extensive
rhyzomes can reach even if its a quarter-mile away.

Paghat, you're probably correct. As usual! I am not known for my powers of
observation, but I do know our County Flower, the horsetail, as I was born
and rolled in the stuff for 20 early years. Then things changed, and I lived
and scratched ground in amateurish ways in several States, and in several
countries on several continents for almost 40 years. Tonight, back home
where I started from, in the coolness of evening, I pulled up more horsetail
in an hour than I saw in all those other places in those nearly 40 years. It
is a blessing, as you suggest, that it is both hardy, beautiful, and kind of
fills in where I've forgotten to stick anything else. Do you know if there
is any nutritional value lurking here? If it was something I tried to grow
to eat, I know it would rapidly develop a disease and the slugs would
suddenly find it attractive. But I digress.
Old Chief Lynn in NW Washington State

In article , "Lynn Coffelt"
wrote:

Do you know if there
is any nutritional value lurking here? If it was something I tried to grow
to eat, I know it would rapidly develop a disease and the slugs would
suddenly find it attractive. But I digress.
Old Chief Lynn in NW Washington State

As a "useful" plant horsetails are also called scouring rushes because
they have an abrasive juice good for scrubbing pans.

The common horsetail's tender spring shoots are edible, though reportedly
not tasty (tasty would be the peeled shoots of fireweed). The raw shoots
contain thiaminase which inhibits the body's use of vitamin B if eaten in
quantity (& can be toxic to horses & cattle if they get into too much of
it as forage), but if cooked the thiaminase breaks down & is harmless.

Also if you dig down deep you'll see the rising shoots have black nodules,
& those are supposed to be edible. Digging them up would take more caloric
energy than they would return, but among tribal peoples of Greenland &
northern Europe these nodules could be gathered easily by digging up
lemming nests, because lemmings stockpile the best parts of horsetail
roots in their rodenty larders.

There are also an array of medicinal uses such as for urinary tract
problems. A lot of its supposed uses are hooey, but there is good evidence
for Equisetum arvense extract works as a sedative & anticonvulsant, &
experiments on elderly rats showed heightened problem-solving abilities
with E. arvense extract in their diet, due to strong antioxidant activity
(if someone came up with a great recipe for Wild Blueberry & Horsetail
Cakes that didn't taste like crap, all us old people could regain a couple
lost IQ points by gobbling some of those down each day).

One of the more novel uses of horsetails is to extract the juices for use
as a fungicide treatment of blackspot on roses & rust on several other
sorts of plants.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson

well after that thorough description I'll keep my eye out for it. I've
certainly seen it growing in mass quantity in places like Rooster Rock Park
on the Columbia just east of Portland, so I'm quite familiar with the plant
itself. I'm pretty familiar with the wild areas along the spokane river and
hangman creek, and haven't seen it there - but that doesn't mean that it
isn't poking its head aboveground somewhere. In any case, it's not the
scourge here that it apparently is west of the Cascades.

"montuiiri" wrote in message
...

hi all me again

i have that shoking weed horsetail! its not that bad to look at, like a
minipine tree.haha. anyway the trouble is i have to keep pulling them up
as they are all in my plants.

does anyone know how to get rid of it??


#1 Upon moving back to the Pacific Northwest a few years back, I noticed
the driveway preparation next door was prefaced by liberal application of
weed/brush killer prior to blacktopping. Next spring, lumpy spots appeared,
and guess what, horsetail growing through the asphalt driveway surface.

#2 Built a small (very small) greenhouse with conventional concrete
footings, a concrete sub-wall 18" high, and a poured concrete floor, (6"
thick to accommodate solar hot water heat). When first spring came, and
floor warmed up, horsetail was sprouting through all the floor to wall
insulated seams. I let it grow, out of curiosity for the first year, and
then pulled it all up. Every now and then, a little green shows. I am so
proud! At least the greenhouse is successful in growing something!
Old Chief Lynn