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Why can't they find some anti cancer chemical in Mare'stails, rather than have to go to the rain forests to find them all? Cheers, Tony.
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Semper in Excrementem Altitvdo Solvs Varivs.
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Call me a cynic, but that sounds like one of those old wives tales that turns out not to be true - only virtually nobody can be sure because at some point, human nature being what it is, just about everyone fails to spray !If you boil it up in water and spray it on your potato foliage, it stops blight. You have to do this every week through blight season though.
There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.
Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?Comment
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I think they're beautiful!
(Wellllll, the cultivated ones are, anyhoo!)
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Sometimes, I'm seriously worried about you OM! You realise that finding someone else who wants to cultivate Horsetail may limit your field somewhat!
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But I like nature and wild things! I love how things just grow!
(Potential Mrs Ouyas do not need to be as silly as me!)Comment
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I think they're beautiful!
(Wellllll, the cultivated ones are, anyhoo!)
I know they've been around a long time, but are you likely to find any that have read "War and Peace" ? 
Yes, to horsetails...finding someone else who wants to cultivate Horsetail may limit your field somewhat!
Seriously though, I too find them impressive, both aesthetically and for other reasons. For example, do you know why this genus no longer "rules" the Earth botanically ? Because of a bacterium.
The cell walls of all plants once used to be composed of lignin, which has the same sort of strength as the cellulose in wood. But until ligniferous bacteria (and I daresay, fungi) came along and had the ability to digest the 30 metre high giants, there was no competitive pressure helping the development of plants with woody stems - ie, modern trees and bushes. (Even now, with the ability to digest lignin widespread in bacteria, if the plant is small enough it is easier for it to make lignin, which is why not all tall weeds have woody stems.)
So every time I see a horsetail, I am reminded - if the ancestors of these little-noticed plants had not had this Achilles heel, our world might still look like the jungles of the dinosaurs...
There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.
Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?Comment
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Actually I think they are amazing too - a living fossil. You could grow a prehistoric garden with giant horsetails and breed iguanas or something similar and pretend they were baby dinosaurs. It may not win you many friends on the allotment but it would give you an original chat up line -"Come up and see my dinosaurs".
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It's a known organic blight treatment.Originally posted by snohare View PostCall me a cynic, but that sounds like one of those old wives tales that turns out not to be true - only virtually nobody can be sure because at some point, human nature being what it is, just about everyone fails to spray !
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thanks zaz,have met sally a few times down our lottie,a very dedicated lady,Originally posted by zazen999 View PostIf you boil it up in water and spray it on your potato foliage, it stops blight. You have to do this every week through blight season though.
Also, you can add lavender to the brew and use it as a dandruff rinse. For you - not your spuds.
It's because it's antibacterial. So says Sally Cunningham from Garden Organic.sigpicAnother nutter ,wife,mother, nan and nanan,love my growing places,seed collection and sharing,also one of these
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Cynic Cecil Snohare, at your service...It's a known organic blight treatment.
There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.
Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?Comment
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Fascinating.Originally posted by snohare View Post:
So every time I see a horsetail, I am reminded - if the ancestors of these little-noticed plants had not had this Achilles heel, our world might still look like the jungles of the dinosaurs...My Very Bleak Garden Blog
Reece & The Chicks
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:2
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When being shown around one of the Old Boy's plot a few years back, he had almost a perfect double row of marestail and inbetween a row of carrots. I wish I'd thought to ask him if there was a reason or if it was just that he didn't want to hoe to close to the carrots.the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.
Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xxComment
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All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.Comment
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Horsetail likes wet patches. If your ground has good drainage, it probably won't get out of hand anyway. Because it is 'the ceolocanth (sp?) of the vegetable kingdom' it is also incredibly hard to kill, except by making the environment less favourable to it. If you hoe it, there will be viable 'bits' left, it is highly resistant to weedkiller too.Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.Comment
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