Can you get rid of horsetail?

[Gorsty]

Hi folks

I was wondering which forum to post my query on - after reading some old messages, I get the impression it's nye on impossible to get rid of????!!!!!

My garden was until recently a field - we want to grow veg and have a flower garden - have dug over one border, four times now but the marestail is still poking through.

I have mixed a strong weedkiller with wallpaper paste and painted it on the marestail - do you have any better ideas?

Read somewhere that in order to stand a chance, you should spray the marestail in the autumn when it is starting to think of going underground for the winter - that way it takes the weedkiller right down iinto the root system - any thoughts on this theory?

Thanks in advance

[Flummery]

I've never managed it but I've only been trying 10 years! Someone, however, mentioned to me that if you grow turnips on land with marestails it will kill it off in a couple of year. Sadly, mine are all in the front flower garden!

[Alison]

I've got tonnes of it at the lottie but thankfully not at home. I garden organically-ish so don't want to zap the stuff with weed killer whether it works or not but just pull it out whenever I see it. To be honest I don't get het up about it as it doesn't compete for nuturients (roots too deep) and I find it strangely satisfying if I can pull it out with a very long root which is often possible in my soil.

[always digging]

i have just learnt to live with it ,pulling out as much of the root is the best way, or cover the ground with black plastic but it needs to be down a long time

[Nordmead]

have you read this?

How to Remove Horsetail Weed | eHow.co.uk

[solway cropper]

I read somewhere that the roots can go down 4 or 5 metres and some species have been found to root down to 20 metres in suitable conditions. Glad I don't have any

[rob the roller]

Last year I took over an allotment badly affected by horse's tail. In the spring, wanting to appear to be working the plot, I covered large sections with several inches of fresh horse manure, the kind that is still steaming when you put it on. I have cultivated some of the plot, and that is allowing horse's tail to come through. All you can do is pull it up as and when. The area which remains under the manure blanket is showing very little, almost no horse's tail.

With the benefit of hindsight, I would cover the entire area with as thick a layer of fresh manure as you can. A foot or more would not be excessive. If you want to cultivate as well, then for the first year at least, try to restrict it to containers.

Rob

[Jimmy]

I have the stuff, it's a bit of a nightmare.
However it doesn't seem to like cultivated land.
It loves to pop up from the side of paths or around the edge of a greenhouse.
And whilst it does appear in my cultivated raised beds it doesn't seem to do well and can be pulled or dug out.
I have been gardening for 40 years and I don't think you can ever get rid of it 100% just control it.

It polishes pewter , reputedly !

Jimmy

[Gorsty]

Thank you everyone - I think I'm probably on a hiding to nothing - have had a close look at other gardens in the area - everyone has it in varying degrees - my next door neighbour appears to be cultivating the stuff in his greenhouse!!!! and the hedgerow down the road, is full of it.

Anyhow, will have a go at "controlling" the stuff - don't really like using chemicals BUT ..... do have some glysophate (spelling???) and a pony so the fresh manure might be the thing to do. We have actually dumped a load of relatively fresh manure/compost over an area which we haven't had time to dig over so we will see what happens.

Interesting reading about the Horsetail anyhow.

Thanks again.

Bye for now

[GrahamW]

I found this by accident, hope it helps.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Horse or Mares Tail

Horse or Mares Tail, Equisetum Arvense is, in my opinion, public enemy number one. It looks like it belongs in Jurassic Park and, unchecked, spreads like wildfire.
In spring, brown green shoots appear with small cones at the tips that produce spores. (Arghh – millions of ‘em) and it grows away from creeping thin brown roots that you can hardly see as they are soil coloured. Digging out these roots is not feasible – they go down into the soil for up to 1.5 metres – yes, 5 feet.
Later the ‘leaves’ or tails appear. These will die off as autumn turns to winter and the roots sit there waiting for spring. The leaves have a waxy coat, which makes the plant highly resistant to weedkillers.
Crushing the leaves to break up the coating helps weedkiller to penetrate and become absorbed but in large areas it is not so easy to crush all the leaves . However, glyphosate weed killer will have an effect and eventually kill the plant. You will probably need 5 or more applications. Knock it back, it re-grows and you repeat.
I don’t think you can clear this in less than one season.
Ammonium Sulphamate seems to be a far more effective weed killer. It can kill it in one application but may well need two. It used to be available as Amicide but now you need to look for a brushwood killer that incorporates it like Rootout or Deep Root. Just check the packet forammonium sulphamate.
I’d recommend NOT digging where there is horsetail until it is dead for sure. Otherwise it just starts springing up from the root cuttings. Drying or drowning the roots prior to composting is a must.
I've been contacted by Mr Charles Bailey who points out that Horestail is correctly applied to the weed growing on land whereas Marestail is correctly applied to the weed growing in water.
He also puts forth an organic control method, which he says is effective.
Without resorting to chemicals you can control/irradicate horse tail by digging/forking through the soil when it is in the right condition: ie not too wet and sticky!
Once you have removed as much as possible, any that shoots is easily dealt with. Before it reaches 3 ins/7cm high, hoe off an inch below the surface.
Eventually the food supply in the root is exhausted. Let it get bigger than stated and food begins to be stored in the roots again, and round and round you go ad infinitum.
Never touch Horsetail with a mechanical cultivator. If you do you will understand why it has been around for 60 million years

[Two_Sheds]

See, I'd never (I hope) capy & paste (post) a reply without checking its authenticity: for a start, horsetail and marestail are two different plants.

Horsetail is persistent for sure, but it's controlled by shading it out with taller stronger plants, and pulling it out as it appears

[SarzWix]

And the roots go much deeper than 5 foot. They've been found 30 feet down at the bottom of mine-shafts apparently. In which case, they aren't taking much nutrition from anything else you grow, so not a huge problem really. And you can use the tops as pan and hand scrubbers

[Vince G]

I had horsetail in the allotment I took over last May. I used this stuff:

Total control of horse / mares tail - Weed killers - Total Weed Killers - Kurtail 0.5LTS - Progreen Weed Control Solutions, suppliers of agricultural, horticultural and amenity chemicals

It is expensive but fantastic. Any horsetail that has come back this year is very spindly and looks pretty pathetic so is easy to control.

I have a mate who is an ecotoxicologist, i.e. he studies the effect of things like weedkillers on the environment. I asked him to look into this product to ensure it was safe, and he confirmed that was the case.

He said: "rather than poisoning the plant like a glyphosate based weedkiller, Kurtail contains glufosinate ammonium which works by inhibiting the plant's ability to photosynthesise (which simply put, is the process in the plant's leaves that converts energy in sunlight to food energy, enabling it to grow). If the plant can't photosynthesise it shrivels up and dies. It should destroy all weeds with leaves, but I wouldn't use it on weeds with seeds such as chickweed, fat hen etc as the plant will dry up, and you'll undoubtedly scatter seed everywhere when you pull it up, which may still be viable. It will be safe to use around trees as it is not taken up in the roots, it is only absorbed by leaves, so if you decide to use it to clear round any tree roots, don't spray on a windy day so it gets on foliage. It is excreted by mammals and there is minimal effect on aquatic life in the recommended dilution."

He also said in theory it is safe to turn in dead weeds, but I decided not to, especially with the horsetail.

Hope this is useful.

[SarzWix]

That is interesting Vince. Never heard of the stuff before

I do wish people wouldn't persist in calling it Mare's Tail though, as that is in fact a completely different weed, which grows in water...

[bearded bloke]

See, I'd never (I hope) capy & paste (post) a reply without checking its authenticity: for a start, horsetail and marestail are two different plants.

I do wish people wouldn't persist in calling it Mare's Tail though, as that is in fact a completely different weed, which grows in water...

I've been contacted by Mr Charles Bailey who points out that Horestail is correctly applied to the weed growing on land whereas Marestail is correctly applied to the weed growing in water