[harry]

i know a large firm of landscape gardeners that claims he has his own brew of poison that kills mares tail and tells me i can look at previous jobs hes done.......its about 130 sq mtrs £250. any comments please

[supplies for smallholders]

Mares Tail is very very difficult to eradicate due mainly to its waxy coating.

Several chemicals will burn-off the tops but it will return in due course.

My personal view is that you should bruise the plant as much as possible by driving repeatedly over it or running a roller over it and then blitz the whole area with either roundup 360 or even better Pitch 540.

If you take up the offer of the gardening firm make sure that you get a written guarantee that the mares tail will not start to grow again next season.

[Sylvia]

You can use an infusion of mare's tail against potato/tomato blight. Bit of a faff as you have to spray every day but worth remembering.

[deepinthewoods]

check hes not using parrafin.

[harry]

no he says its a herbicide in the experiment stages but it has worked on other sites.... my son killed his small patch by rubbing the wax coating of and spraying but he had a little i have loads

[bloomer]

anything of his own concoction used in a public place is illegal, the rules on chemical use in the horticultural industry are strict we have to have certificates and use approved stuff, can he supply COSHH data for his wonder product? will he be insured if it does something it shouldn't like poison your soil indefinitely?


the problem with mares tail are the seeds it dies easy enough with glyphosate but it will be back next year unless you get it before it seeds and even then it takes a few years...

[harry]

the problem with mares tail are the seeds it dies easy enough with glyphosate but it will be back next year unless you get it before it seeds and even then it takes a few years.............. ok so what can i buy at an aggricultural place  so i can kill it during the year i suppose i spray every few weeks,,,and when does it seed, does this stuff do the bisso as of the waxy leaves...... or if i grass the area does constant mowing stop seeding.

[feldar]

We get mares tail in one of our fields and it is extremely hard to irradicate. OH uses roundup but crushes the stems first or uses washing up liquid or similar detergent to break down the waxy coat before putting the roundup on.
He does it in patches and when the plant is still quite young. If it's too big nothing will touch it.

[supplies for smallholders]

........... ok so what can i buy at an aggricultural place  so i can kill it during the year i suppose i spray every few weeks,,,and when does it seed, does this stuff do the bisso as of the waxy leaves...... or if i grass the area does constant mowing stop seeding.

See my post above...

You need to use a product such as this as the roots of mares tail can reach depths of 2 m + and unless you kill the roots it will be back.......

Grassing and constant mowing would help - but you would need to mow very regular to keep the plants very short - after a few seasons of this the plant would starve to death - but its a long term job.

Another "non chemical" option is to fence off the area and fill it with poultry, they would have the same affect as mowing mentioned above - but again long term until the roots die.

[Glebegrower]

Hi
there are specific products available to treat equisetum (maretail)
generally these are only available to licenced sprayers .
they are very effective applied correctly and at the right time .
Kurtail for excample is extremely effective and will give complete control in the right hands
however using his "own brew of poison" is an extremely questionable .what he probably means he applies a combination of herbicides that work .
If you have the means and the skills i would recommend applying KURTAIL or similar and planning on a second treatment of the area next spring .

[harry]

ive just ordered some of ebay.Item number: 320920820934

[Bramblecot]

Good luck Harry.  We struggled for years with it in a garden.   It loves damp ground.  Mowing a grassed area is the easy/cheap answer IMHO

[northfifeduckling]

the garden pages in either observer or guardian only groaned "you better move house" when asked the same question....let us know if it works what you are doing as I also have loads, especially in the greenhouse....

[henchard]

I had quite a bit at my old house (admittedly on light land) but regular applications of Roundup killed it after a while.

[northfifeduckling]

I find that when digging the roots up that they tend to lodge underneath stones and each tiny piece of left in brittle root grows a multiple of stems