introducing mare's tail

[Enfield allotment]

Hi there,

We have had our plot just over a year and it still needs a lot of development. Some allotment friends are sadly giving up their plot, and have offered us their raised beds.

They have rampant mare's tail on their plot, while there is none down our end of the patch. Is their any risk of us bringing it down with the wood? The raised beds are heavy planks of untreated wood (I think!).

What would you suggest we do to minimise the risk? Our plot neighbours would be rightly furious if we brought it down our end! One suggestion was scrubbing the wood with bleach??

Thanks for any advice!
Enfield allotment holder

[ginger ninger]

Hi E.A and welcome to the vine, Mare's Tail..not the easiest of things to eradicate, they spread two ways, 1st By spores which are produced in the spring, they look a bit like asparagus, but there brown in colour these blow all over, so it might be as well to give the wood your going to use a really good scrub away from your site. 2nd By root, unless your prepared to dig down maybe 1.5 meters to try and dig them out, this is not an option, the leaves are covered in a waxy substance so if you spray them with weed killer which has to be absorbed, make sure you crush the stems first, Good luck with them.

[Enfield allotment]

Thanks for a quick reply. Very helpful.

So hopefully, by moving the wood in the autumn, we'd be much less likely to carry spores down with it? But it looks like scrubbing it is the safest option. Bleach sounds toxic, so will rinse well.

Fortunately we don't have the dreaded MT at the moment, so no need to dig down - just as well as digging 1.5 m in our London clay would take us for ever...

[Alison]

If you want some marestail I can put you some in the post.........................

[Shellintons]

I sympathise with them. My last allotment was full of the stuff. I was next door to a chap who had been digging his out since 1960something. Still finding it too. I have moved to a new plot an have containerised all but my fruit and herbs now.
Good luck, hope you stay clear of the dreaded thing.
Oh fyi, they have found fossilised remains of the stuff as large as a house and it has been found in mines many feet under the surface. Hard to get rid of

[terrier]

Fossilised Mares Tail!!
Hoe, hoe, hoe. Don't let it see the sunlight. It's like any other weed, it will give up eventually

[ginger ninger]

Were not talking normal weed's here, this stuff has been around for millions of years and its predecessors survived the ice age, so me thinks not showing it the light won't exactly get rid of it...some how. I grow in pots so I don't get mare's tail, but those that do have my sympathy.

[binley100]

Mare's Tail is in a book of herbs that we have, apparantly its used for athritis . doesn't say how though. I'm wondering if SmithKline Beecham want to do a deal . I've got a good supply.

[Farmer_Gyles]

i wouldn't risk bringing anything from a mares tail infested plot to yours - once you've got the mares tail, you won't get rid of it - raised beds are only planks of wood, easy to get hold of ........

[winstonwobble]

excluding the light dosent get rid of the mares tail as i coverd some up and it just grew round it when i went to pull it out the root was under the cover id used i just keep pulling at it as soon as i see it poking out of the soil and i think it may be getting weeker!!

[john c]

Whatever you do ..do not rotavate....once seen never rid of.....i believe the victorians used it for scouring the pots out as it contains lanolin.i think lol

[Storming Norman]

Don't risk it - honestly.

I have mares tail at home, have had it for 20 years. It comes through the fence from both neighbours - neither of whom control it much. It sneaks in regardless of pulling and I think hoeing actually encourages it. It can also get quite big underneath plant growth before it is spotted - yes it does grow in the dark.

I've been pulling, spraying with glyposphate for years, stamping on it and adding washing up liquid to make the weedkiller stick - it does not work.

This year it jumped under the path into my new veg patch - horror! I got out the root out [yes I still have some ammonium sulphate that has been banned]. That worked - but will it kill it permanently? I really doubt that, and I am running out of root out as well........

Don't do it. If I were your neighbour at the allotment I would buy you the wood first.

[gilwrig]

Horesetail

I just keep pullling it up - it gives up eventually and goes all spindly.

I've heard it's good for your hair ??? I think you can make some kind of hair rinse if you're that way inclined.

Doesn't burn very well either.

[Eco-Chic]

I've heard it's good for your hair ??? I think you can make some kind of hair rinse if you're that way inclined.

I thought it made gardeners pull their hair out

[snohare]

The spores in mare's tail are pretty rarely viable (I hear - I don't know personally, but if you think about why else would it not have taken over the world by now ?) so I'd risk it.
***** Fluid for cleaning your wood - about as non-toxic-residue a biocide as you will get, and it should kill all spores if you do it right - and I'd suggest a flame gun for killing the mare's tail, going by the effects I've seen a Sheen gun have on other invasive rhizomes I have seen.
'Tis the silicone in it that made it so popular for pot scouring and arthritis cures, so I believe. Probably also why it survived the advent of the lignin-loving bacteria that wiped out most of the other species of plants back in the dinosaur era, by chomping on the pre-cellulose materiel they all used to grow tall.