Oxalis

[bario1]

My allotment is slowly being overrun with oxalis!

I'd never even seen this stuff on my plot till last year, but now it's everywhere, forming huge mats of foliage, and it's really hard to pull up, it just tears off at ground level, leaving the roots to regrow.

It's quite an attractive plant, with small clover-like leaves and a lovely rusty colour, but....

anyone got any tips for controlling the stuff?

[Snoop Puss]

Found this online:
"Spray the oxalis with a homemade non-toxic weed killer. Fill a small spray bottle with white vinegar and add one or two squirts of dish soap. Gently shake, then spray the mixture directly on the base of the oxalis clusters. This works even better on a hot day."
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/kill-o...lly-66260.html

Same site has the usual advice as well: weed, remove tap roots, etc. Still worth a read, maybe.

Good luck.

[roitelet]

Vinegar will work but doesn’t kill the roots. Oxalis produces tiny bulbs which will regrow. If you dig out the worst carefully discarding the soil clinging to the roots it will go some way to controlling it but you will have to be persistent.
Just a thought, have you used compost from an unknown source? Council compost, it could have come from there.
Best of luck

[Jungle Jane]

Ive had oxalis here for years,it has tiny yellow flowers,it’s not in my grass luckily,just all the soil & patio,front & back,I just pull it out when I see it,especially if it has flowers on. Hoeing would be the best to get at the root,I don’t know how long the roots are,it grows through my patio up into the pots but it’s small & doesn’t bother me,you can ignore it a lot of the time.

[Babru]

My friend's new house has mare's tail in her back garden and this same yellow-flowered oxalis in her front garden. No luck, eh!

[DannyK]

Those masses of bulbils on pink ones are the problem. Probably impossible to clear completely. Any you dig out put in landfill.

Shade out with rhubarb or other leafy plants like chard, even strawberries.

Get the yellow one in pots but it doesn't seem very vigorous.

Beware some sedums that shed tiny leaves and root everywhere. I'm also trying to kill off a little plant with 1.5 inch ferny leaves that spreads with roots similar to couch grass. It's trying to smother my erodiums.