Horsetail

EGAR

I moved just before Xmas and was delighted to have a garden now, with a lawn with is framed by a border I planted with roses and fruitbushes. A while back those where popping up all over the place but mostly on the border which I try to keep weedfree:



They were everywhere safe of the lawn. Once they go bigger I realised they are Equisetum arvense, commonly known as the Field Horsetail or Common Horsetail.

My question is: how do I get rid of them? I don't mind a few but I am being invaded by the little buggers.

bbam

this one is a brute to spread and take over...

Some other threads might help you..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055364435&highlight=horsetail

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055899332&highlight=horsetail

ttm

I've knocked it back with glyposhate weed killers (like roundup) by spraying every time it pops up.

Spray early in the morning when the weed is wet with dew and seems to have more effect.

Pics are of the "seed heads/flowers" no point spraying these, wait and spray the green "leaves".

Any other of the chemicals that I know were any good against it have recently been banned.

bbam

The main problem is that it will flourish in flower beds and completly smother the plants out where you can't broadcast spray without killing all plants....
Get on top of it as soon as possible...
I think the key is control rather than eradication..:(

ttm

10 years in one garden and I managed to control it with Roundup I would have sprayed it more times than I think would now be legal, but still never actually got rid of it. When I left that garden the area with "Cats Tail" as it was known locally for some reason had gone from an area covered in it to one with an occasional bit comming up, another 100 years and I might have got rid if it

Take no notice of the descriptions you read of if being a plant of wet areas, I had it growing in bone dry "Bagshot Sand" and the roots went down well over 6ft. In dry conditions its doesn't grow quite as tall and you don't see many of the "fruiting" stems but it still grows a new plant from every bit of root you cut up when trying to dig it out.

Hoeing it off when its raining and the ground is wet is an old gardeners folk law method of control and it does have some merit in that it takes a little longer for the weed to come back.

You can make good pan scrubbers out of the stems, cut a load and tie them together and try it, almost as good as a brillo pad. So maybe you can go into business selling it

Best answer I ever heard for the problem of Equisetum spp's is to move.

oflynno

a simple weedkiller idea,environmentally friendly is table salt.

just pour it on the centre of the weed and leave it a few days.
great for spot treating weeds on the lawn too

ttm

oflynno wrote: »

a simple weedkiller idea,environmentally friendly is table salt.

just pour it on the centre of the weed and leave it a few days.
great for spot treating weeds on the lawn too

And where exactly is the centre of Horsetail, and don't say the arse

Might be OK for weeds with a rosette of leaves and an obvious centre but can't see it doing a thing to help get rid of Horsetail.

oflynno

haha

if you follow the stem of the plant down to the base and salt it there.

now for the bad news,the horsetail is a prehistoric plant so the buggers have survived centuries of trying to be killed off.

ttm

oflynno wrote: »

haha

if you follow the stem of the plant down to the base and salt it there.

now for the bad news,the horsetail is a prehistoric plant so the buggers have survived centuries of trying to be killed off.

Time you've done that you might aswell hoe it off, only effect of the salt is to desiccate the stem, as I said fine on a rosette leafed weed and even better on weeds in the lawn where the competing grass reduces the weeds strength. You are then using sodium chloride like the ferrous sulphate in lawn sand - kills weeds by sitting on the leaves and desiccating the foliage. The prehistoric horsetail if I remember correctly has a "skin" composed of a silica based substance (what glass is made of) which is why people say to bruise the stems before spraying with anything, salt may be even less effective in this case. I found spraying in the morning when the stems were wet with dew more effective as the stems were already wetted and the spray makes good contact and less just runs off.