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Help with a lawn weed

Andy HayesAndy Hayes Posts: 3
in Problem solving

Hi everyone

i am a very amateur gardener and have a problem with a very tall and rapidly growing weed that is growing in multiple places throughout my lawn. In  a week it seems to grow almost six inches and  when I went away last year for a 2 week holiday there were six or seven that had gown to over a foot almost like little saplings. I pull them out ever week and try if I can to dig up any root that I can find which seem pretty extensive but by the next week they are all growing back. The problem seems to be getting worse. I have just bought the gel weedkiller at you apply to leaves but any other advice anyone has would be very much appreciated as to what they are and how to deal with the problem. The only shrubs I have in my border are a red robin (photania) and a bay treat but those have been there for years and this is a new problem from this year and last year

thanks 

Andy

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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147

    Hello Andy and welcome to the forum image

    When you pull them up, do they come up with their entire root, or do they seem connected to some sort of underground root system? 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Andy HayesAndy Hayes Posts: 3

    I think possibly there may be an underground root system because they seem to have a a tuber or thick main root that seems to snap when you pull it and not lots of little roots. However they all quite away apart upto 20 feet

    image

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147

    Those are suckers of something ............ I think they may be from a Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia' .... notorious for suckering.  It may be some distance away or it may have been felled and the roots have been stimulated by the felling to start producing suckers.

    I would get some SBK brushwood killer and apply it carefully according to the instructions, masking off any other plants around the suckers.   SBK only affects broad leaved weeds so it shouldn't damage your grass.  

    http://weedicide.co.uk/vitax-sbk-brushwood-weed-killer-review/ 

    You may have to do this for several growing seasons until the underground root system capitulates. 

    Good luck image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Andy HayesAndy Hayes Posts: 3

    Thanks so much -you are absolutely right we had a big tree next door felled last year and it was indeed a robinia pseudoacacia  it was absolutely huge hence the reason it was felled

    Doesn't sound as though it is an overnight job 

    v grateful for your advice

    andy 

    ,

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147

    The SBK should do the job ... the roots can only keep going so long if the suckers aren't allowed to develop ....... have you neighbours who might be within the root area ... if so I'd warn them to keep an eye open for the suckers in flower beds etc so they can pull them up and convince the root system that you all mean business image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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