What is this weed?

Philm_12

Does anyone recognise this weed please? Does it respond to weed killer?

macraignil

Philm_12 wrote: »

Does anyone recognise this weed please? Does it respond to weed killer?

It looks like equesetum (also called horsetail) and it is supposed to be difficult to treat with herbicide from what I have read. It prefers damp soil and spreads by spores instead of seed. If you dig the area you will probably find long lengths of black underground parts of the plant that can go down fairly deep in the soil. The green bits you can see in the photo will regrow from these underground bits even when the top growth has been killed by a weed killer according to people writing on this forum. If the area continues to be damp you would also likely get it arriving again when spores travel from any plants surviving nearby.



I do not use weedkiller chemicals myself. My parent's back garden was a good place for it to grow as it was a heavy clay soil and was down hill from higher ground and so always had some dampness in the soil. The water table was reaching the surface at times of heavy rain. I dug a trench along the top of the garden and another through the middle and ran pipes to drain the soil where horsetail was a problem and then planted fruit trees and shrubs and strong growing herbs like rosemary and lemon balm and with a bit of weeding found it is no longer a problem in the area. When I did see another piece re-sprout I would use a trowel to help me follow back the black underground bit as far as I could and so remove as much of it as possible. The material dug out could be left dry out and die on the surface. Even if you don't get all of the underground bit out the energy it needs comes from the green growth so as long as this is regularly removed and there are plants that will compete with it I found it becomes less and less of a problem. I also added lots of manure to the area to improve the soil structure so that and the roots of what I planted mean the drains I put in don't seem to be necessary any more as the soil is no longer as compacted and is more free draining.

my3cents

Equisetum arvense Field Horsetail although I wrongly call is Mares Tail because that what it was know as in one place I worked in the UK.

That strip that looks to be alongside a shed I'd spray with glyphosate as it might help hold back any that may be rooted under the shed.

Philm_12

Thanks for the helpful info. I have pulled most of it today which will at least slow it down. It is not actually under the shed. Meantime, my better half is spraying vinegar on a long patch of it which along the boundary of our neighbour’s field. The neighbour told her that it is the only thing that works. Time will tell !!

my3cents

Philm_12 wrote: »

Thanks for the helpful info. I have pulled most of it today which will at least slow it down. It is not actually under the shed. Meantime, my better half is spraying vinegar on a long patch of it which along the boundary of our neighbour’s field. The neighbour told her that it is the only thing that works. Time will tell !!

Vinegar burns off the stems (Horse Tail doesn't have leaves as such) which is about as good as pulling it.