HI Folks
Any suggestions for the best way to kill off the mint that's trying to
take over one corner of my polytunnel..

I planted it (some years ago) in a pot, as recommended, to restrain it.
It's escaped... and is now spreading.

I did lay some ground cover over it (old tarpaulin) - which seems to
have suppressed it in the centre, but now it's made its way around the
edges..

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.
Recommendations, please?

Thanks

In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:

Any suggestions for the best way to kill off the mint that's trying to
take over one corner of my polytunnel..

I planted it (some years ago) in a pot, as recommended, to restrain it.
It's escaped... and is now spreading.

I did lay some ground cover over it (old tarpaulin) - which seems to
have suppressed it in the centre, but now it's made its way around the
edges..

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.

Recommendations, please?

A garden fork? It's shallow-rooted.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 02/11/2020 19:51, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:

Any suggestions for the best way to kill off the mint that's trying to
take over one corner of my polytunnel..

I planted it (some years ago) in a pot, as recommended, to restrain it.
It's escaped... and is now spreading.

I did lay some ground cover over it (old tarpaulin) - which seems to
have suppressed it in the centre, but now it's made its way around the
edges..

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.

Recommendations, please?

A garden fork? It's shallow-rooted.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks for the reply...

I did try physically weeding it out a few years back - but now it's in
amongst beds of spring bulbs etc - so it'd be a bit of a trial

On 02/11/2020 19:45, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
HI Folks
Any suggestions for the best way to kill off the mint that's trying to
take over one corner of my polytunnel..

I planted it (some years ago) in a pot, as recommended, to restrain it.
It's escaped... and is now spreading.

I did lay some ground cover over it (old tarpaulin) - which seems to
have suppressed it in the centre, but now it's made its way around the
edges..

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.
Recommendations, please?

Thanks

The only systemic herbicides are non-organic. You might want to try
pelargonic acid; it's plant-based but not systemic. It won't kill the
mint, but it will weaken it.

--

Jeff

In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:

I did try physically weeding it out a few years back - but now it's in
amongst beds of spring bulbs etc - so it'd be a bit of a trial

The time to get it out would be late summer, then. Frankly, to quote
our less than stellar prime minister, TINA (There Is No Alternative).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 02/11/2020 19:45, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
HI Folks
Any suggestions for the best way to kill off the mint that's trying to
take over one corner of my polytunnel..

I planted it (some years ago) in a pot, as recommended, to restrain it.
It's escaped... and is now spreading.

I did lay some ground cover over it (old tarpaulin) - which seems to
have suppressed it in the centre, but now it's made its way around the
edges..

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.
Recommendations, please?

Juts pull up the runners and keep pulling them up.

Its very easy to weed it out

Thanks



--
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over
the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that
authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

Frédéric Bastiat

On 02/11/2020 19:45, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.
Recommendations, please?

Digging it out with a fork usually works OK for me on a heavy clay soil.
It isn't all that invasive and relatively shallow rooted.

It puts up less resistance to a fork than nettles. I have snapped fork
tines on overgrown combinations of bramble, nettle and honeysuckle.

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to digging.
Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece you miss.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 03/11/2020 11:51, Martin Brown wrote:
On 02/11/2020 19:45, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.
Recommendations, please?

Digging it out with a fork usually works OK for me on a heavy clay soil.
It isn't all that invasive and relatively shallow rooted.

It puts up less resistance to a fork than nettles. I have snapped fork
tines on overgrown combinations of bramble, nettle and honeysuckle.

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to digging.
Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece you miss.

Perhaps the next time yo plant mint in the garden you will bury a
pot/bucket up to its neck then plant the mint in that. the best way to
stop this invasive plant from taking over your garden.

On 03/11/2020 12:17, Broadback wrote:
On 03/11/2020 11:51, Martin Brown wrote:
On 02/11/2020 19:45, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

I try not to use weedkillers in the (vegetable) polytunnel - but
'organic' techniques (like vinegar) offer only a temporary respite.

I'm guessing that something systemic is required.
Recommendations, please?

Digging it out with a fork usually works OK for me on a heavy clay soil.
It isn't all that invasive and relatively shallow rooted.

It puts up less resistance to a fork than nettles. I have snapped fork
tines on overgrown combinations of bramble, nettle and honeysuckle.

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to
digging. Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece
you miss.

Perhaps the next time yo plant mint in the garden you will bury a
pot/bucket up to its neck then plant the mint in that. the best way to
stop this invasive plant from taking over your garden.

Well - as I said in my original post - that's exactly what I did in this
case. Darn stuff escaped!

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to digging.
Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece you miss.

I do that only where I can't dig it up. While it regrows, that shows
you where to remove the root fragments :-)

Now, lesser bindweed, on the other hand ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 03/11/2020 19:20, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Tue, 3 Nov 2020 18:27:58 -0000 (UTC), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to digging.
Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece you miss.

I do that only where I can't dig it up. While it regrows, that shows
you where to remove the root fragments :-)

Now, lesser bindweed, on the other hand ....


I have cleared a bed of bindweed by your technique for mint - dig out
as many of the roots as you can find; wait until what's left is
foolish enough to reveal itself by sending up shoots and dig those
out; repeat until nothing more appears.

Mind you, there was nothing else in the bed - no perennials, no
shrubs, and I had all of the lock-down summer to do it, but I'm
confident it's clear. If any shoots do appear, next spring now, I'll
just pluck them off.

But it's surprising how much you miss first time round - and the
second time - and the third etc. :-(

I reckon each bed gets 80% cleared every time I weed it so it
exponentially tends towards being weed free - until new seeds blow in!


--
"I guess a rattlesnake ain't risponsible fer bein' a rattlesnake, but ah
puts mah heel on um jess the same if'n I catches him around mah chillun".

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

Now, lesser bindweed, on the other hand ....

I have cleared a bed of bindweed by your technique for mint - dig out
as many of the roots as you can find; wait until what's left is
foolish enough to reveal itself by sending up shoots and dig those
out; repeat until nothing more appears.

It took me over a decade of doing that to reduce it in my vegetable
area to a few hold-outs, which are there after 40 years. I tried
leaving the ground fallow, so I could dig it, and there was no
reduction after a year. That's sandy soil, so the roots go down at
least three feet.



Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article , lid says...

On 03/11/2020 19:20, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Tue, 3 Nov 2020 18:27:58 -0000 (UTC), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to digging.
Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece you miss.

I do that only where I can't dig it up. While it regrows, that shows
you where to remove the root fragments :-)

Now, lesser bindweed, on the other hand ....


I have cleared a bed of bindweed by your technique for mint - dig out
as many of the roots as you can find; wait until what's left is
foolish enough to reveal itself by sending up shoots and dig those
out; repeat until nothing more appears.

Mind you, there was nothing else in the bed - no perennials, no
shrubs, and I had all of the lock-down summer to do it, but I'm
confident it's clear. If any shoots do appear, next spring now, I'll
just pluck them off.

But it's surprising how much you miss first time round - and the
second time - and the third etc. :-(

I reckon each bed gets 80% cleared every time I weed it so it
exponentially tends towards being weed free - until new seeds blow in!

Don't you start using 'exponentially'. Keep the garden free. It's worse
than mint.

--
Jim S

On 03/11/2020 21:42, Jim S wrote:
In article , lid says...

On 03/11/2020 19:20, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Tue, 3 Nov 2020 18:27:58 -0000 (UTC), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to digging.
Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece you miss.

I do that only where I can't dig it up. While it regrows, that shows
you where to remove the root fragments :-)

Now, lesser bindweed, on the other hand ....


I have cleared a bed of bindweed by your technique for mint - dig out
as many of the roots as you can find; wait until what's left is
foolish enough to reveal itself by sending up shoots and dig those
out; repeat until nothing more appears.

Mind you, there was nothing else in the bed - no perennials, no
shrubs, and I had all of the lock-down summer to do it, but I'm
confident it's clear. If any shoots do appear, next spring now, I'll
just pluck them off.

But it's surprising how much you miss first time round - and the
second time - and the third etc. :-(

I reckon each bed gets 80% cleared every time I weed it so it
exponentially tends towards being weed free - until new seeds blow in!

Don't you start using 'exponentially'. Keep the garden free. It's worse
than mint.

Oh for sure. Actually the worst ever was periwinkle in a hard clay bed.
Only finally solved when house was rebuilt and it was covered with tons
of subsoil to create a new raised bed..

--
Truth welcomes investigation because truth knows investigation will lead
to converts. It is deception that uses all the other techniques.

On 03/11/2020 18:27, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Only for ground elder do I resort to chemical warfare prior to digging.
Since that has a tendency to come back from every tiny piece you miss.

I do that only where I can't dig it up. While it regrows, that shows
you where to remove the root fragments :-)

Now, lesser bindweed, on the other hand ....

Must be your sandy soil. Field bindweed barely clings onto life here. I
quite like the pink striped flowers. It isn't invasive in my heavy clay.

Hedge bindweed is still a nuisance more because it lurks in inaccessible
places under my thorny hedges. Not worth the effort to try and kill it.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown