Root regrowth

[WendyC]

I am painstakingly digging over my new plot, with about 6-7 square metres to go. It has taken me all winter as I am trying to remove any scrap of root I can find. I am going on the principle that if it's there now it's a perennial and needs to go. However now I have nearly finished I wondered whether I need be so fussy. These weeds I know do regrow from roots:
Dandelion
Dock
Bindweed
Couch grass

What about nettles ( pretty yellow roots) or buttercups? Buttercups I know propagate from runners like strawberries, so as long as I removed the central shoots I am hoping that would do it.
Any thoughts?

[roitelet]

Nettles will come back if you don't remove all the roots. Creeping buttercup won't if you get it all out but you ay still get seedlings. Creeping thistle will return. It is always better to get all the roots out and you should only need to do it once then all you have to deal with is the seedlings.

[21up]

Hi WendyC
dig in i started mine in OCT 14 you could not see over it
i got 12 bags of wick roots out
it is clear now and some bits will come back
But that will come out easily

[Kristen]

However now I have nearly finished I wondered whether I need be so fussy.

having been that fussy you will have next to zero weeds coming back from roots, those that do will come from such small pieces that once removed they will be gone. That will leave you with weeds-from-seeds, easy to hoe off, so I think your investment will pay dividends. However, you will have to maintain a clean-patch so that no returning weeds get enough strength to get a foothold ... but that too will become easier with time (initially there will be a large bank of seeds in the soil which will readily germinate in the nicely cultivated earth ... but some will germinated in years to come too (along with new seed that gets blown in, but that will be less than you have in the seed-bank at the start)

Definitely a worthwhile initial-effort investment IMHO

[WendyC]

I think I will carry on as I am. I've no doubt I will have missed bits and then there's the weed seeds to germinate but I must have dented the population some what. Last year the plot was a sea of dandelions so no doubt they will be raring to go.

[Martin H]

Well done Wendy. Like Kristen says it gets easier from here on. If you're like me, there will be times when you doubt yourself - e.g. when the beds are a green sea of weed seedlings punctuated by spears of couch grass and bindweed growing from bits of root that you somehow missed - but it looks worse than it is and the regrowth really is easy to deal with. Just chop off the seedlings and regrowth, then fork out the missed roots after harvest.

I'd be looking to avoid direct sowing things where possible for this season though. Start things off in trays or modules if you can to give them a head start against the competition.