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Couch grass on the allotment
plot52
Posts: 15
I have recently taken on an allotment which for a long time was abandoned. It is about 200 sqm and is covered in a thick and deep mat of couch. Pic shows plot after strimming and brushcutting
This pic shows how much couch root comes out of a small trench about 3ft x 18in x 10in
I am combining digging out - backbreaking and takes ages (3 hours to clear less than 1sqm ) - with smothering - thick mulch of wet cardboard and wood chips.
How long will it take under the mulch before I can be sure all the couch is dead? I expect I will still have to dig it out though? Or would you just cultivate on top with compost and new soil?
All advice and suggestions very very welcome 
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Posts
Couch is best if it is forked out, you need to get all the bits, any broken off bits will regrow, so chopping it with a spade is not good.
I know it's not everyone's preferred method, but I'd let it start growing and spray with glyphosate.
I'd bet my eye teeth you'll never , ever dig out every bit.
Mulching under cardboard won't work either IMHO.
I agree with Hosta ... mulching will never get rid of couch grass. Spray with glyphosate as soon as it's growing strongly in the spring.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Mulching will just encourage it in my experience. Hoeing doesn't work as any bits left in the soil turn into new plants. I agree with Hosta and Dove - spray with a systemic weedkiller or else fork over the ground to a good depth and leave every bit of root you find on a sheet of plastic to dry out completely so it can't regrow.
I don't like chemicals, but in this case, you haven't much choice. Couch grass is almost immortal and digging out an area that size could take the rest of your life!
Thanks you all Hosta, Obelixx, Dovefromabove and Posy for your helpful feedback.
Gyphosate was pretty much the very reluctant conclusion I had come to, I just wanted to see if there were any other options out there. I have been forking our every bit I can find to a double depth, but I know there will be bits left.
Useful advice about mulching, I was led to believe that smothering it with cardboard and chipped bark might work after a couple of years, but Glyphosate it is - I quote agree Posy, it WOULD take the rest of my life! I feel somewhat reassured by all your supportive comments, people can get very sanctimonious about Glyphosate.
I have done quite a lot of research about the effects of it and it seems to me that as long as it is applied in the correct concentration and not allowed to get into water (ponds etc) it doesn't actually harm the soil microbes, fungi or invertebrates (the main problem is agricultural misuse). I'll just keep on forking out what I can until March when it should all start to grow like topsy!
plot 52 says:
" people can get very sanctimonious about Glyphosate."
I couldn't agree more.
Until I read this "people can get very sanctimonious about Glyphosate." I was going to tell you how to get rid of the weed without destroying your health, but after that, I really don't feel like it.
I love it! So die in pain, glyphosate users, You who have named me Sanctimonious. And nation shall speak peace unto nation...I wonder why that didn't happen.
Posy , nobody has "named" anyone.