[Old Shep]

Hi we have friends with an alotment and they have a dreadful problem with Mare's tail.  They double dig and pull up all they can and try to pick out all the bits of root, but it still comes back with a vengeance.  Does anyone have any advice please (short of just moving to a different alotment!)

[doganjo]

I enlarged my chicken run and ether was loads of the horrid stuff in that bit - it's ALL gone.  I can't believe it.  I don't know if they have eaten it or just scraked it up, but it has definitely gone!

[bloomer]

glyphosate


you have to crush the stems first as they are water proof


 repeat every 4-6 weeks over a whole season eventually the roots will die!!!

[lachlanandmarcus]

It's pretty difficult, it's unchanged since prehistoric times as its system of resisting clearance is so good!


But chickens and or glysophate are the best chance.


I have ground elder instead...:-(

[Fleecewife]

Ground Elder is much worse than Mare's Tail.  A long time ago we had an allotment with Mare's Tail and eventually after repeatedly trying to remove it by digging (we don't use chemicals) we gave up, but found that it didn't seem to bother the crops much.
Here we have Ground Elder and it's dastardly although luckily it hasn't reached the veg garden yet.  A possible way to get rid of Ground Elder is to take the soil off to a depth of a foot, then compost it for a couple of years in a covered heap.   But who can do that on a veg patch scale 
 
The roots of Mare's Tail go down for miles so it's impossible to dig it all out.  It's like Large Bindweed which we had at that allotment too, roots go down forever....and we had New Zealand Flatworm.....

[Simon O]

We had it on our allotment when we started on it and still had it there 25 years later when we left the allotment last year. As Fleecewife says it does not stop you growing things. Glyphosate has some activity on it and repeated use probably would help. It is supposed to help to bruise the leaves of the mare's tail in some way before application of the glyphosate as it absorbs better. You definitely cannot dig it out. We mainly used to pull it off every time one came through. It was always in the allotments around ours anyway so unless everyone gets rid of it it is always going to come back, and it'll be in the ground around allotments and the hedges etc

[Old Shep]

thanks everyone, will pass your advice on   

[Steph Hen]

One thing that may help but I found odd; for years, our neighbours had a garden full of mares' tail, but our garden remained clear. Then they took down the privit hedge and replaced with a big fence and by next summer it had spread well and truely accross the perimeter and we never erradicated it (but mum didn't like using chemicals). I'm not suggesting you plant the whole thing with privit, but maybe once you've got it under control, if its coming from somewhere, this may stop it comming back..?

[Lesley Silvester]

I have ground elder AND bindweed in my garden, and the buttercups are trying to get a hold. I don't use chemicals so it's a case of forever pulling them up. The bindweed grows under concrete so I can;t dig it all out and the ground elder is among the roots of the hedge so ditto. {sigh}

[hexhammeasure]

I'm conducting an experiment with a victorian soil sterilising method to see if it kills mares tail - not particularly green but if it works, and doesnt affect the growing,  I will start at the edges and work in over in the hope of being tail free for a few years

[AndynJ]

Sorry I thought I'd posted here kurtail from progreen.co.uk worth the money

[Mammyshaz]

Like MGM I don't use chemicals. Over the years I've weeded them out by hand. There are still the odd ones popping up but very few and far.  Just very vigilant in digging down to pull up the whole plant ( or as much as possible without landing in Australia  ) remember every little green needle that snaps off will grow so care when digging.

[AndynJ]

Like MGM I don't use chemicals. Over the years I've weeded them out by hand. There are still the odd ones popping up but very few and far.  Just very vigilant in digging down to pull up the whole plant ( or as much as possible without landing in Australia  ) remember every little green needle that snaps off will grow so care when digging.

How much land have you got ?
You can come did weeds out down here if you like (now there's a job for life)

[Mammyshaz]

Not a lot of land. Two allotments so not like I'm digging a field up by hand