Horsetail

Mike Litoris

Anyone have any success or even horror stories with this persistent weed?


I dug the back garden about 5-6 years ago, replanted the grass and created new flower beds etc. That summer I noticed this strange xmas tree like plant growing everywhere. I pulled up most of it but the following year it came back with a vengeance. I searched a few sites and found out it was dreaded horsetail.


I tried everything that was suggested with various weedkillers, squashing it before treating, vinegar etc but nothing worked. Every year it came back as bad as ever.


I always ignored the "keep pulling it and eventually it will go" and was resigned to the whole "you just have to learn to live with it". So after two years of being totally defeated by it I started checking every day during the summer. I didn't really mind doing this after the first major weeding of the year as they're easy to spot it only took about 5 minutes.


By last year it was down to a couple a week. The battle was almost won. I cant even start to explain the feeling of victory I felt. I'm hoping this year it even less but it wont stop me checking for them religiously. I actually enjoying catching the little ******s as they're about the sprout.

DANNY2014

Most weeds including this don't tend to like boiling water if you've only a few to get rid of otherwise ya be boiling kettles to beat the band... Horrible weed though came to us about 6 year back and it's everywhere...

lazybones32

12.5 mls of Gallup 360 + 6mls of Grazon 90 per litre of water will kill horsetails (and everything else).

pwurple

Oh I LOVE horsetails! They are so prehistoric, one of the most important plants from the Palaeozoic time. A living fossil, they were around the time of the dinosaurs.

Did you know they are almost completely extinct except for that one surviving genus? It procreates by spores rather than seeds... so like a fern rather than a plant.




Anyway, any plant in the wrong place is a weed, so pulling them up is the way to go alright. Good luck!