The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: philcaegrug on August 18, 2014, 05:52:39 pm

Title: Mares' Tail
Post by: philcaegrug on August 18, 2014, 05:52:39 pm

I've got some of this cropping up I think it came in with some hardcore a while back.  I've tried spraying with Roundup which knocks it back but new shoots pop up nearby.  Is there something I can use to kill it completely or do I pull it as soon as shoots appear?

Title: Re: Mares' Tail
Post by: bloomer on August 18, 2014, 06:43:52 pm

You have to bruise the stems and spray with round up with a drop of washing up liqued added, keep repeating as often as you find new growth it can take months to beat it, everytime youu give it a chance the root system just gets bigger and gets harder to kill!!!

Title: Re: Mares' Tail
Post by: Marches Farmer on August 18, 2014, 06:55:48 pm

Check it daily!  Roots are extremely persistent and run very deep.

Title: Re: Mares' Tail
Post by: Rosemary on August 18, 2014, 08:13:51 pm

We don't get it where the hens are  :)

Title: Re: Mares' Tail
Post by: doganjo on August 18, 2014, 08:56:18 pm

Living beside a railway line I had loads of it - but I set the hounds chooks on it! So it is no more  :excited: :excited: :excited:

Title: Re: Mares' Tail
Post by: Steph Hen on August 18, 2014, 09:47:25 pm

A Privit hedge is an effective boundary to mares tail if that's of use to anyone..?

Title: Re: Mares' Tail
Post by: harry on August 19, 2014, 08:37:40 pm

look for KURTAIL on ebay i use it but you have to keep at it especially in autumn as it sort of seeds by spoures then so you have to make sure theres nothing nice and green to seed / spoure...... but if you neighbour has it then everyone has to attack it...just spray it direct no need to bruise it,,, it turns black in 3 days.... forget pulling it you are wasting your time

Title: Re: Mares' Tail
Post by: Carse Goodlifers on August 24, 2014, 06:39:44 pm

Marestail is a prehistoric weed.
I did hear that it was placed along railway lines and bankings to help secure the land under the lines.
Grave diggers have found it 6ft down.
Its like couch grass - leave a small 1cm section and you have a new plant.
And never put it on the compost heap - bin or burn it.

At our old allotment site one plot was covered in 2 layers of carpet to stop the marestail.  It had been down for 2 yrs?  As soon as it was lifted it was growing like mad.

Its very difficult to get rid of completely.  To my knowledge there is no chemicals on the professional market that will kill it for ever from a site - it will inevitably always come back.

I have heard that it is poisonous to stock too - horses anyway.  Not sure about sheep or cattle.