May be moving, what to do with fruit bushes surrounded by horsetail?

[kathycam]

I'm currently in the process of selling a flat/buying a house. Not 100% sure which house, but it may be one with a large garden. As it's a half hour drive from the allotment, we'd likely give up at least the bigger of our 2 plots.

The larger plot, which I only took on in januray turns out to absolutely covered in horsetail (marestail) to the point I can start on one end of the plot and by the time I get to the other end, its grown back in the first. Thats not to mention the abudence of other weeds including bind weed, couch grass, dandelions, groundsel, fat hen etc etc. Obviously some of them are easier to deal with than others and some are edibale. But on a 15 pole plot its quite a challenge!

So I'm figuring the half I haven't started on can be given up immediately and the rest at the end of the season. I've a lot of fruit bushes that are getting established and I can see blueberries on the bushes, I've never got them to that stage before. Also some fruit trees (mainly from Aldis so next expensive, but still money)

Is there a safe way to move them from my plot to my new house, without bringing loads of horsetail roots or spores? Obviously I would wait until they are dormant. I'm trying to keep the weeds down in the blueberry bed, but they still get out of control within a week of not weeding them.

I could sell/give them to the new person, but I feel I've not gotten my moneys worth out of them. If I new how bad the horsetail problem was I wouldn't have taken it on, we wanted to be no dig, but seems the only way to deal with it- is digging. Or at least keeping on top of pulling it out by hand.

Also would spores likely be a problem if I moved my polytunnel, or would a good wash deal with that?

Thanks.

[alldigging]

What cost importing mares tail to your new garden?

[kathycam]

I know, I guess if we're in it for the longterm (which we'd hope to be) there is no point risking it. Just seems a shame to lose them, after all the time nurturing them.

[chris]

Blueberries don't really start to fruit until they're about 4 years old anyway.. You could always buy some when they're on offer from a nursery - I've seen some 2 year old bushes for sale before.

Personally, I'd not bother - it may go in your favour to leave them to the new owner - if they have an established garden, and they're a gardener themselves, or looking to get in it - it might make the sale?

[kathycam]

I've an offer on my flat already, the blueberries are at the allotment. So I don't really get any benefit to leaving them. Though I guess I could say I'll leave them on condition they stick to organic methods and water/weed the half I'm keeping until the autumn/winter. The plot already has several established apple trees, plum trees and a fig and possibly a few others. Will look out for blueberries on offer, I know a place that might do them cheap and they had some fruiting, but might be too earlier to purchase them yet. It's not just blueberries though, its pinkberries, honey berries, cranberrys, chilean guava, red currants, black currants, josta berries, gogi berries, gooseberries and 5 fruit trees! Maybe I went a bit crazy on the fruit.

I can hopefully get cuttings from a friend with red currant, black currant and a josta berry, so not a total loss.

[Feral007]

Why not take cuttings of the ones on the allotment as well? I would want to take some of them at least! But then, it depends what the place you buy is like. If it has some of the same weeds then you might as well take them Hard decision

[kathycam]

I'm not sure if the cuttings would be spore free, might still spread it. I guess if its just a twig I could wash it well. Going for another viewing now, so will have a look for horsetail, I never noticed last time though. I might see if the person taking on the plot would give me a donation for them. I can always give them to someone further down the hill, who already has horsetail. My own silly fault for wanting to move.

[chris]

Ah, sorry thought it was a garden!

[mothhawk]

You could put them in tubs and keep them in tubs for a couple of years on hard standing, effectively quarantining them until you can be sure nothing else is growing in with them, but it's a lot of watering, and you won't get so much fruit.
Personally i'd bite the bullet and buy new, or cadge cuttings from someone who is horsetail/weed free.

[kathycam]

Yeah think I'll try the cuttings root and see if the new person would make a "donation" for all the fruit bushes. I'll move the kiwiw and wisteria I'm taking with me away from the area, hopefully as in tunnel, they will be safer. I shouldn't be moaning, I'm moving from a 2 bedroom flat to a house with a 1/5th of an acre of land to play with!

[kathycam]

A solution has presented itself, the person I share my half plot with has just given his half up. So I'll transfer things from the 15 pole plot to the new 5 pole plat. The plot next to the 5 pole has already has marestail, so not too big a deal, as its coming that way anyway.

So next question- how bad is it to move fruit bushes at the this time of year. I know ideally I'd wait until they were dormant, I may be able to do that, but if I can't- will they cope being moved to a nice new plot?

Also what of other things like cabbages, peas, oca, corn, broadbeans, squash, radish, etc etc?

[kathycam]

I'm hoping I can leave the fruit trees until winter, possibly a few other bits, once we know who is taking over the plot.

[Vince G]

Speaking from experience, they don't like being moved while growing.

We moved house a month ago and I had a lot of fruit bushes at the old house, so didn't want to leave them therefore I dug the up and took them to the lottie. They were just getting going after our crap spring.

Raspberries and strawberries are still sulking, as are 2 of the 3 gooseberries. The blackcurrants and goji didn't seem to mind at all and the blueberry I previously had in a pot is loving being in the ground.

So swings and roundabouts, to be honest.

[kathycam]

I'll have to have a think, possibly having a 10 pole allotment and massive garden (1/5 of an acre!) might be a bit too much. I might see if I can leave moving the fruit bushes til winter and then put them in my old half plot. If only keep a half plot and fill it with fruit bushes and other perrenials it wont be so much work. My new house is a 30 min drive from the allotment, in good traffic. I'll buy new fruit bushes for the house and try and scrounge a few cuttings from friends.

[Two_Sheds]

absolutely covered in horsetail ... I can start on one end of the plot and by the time I get to the other end, its grown back

It will do: it loves space. It's not a good competitor, and can be controlled by planting taller things around it, and constantly pulling it up.

Our school's wildlife garden is rife with it, but I manage it so that it doesn't take over

before

after planting up with pretties