Horsetail woes
 

Hi Folks
We are settling in well at the new house enjoying the blossoming of new
(many unknown) flowers appearing every month. The previous owners were
indeed great gardeners apart from allowing the dreaded horsetail to
spread throughout the vegetable and fruit cages.

Any advise on positively controlling it appreciated.

We also have recently learned that those interesting tall plants with
pink flowers that grow all along the stream are Himalayan Balsam! Never
heard of that before, but now know we should be pulling it up before
this years crop flowers.

Mike

Horsetail woes
 

On 30/07/2019 09:12, Muddymike wrote:
Hi Folks
We are settling in well at the new house enjoying the blossoming of new
(many unknown) flowers appearing every month. The previous owners were
indeed great gardeners apart from allowing the dreaded horsetail to
spread throughout the vegetable and fruit cages.

Any advise on positively controlling it appreciated.

Pull every one you see out with as much root as possible and before it
has time to get any bigger. The aim is to drain the roots of energy. It
is very definitely a war of attrition.

Bruising it and applying over diluted glyphosate gel (to get a slow kill
that translocates deeper into the roots will help). But if the
conditions are suitable for horsetail you will probably never get
completely rid of it. I don't have it in my garden (yet).

It was in my parent's garden and the plants I pinched from there are
presently in quarantine to avoid bring it in. One pot was contaminated.

It seem to me like it is a real nuisance on sandy soils.

We also have recently learned that those interesting tall plants with
pink flowers that grow all along the stream are Himalayan Balsam! Never
heard of that before, but now know we should be pulling it up before
this years crop flowers.

It is essential to zap it before it sets seed. The flowers are quite
nice (think bizzy lizzy on steroids) with a sweet honey perfume. It is
incredibly invasive on the banks of water courses - pernicious weed.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Horsetail woes
 

On 30 Jul 2019 09:12, Muddymike wrote:
Hi Folks
We are settling in well at the new house enjoying the blossoming of new
(many unknown) flowers appearing every month. The previous owners were
indeed great gardeners apart from allowing the dreaded horsetail to
spread throughout the vegetable and fruit cages.

Any advise on positively controlling it appreciated.

We also have recently learned that those interesting tall plants with
pink flowers that grow all along the stream are Himalayan Balsam! Never
heard of that before, but now know we should be pulling it up before
this years crop flowers.


We had it on our previous allotment. Not a case of allowing it to grow,
you simply cannot stop it if it's coming. Came in a very strong wave at
first then moved through across the site leaving some plants constantly
sprouting. We used to hoe them off or pull them up and this seemed to
weaken the plants so not so many appeared. We never got rid of them
just learnt to live with them. Could be worse, it could be Japanese
Knot Weed.


--
Regards
Bob Hobden

Horsetail woes
 

On 30/07/2019 14:55, Bob Hobden wrote:
On 30 Jul 2019 09:12, Muddymike wrote:
Hi Folks
We are settling in well at the new house enjoying the blossoming of new
(many unknown) flowers appearing every month. The previous owners were
indeed great gardeners apart from allowing the dreaded horsetail to
spread throughout the vegetable and fruit cages.

Any advise on positively controlling it appreciated.

We also have recently learned that those interesting tall plants with
pink flowers that grow all along the stream are Himalayan Balsam! Never
heard of that before, but now know we should be pulling it up before
this years crop flowers.


We had it on our previous allotment. Not a case of allowing it to grow,
you simply cannot stop it if it's coming. Came in a very strong wave at
first then moved through across the site leaving some plants constantly

If you get the first flush before it manages to open to full size and
preferably soon after it breaks the surface you can hinder it quite
well. But it is very persistent and missing a week is enough to allow it
to put substantial reserves back into the rhizome or whatever the thin
black bootlaces it has in the ground are actually called.

sprouting. We used to hoe them off or pull them up and this seemed to
weaken the plants so not so many appeared. We never got rid of them
just learnt to live with them. Could be worse, it could be Japanese
Knot Weed.

That's about the only thing that is worse in terms of being impossible
to kill. Normal glyphosate almost bounces off its silica exoskeleton.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown