Composting horsetail tops

[robbra]

I read the other day that the tips are good to add to a stir fry. I can't say if it is true as I've never seen the stuff but I would give it a try.

[ESBkevin]

Charles Dowding does a video on there kind of weeds that live as rhizomes (roots) particularly concentrating on bind weed. He claims that the rhizome can push up a number of times, but if you are persistant in quickly removing the shoots/green growth, there comes a time when it no longer has the strength to regrow and dies it situ. I guess this is similar to the idea that such things don't grow in regularly cut lawns. Of course couch grass can live in lawns, but you rarely see bindweed or horsetail in an established lawn.
In CDs case he recons that there is no more growth within 2 years of regular and persistant removal of shoots, often less.

[weegie]

That seems to be true for bindweed and similar, but horsetail roots are about 5 feet long, and they divide and pop up elsewhere. You don't see it in lawns but if, like us, you leave a patch of clover growing for the bees, the horsetail comes up again. I've seen it grow through the tarmac on the pavement at the end of our road.

In 30 years I have never managed to get rid of it entirely but regularly pulling it out with as much root as possible keeps it under control, and as the veg grow and cut out the light, the horsetail is quite weak and spindly. I used to find creeping buttercup more of a problem for smothering stuff, but digging it out regularly defeated it in the end.

[bikermike]

I think the point is for things spread by rhizome its 2 years. If there's established marestail its not a rhizome.

I'd double-check the tarmac point. Round our way it grows through pre-existing cracks in the tarmac, rather than break it up. I've got polythene down and it's not broken through that. Maybe someone's been feeding yours irn bru...

What seems to work is mowing where appropriate and digging out what i call the "travelling" roots. Not necessarily the deep ones, but the ones that spread it laterally. If you can get them out/broken, the plant is split into two and the smaller part can't draw on the resources of the bigger part, so can be exhausted more quickly.

Also, "firebreaks" seem to work. It likes to pop up every so often, so if you create a broad belt where you exterminate it, it reduces the transfer into other areas. On my plot polythene and woodchip paths seem to work, on our site, our plots have marestail, but it cannot seem to get accross the viciously-mowed path (c1.5m wide).

Also, if you see bit on the surfaces, there will be a few more just underground, so always poke down a bit before you let it break off

[Logunner]

I dried out the tops and drowned the roots, it was then added to the compost heap with no ill effect.