On 17/08/14 21:44, Vir Campestris wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Knotweed is not ebola.

It is killable - although it needs a programme that is followed properly
for 2-3 years. It is even DIY killable needing a combination of physical
intervention and treatment with glyphosate.

I also know of a recent property sale where knotweed featured where
there was no issue with sale or insurance. Sure, it was flagged up -
that is right an proper.

But the managing agents had put a treatment programme in place and
everyone was happy.

On 18/08/14 16:32, Malcolm wrote:

In article , Tim Watts writes
On 17/08/14 21:44, Vir Campestris wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be deplored on this public newsgroup.

I agree with everything below.

And maybe you are right, maybe not - but it doesn't matter.
What does matter is that people will, if they have any choice,
go elsewhere - thus depressing the house price.


But the managing agents had put a treatment programme in place and everyone was happy.

In some places I suspect that would be the case, e.g. student
digs in a student "ghetto", since students will put up with
anything.

Other places might be different.

On Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:47:40 +0100, Tom Gardner
wrote:

On 18/08/14 16:32, Malcolm wrote:

In article , Tim Watts writes
On 17/08/14 21:44, Vir Campestris wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be deplored on this public newsgroup.

I agree with everything below.

And maybe you are right, maybe not - but it doesn't matter.
What does matter is that people will, if they have any choice,
go elsewhere - thus depressing the house price.


I got my "infested" bungalow for 20% less than next door but I don't
know if the price was depressed by the Knotweed. It didn't bother me
at all. The bulk of the weed was removed in an afternoon. The bit
that's left looks very nice.

Steve


--
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On 18/08/14 17:01, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

I got my "infested" bungalow for 20% less than next door but I don't
know if the price was depressed by the Knotweed. It didn't bother me
at all. The bulk of the weed was removed in an afternoon. The bit
that's left looks very nice.


And the worst that you have to do if next door has knotweed is be
prepared to put in a sufficiently deep root barrier.

OK - it's a PITA but it's not a hugely expensive PITA.

On 18/08/14 16:47, Tom Gardner wrote:
On 18/08/14 16:32, Malcolm wrote:

In article , Tim Watts
writes
On 17/08/14 21:44, Vir Campestris wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be
deplored on this public newsgroup.

I agree with everything below.

And maybe you are right, maybe not - but it doesn't matter.
What does matter is that people will, if they have any choice,
go elsewhere - thus depressing the house price.

It had no effect on the house price of the sale I know of.

The price was £50k up over 2 years ago (South East).

In article , says...

On 18/08/14 16:32, Malcolm wrote:

In article , Tim Watts writes
On 17/08/14 21:44, Vir Campestris wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be deplored on this public newsgroup.

I agree with everything below.

And maybe you are right, maybe not - but it doesn't matter.
What does matter is that people will, if they have any choice,
go elsewhere - thus depressing the house price.

I disagree. Every property I ever bought had at least one undesirable
factor (some of them horticultural) which we disregarded because we
knew it could be sorted out relatively cheaply.

Janet

In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:32:40 +0100, Malcolm wrote:
In article , Tim Watts
writes
On 17/08/14 21:44, Vir Campestris wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be
deplored on this public newsgroup.

Meanwhile as part of Asian week Lidl in The Netherlands is selling cheap pots of
bamboo plants. Think of the problems that is going to cause.

None?

There are no bamboos that are more than mildly invasive outside
the very warmest parts of the UK (and the Netherlands is similar
to the south-east). Furthermore, they have to compete with
11,000 years of plant immigration, and the survival of the most
thuggish.

In the UK, Japanese knotweed is the ONLY vascular land plant that
has made itself an ecological or otherwise serious nuisance over
the majority of the country. And there are under a dozen that
are a serious nuisance in even a few parts of the UK. Out of
God alone knows how many thousand introductions.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 18/08/14 21:31, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Martin wrote:
On Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:32:40 +0100, Malcolm wrote:
In article , Tim Watts
writes
On 17/08/14 21:44, Vir Campestris wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be
deplored on this public newsgroup.

Meanwhile as part of Asian week Lidl in The Netherlands is selling cheap pots of
bamboo plants. Think of the problems that is going to cause.

None?

At the corner of my road there is something coming up through
the asphalt pavement. The asphalt has been lifted maybe 1cm
and penetrated by the plant. Currently the shoots are shredded
and apparently dead, but when they were new and alive I formed
the impression they were a bamboo-type plant. The big clue was
the 8ft high bamboo on the other side of the wooden fence,
maybe 2ft away.

That might be considered to be "mildly invasive".

There are no bamboos that are more than mildly invasive outside
the very warmest parts of the UK (and the Netherlands is similar
to the south-east). Furthermore, they have to compete with
11,000 years of plant immigration, and the survival of the most
thuggish.

In article ,
Tom Gardner wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be
deplored on this public newsgroup.

Meanwhile as part of Asian week Lidl in The Netherlands is selling cheap pots of
bamboo plants. Think of the problems that is going to cause.

None?

At the corner of my road there is something coming up through
the asphalt pavement. The asphalt has been lifted maybe 1cm
and penetrated by the plant. Currently the shoots are shredded
and apparently dead, but when they were new and alive I formed
the impression they were a bamboo-type plant. The big clue was
the 8ft high bamboo on the other side of the wooden fence,
maybe 2ft away.

That might be considered to be "mildly invasive".

Quite. Do you know how many 'native' British plants do the same?
Why aren't they called invasive?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 18/08/14 23:07, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Tom Gardner wrote:

Perhaps the following might be of interest - if you have knotweed your
house is almost certainly unsaleable, and possibly uninsurable.

With all due respect, that view is overblown hysteria.

Well said. Indeed, it is the worst kind of scaremongering and is to be
deplored on this public newsgroup.

Meanwhile as part of Asian week Lidl in The Netherlands is selling cheap pots of
bamboo plants. Think of the problems that is going to cause.

None?

At the corner of my road there is something coming up through
the asphalt pavement. The asphalt has been lifted maybe 1cm
and penetrated by the plant. Currently the shoots are shredded
and apparently dead, but when they were new and alive I formed
the impression they were a bamboo-type plant. The big clue was
the 8ft high bamboo on the other side of the wooden fence,
maybe 2ft away.

That might be considered to be "mildly invasive".

Quite. Do you know how many 'native' British plants do the same?

My "favourite" is Agaricus Bitorquis


Why aren't they called invasive?

Because they invaded before humans invaded?

In article ,
Tom Gardner wrote:

At the corner of my road there is something coming up through
the asphalt pavement. The asphalt has been lifted maybe 1cm
and penetrated by the plant. Currently the shoots are shredded
and apparently dead, but when they were new and alive I formed
the impression they were a bamboo-type plant. The big clue was
the 8ft high bamboo on the other side of the wooden fence,
maybe 2ft away.

That might be considered to be "mildly invasive".

Quite. Do you know how many 'native' British plants do the same?

My "favourite" is Agaricus Bitorquis

Why aren't they called invasive?

Because they invaded before humans invaded?

Which they didn't. Homo sapiens is the only species of land
mammal that we are certain has lived in the UK for 30,000
years, and there is only one other that might have done.
Except for the few glacial relics (almost entirely restricted
to the top of a few mountains), ALL other species of land
mammal, vascular plant, and almost all other species of
multicellular life in the UK are newcomers compared to us.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In message , Martin
writes

On Mon, 18 Aug 2014 21:31:47 +0100 (BST), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

There are no bamboos that are more than mildly invasive outside
the very warmest parts of the UK (and the Netherlands is similar
to the south-east). Furthermore, they have to compete with
11,000 years of plant immigration, and the survival of the most
thuggish.

It makes one wonder why anybody would put this on the RHS website

"Planting inside a physical barrier
New bamboo plants or divisions can be contained within a physical barrier to
prevent them spreading through beds and borders.

Dig a trench at least 60cm (2ft) deep, but ideally 120cm (4ft) deep
Line the sides of the trench with either solid materials (such as paving slabs,
corrugated iron sheets or pre-cast concrete drain sections) or with
fabric (such
as root barrier fabric obtainable from Green Tech Ltd or industrial linoleum
(2mm (1/8in) thick), available from builders merchants).

Etc., etc.

I have wondered about the accuracy of some advice on the RHS website
ever since I saw that they say that:

"There are no fungicides available to amateur gardeners for use against
downy mildews."

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=683

yet viticulturists (including me) have used Bordeaux Mixture for years
against downy mildew.

Or is Bordeaux Mixture not a fungicide?

Or am I not an amateur?

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

In message , Martin
writes
On Tue, 19 Aug 2014 07:56:41 +0100, David Rance
wrote:

In message , Martin
writes

On Mon, 18 Aug 2014 21:31:47 +0100 (BST), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

There are no bamboos that are more than mildly invasive outside
the very warmest parts of the UK (and the Netherlands is similar
to the south-east). Furthermore, they have to compete with
11,000 years of plant immigration, and the survival of the most
thuggish.

It makes one wonder why anybody would put this on the RHS website

"Planting inside a physical barrier
New bamboo plants or divisions can be contained within a physical barrier to
prevent them spreading through beds and borders.

Dig a trench at least 60cm (2ft) deep, but ideally 120cm (4ft) deep
Line the sides of the trench with either solid materials (such as
paving slabs,
corrugated iron sheets or pre-cast concrete drain sections) or with
fabric (such
as root barrier fabric obtainable from Green Tech Ltd or industrial linoleum
(2mm (1/8in) thick), available from builders merchants).

Etc., etc.

I have wondered about the accuracy of some advice on the RHS website
ever since I saw that they say that:

"There are no fungicides available to amateur gardeners for use against
downy mildews."

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=683

yet viticulturists (including me) have used Bordeaux Mixture for years
against downy mildew.

Or is Bordeaux Mixture not a fungicide?

Or am I not an amateur?

"From Telegraph Gardening:
Bordeaux Mixture itself has recently been revoked (i.e. not banned, but
its uses
re-defined), but it will available until February 2013. For more, see
www.rhs.org.uk or www.pesticides.gov.uk (go to Databases Home, and look at
'Garden Pesticides’) [I can't find that HSE stuff] and be warned, this is a
complicated issue. Bayer Fruit and Vegetable Disease Control is a traditional
fungicide containing another form of copper (copper oxychloride), which appears
to have got the bureaucratic thumbs up, and this might be your best bet.

From RHS website
Bordeaux Mixture will be withdrawn from sale on 28 February 2013 but any person
can use and store existing stocks until 28 February 2015."

Bordeaux Mixture is still readily available in do-it-yourself stores.
I've just bought some!

Also, elsewhere on the RHS site, it still recommends the use of Bordeaux
Mixture.

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

On Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:43:01 +0200, Martin wrote:


for those who have hoarded the stuff? :-)

Or those who know how to make it. It's copper sulphate and calcium
hydroxide dissolved in water. Both can be bought in the UK.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software http://www.npsnn.com
EasyNN-plus More than just a neural network http://www.easynn.com
SwingNN Prediction software http://www.swingnn.com
JustNN Just a neural network http://www.justnn.com

In article ,
Malcolm wrote:

In the UK, Japanese knotweed is the ONLY vascular land plant that
has made itself an ecological or otherwise serious nuisance over
the majority of the country. And there are under a dozen that
are a serious nuisance in even a few parts of the UK. Out of
God alone knows how many thousand introductions.

I would add Rhododendron ponticum as an ecologically serious nuisance
over the majority of the country, with Heracleum mantegazzianum (giant
hogweed) perhaps the nastiest for humans.

Both are factually wrong, though such claims are made for both,
mostly by misinformation rags like the Daily Wail.

Rhododendron ponticum will not even establish itself in much
of the country, and is much less of a problem even where it is
invasive than many people claim. I have never seen more than a
patchy clump very far from the west coast, though there may be a
few more solid ones in places. Also, it isn't a major problem
(no more than, say, sycamore, ash etc.) where the woodland has
established a canopy (or even can do so?), as much of Cornwall
can witness.

The problems with Heracleum mantegazzianum are grossly overstated,
as the actual injury statistics show. I can't currently find a
link, but I previously saw one that made it clear that the
hysteria was almost entirely tabloid-driven. Yes, it can cause
serious harm, but so can lots of other things.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.