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Author Topic: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?  (Read 3384 times)

JackandJill

  • Joined Mar 2015
  • Aberareon, Ceredigion
So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« on: July 12, 2017, 01:42:00 pm »
Hi

this is growing and is a large clump of septa plants about 5sqm in our veg garden, i've left it alone since we moved in but thinking its time to do something about it.  Seems to be growing in leaf litter or grass dumping fro prior owner, seems to spread easily and is a bout 75cm high.

So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it? 

thanks as always

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

JackandJill

  • Joined Mar 2015
  • Aberareon, Ceredigion
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2017, 06:41:04 pm »
thanks for this,

oddly this is what the plant next to it in my garden looks like, the leaves look a bit like a dock plant and it was going to be my next post to ask what it is!

The leaves on the one I'm trying to work out are ribbed with white & pink veins any other thoughts?

bj_cardiff

  • Joined Feb 2017
  • Carmarthenshire
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2017, 07:45:44 am »
Looks like himalayan balsam to me. I don't have any on the farm, but I quite like it but a lot of people consider it to be a problem though, it does spread..

kathiejs

  • Joined May 2017
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2017, 08:20:19 am »
Yes, Himalayan Balsam. Highly invasive and ilkegal to grow or allow to grow in the wild - even though it is pretty!

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2017, 10:33:23 am »
Do you have a better, in focus pic of the flowers please?
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

PK

  • Joined Mar 2015
  • West Suffolk
    • Notes from a Suffolk Smallholding
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2017, 01:34:29 pm »
If the photos show the flowers are yet to open up this looks to me to be viburnum bodnatense.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2017, 02:45:00 pm »
My neighbour up north had a lot of Himalayan balsam.  I don't recall the leaves being ribbed like that.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

JackandJill

  • Joined Mar 2015
  • Aberareon, Ceredigion
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2017, 02:59:26 pm »
HI everyone

BJCardiff & KathieJS, I think that could be it.

Fleecewife, I've attached some better pics of the flower.

PK & SallyintNorth, thanks for your thoughts too, I'm no gardner, so you could be right too.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2017, 03:19:47 pm »
Thanks for the clearer pics.  I think PK is correct.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

ddangus

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Angus
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2017, 03:30:42 pm »
Pretty sure this is lesser knotweed Persicaria campunalata ( Synonym Polygonum campunalata). A relatively common Persicaria related to bistort and sometimes mistaken for Japanese knotweed. Himalayan balsam has very different shaped flowers a bit like fancy slippers and these are followed by seedpods that explode on touching.

DD
« Last Edit: July 13, 2017, 03:34:39 pm by ddangus »

JackandJill

  • Joined Mar 2015
  • Aberareon, Ceredigion
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2017, 08:05:12 pm »
thank you everyone for your thoughts on identification, this has really helped, think I need to clear it all back as it is dominating the space right now!

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: So what is it and should I keep it, cut it or spray it?
« Reply #12 on: July 20, 2017, 04:58:10 pm »
I'm on thin ice here (as some will know), but I'll go with ddangus' identification.

 

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