Strange looking weeds

[Kleftiwallah]

I've got a bit of S/S with a sharpenend notch cut in the end, I push this into the soil and cut off the mare's tail as far below the soil surface as I can.

Cheers, Tony

[BertieFox]

No weed treatment will work. We have it on our plot and I have been gardening with it for ten years. One way of knocking it back is to cover with a light excluding sheet like black plastic, and plant through that for a year. That will reduce it but not get rid of it. Hand pulling works as well as anything but I've found from experience it is better to wait until it is quite tall and then pull it out completely. If you tug out or hoe every small shoot you see, two will grow in the place where you snapped it off, and then four etc etc. Think of it as a 'green compost' and lie it on the surface. It does add silica and you can make a good fungicide by soaking a load of it in water.

To be honest, there are far, far worse weeds, and once you get used to it, you will find you can live with it, especially if you do a lot of cultivation in each bed. Just ignore it as normally it doesn't compete seriously with other vegetables and is merely unsightly.

[Nickiontheallotment]

Thank you so much every one, was pretty devastated last night as have been working so hard on the allotment and has visions of being over whelmed by the damn stuff.
I think I'm going to hoe it as low as I can regularly rather that use any chemicals .
Fingers crossed I can keep on top of it x thanks all


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[Nickiontheallotment]

Tony, what is it that you use to chop it ??


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[Nickiontheallotment]

I've got a bit of S/S with a sharpenend notch cut in the end, I push this into the soil and cut off the mare's tail as far below the soil surface as I can.

Cheers, Tony

He tony, what is it you use to cut it with ??


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[mothhawk]

Is your soil acidic Nicki? If it is, you could try giving it a good dose of limestone (garden lime). Field horsetail prefers acid soil, so making it more alkali should discourage it a bit, the same way it discourages daisies.

[Raybon]

When you get to dig over your plot in Spring, carefully pull out any black dead-looking skinny twiggy bits <(they are not dead!) and drown in water to make weed tea ((they are apparently full of nutrients.) You won't get 'em all but you can seriously weaken 'em by constantly pulling up the green bits too. Even a tiny bit will regenerate, that's why rotovators are not the best idea in the world, they chop up and spread. Do not put on the compost heap.......
I inherited a plot full of 'em but they are seriously diminished now.
So it's not all bad news!

[Two_Sheds]

horsetail prefers acid soil, so making it more alkali should discourage it a bit, the same way it discourages daisies.

Ah, don't rely on that too much ~ I have alkaline soil, plus horsetail & daisies in abundance

[leonmc0708]

Horsetail was used for cleaning pots and pans in the olden days - tlls you all you need to know about it.

It apparently grows from Rhizomes (similar to couch grass and bind weed so take care cutting it up otherwise you simply help it) that can be up to 8ft-10ft deep.

[lottie dolly]

Horsetail was used for cleaning pots and pans in the olden days -

Will give that a go next time I burn the pan,that is,if it's growing,

[mothhawk]

Ah, don't rely on that too much ~ I have alkaline soil, plus horsetail & daisies in abundance

I got rid of all the daisies in my lawn simply by spreading garden lime over it. And my soil is pretty much neutral. And I don't have any horsetail. When I worked as a stud manager, some of the fields had horsetail growing. We had them commercially limed and within 3 years the horsetail had disappeared.

edit - I suspect the ponies probably grazed the horsetail too, even though they are not supposed to be good for them. So it could have been a case of nipping off every tiny shoot that grew