marestail warfare

[Couperman]

Friends of mine have recently taken on a plot that had been abandoned for donkeys years.
The council had it strimmed etc and they made good progress fitting raised beds, installing a pond etc.

The problem they have is it is infested with sodding Marestail. I really feel sorry for them as they appear to be losing the battle. It is sprouting up everywhere, even in the newly installed greenhouse.

Does anyone have any tips/strategies on getting shot of this stuff for good? At the moment they are stomping on the foliage and spraying it with glyphosate. Obviously they can't do this where they are growing veg and are hand weeding where they can.

Any tips would be gratefully recieved.

[pdblake]

A friend of mine used to swear by crushing the leaves (if you can call them that) and brushing with glyphosphate (spot treatment fashion), otherwise weedkiller pretty much just runs off them.

It's almost impossible to hand weed completely as the roots can go down five foot or so.

[SarzWix]

Hoe, hoe, hoe, hoe. And hoe some more... And in grassy areas, just keep it strimmed down.

The roots of this can go down 20 feet, or maybe more (they've been found in the bottom of mine-shafts!). You can kill yourself trying to dig it out, and it will still come back. If you keep on hoeing the tops off everytime it shows it's face, you do weaken it, and less will come up every year. If you're digging the beds anyway, fair enough, take out what you come across, but trying to get rid altogether is very frustarting. And, in my experience, it doesn't take that much away from the veg anyway, in terms of nutrients etc.
I'm on the third year of my plot this year and there's a lot less coming up in the beds than there was in the first year - I have more problem with dandelions than marestail now

[Alice]

In the areas where they are using weedkiller on the stuff it sticks on better if wetted with soapy water first. Crushing it is hard to do as it just breaks up. It's impossible to get rid of the stuff but it can be got under control. Good luck to your friends.

[Alison]

I'm just pulling it out every time it comes up (you only have to look away for 5 minutes), hard work but I'm far more comfortable with this approach than spraying.

[PAULW]

I use deep root much better than glysophate, I keep a five ltr spray and every time a bit of marestail shows it gets a squirt, doing it this way I reduced by 90% the amout of regrowth the following year.

[Emmylou]

I have marestail and try to dig up with as much root as possible, but as other people have said, they go down SO far. One old boy on the allotment told me to put on some rubber gloves and apply glyphosate but pulling the plant through a sponge soaked in the stuff. Haven't tried it yet though.

[Dynamo]

I'm just digging out as much of it as possible. I still get a couple of shoots sprouting from time to time, but they are easily pulled now that the soils been worked.

The worst thing about trying to lift as much of the root as possible while digging is that it looks like its dead, so when in doubt, it gets pulled anyway. So far I haven't seen that much trying to grow again where I've pulled it from.

[Incy]

We have a similar problem. I am constantly pulling it up with as much root as possible. Don't want to use chemicals near my veg
At the end of the day it is a common problem and I don't know anyone who has managed to control it completely. But it is not that hard to keep pulling it up when you see a new shoot. I too have it in the greenhouse (put up last year) and it has come up through weed suppressant maqterial, about 2 inches of limestone gravel and paving slabs!
Good luck to your friend they probably need to learn to live with it.

[NOG]

Old boy on my plot says wait for it to start to grow and hoe off just below the ground level.

Keep it up and eventualy you will win. He has none on his plot....but he is 80 and goes up every day....

[Farmer_Gyles]

my allotment is riddled with it too

the roots are so long that weedkiller doesn't get taken to the bottom of the root - you can kill off the top part, but the bottom of the root will just grow again and again

dig over, don't rotavate or you'll chop the roots and create more growing pieces - pick out any pieces of dark root you see, however tiny

when some shows up through the dug over patch, use some weedkiller - gloves and sponge is best - then wait a week and pull up whatever you can

you'll never get rid of it till they invent a special weedkiller that really does work, but you can keep it down .......

[PAULW]

FG
Deeproot works after the plant has died you can get hold of it and draw it out of the ground and you will see all the small hair like roots have gone and as I said before I had a 95% clear up rate with no regrowth

[geoff]

My plot has a severe weed problem, but it's buttercup
Never heard of 'Deeproot'; what is it, where can I get it, and do you think it will work on the aforementioned buttercup?
Not fussy about using chemicals,or contaminating crops as I have already arranged with the council Allotment Officer that I will only do a limited amount of planting this year in order to concentrate my time and energy on improving the soil and eradicating the buttercup

[petal]

marestail hates horsemanure - how funny is that?!

[PAULW]

GEOFF
Most GC, BNQ,AND FOCUS sell it