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Is this nostoc? And how to get rid of it....

OopsadaizyOopsadaizy Posts: 1
edited May 2023 in Problem solving
I have a large garden that is very overgrown. I have found this horrible slimy stuff I  think is Nostoc and want to know how to get rid of it. 
I have a lot of concreted area with an old inspection pit (I think this is what it was) very overgrown conifers at the bottom of the garden that where too big when I moved in but was told by the council that they would trim the trees because it is their property and a council owned health building is on the other side. Nothing was done about the trees despite letter writing and pleads for help to get them more manageable.

( I had a friend come to trim them and they did the best they could but same problem again and twice more to be trimmed by others who I could get to help. Including gypsies who charged me a fortune and said they would take the branches away and went with me to the bank to get the money to pay them. I found when I went to inspect the trees that they had just stuffed the branches back into the hedge). The other side have  never cut the trees so it looked trimmed my side but with huge branches on the other side that I can't reach...so there is lots of shade due to the trees.
The slimy stuff is coming from the pit and spreading over the garden like lava...really weird.
I thought at first it was frog spawn but they wouldn't lay it on the concrete.
The garden is too big for me and I don't have money to pay for expensive work or someone to maintain the garden for me.
I have been scraping the stuff up into piles but don't know what to do with it...I don't want to put in in the garden waste bin as it might contaminate the compost and spread to other gardens. Any advice greatly appreciated
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Posts

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited May 2023
    Yes it is.  Plenty of threads on the theme this time last year.  Try and find them/

    I find watering with Iron of Sulphate solution ( tbs in 1.5 gal water) is effective, but can stain surfaces brown. Bleach (sodium hypochlorite 10% - 5% may be OK) as a spray.  Use thin bleach, thick would work, but wouldn't spray.

    Use chemicals carefully.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Ah yes @bede, one moment you are telling us that you like to let nature flourish, but you are soon back to the chemicals. Leopards and spots.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @punkdoc Do you know much about nostoc? I understand that is a very interesting natural substance?
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    edited May 2023
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/search?Search=Nostoc

    This post from member @Margaret Ibbs back in 2016 seemed very popular and effective. 


    "I have a driveway 20' X 12' and covered with stone chipping. I have used Dri Pak Fine Soda Crystals 1 kg which I dissolved in hot water in a 10ltr watering can and then filled to the top with cold water. For this area I used 3 X cans and a fine rose to spray the whole area. I repeated this about 2 weeks later and now the whole area is clear.  Cheap, easy and safe."

     

  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Not a lot, but I do know that it can have a symbiotic relationship with plants, providing nitrogen for them, in return for sugars, so yes fascinating.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • Winston_The_Gravity_ManWinston_The_Gravity_Man Posts: 263
    One way to kill a tree (it takes a while, mind) is to cut a complete ring of bark, cambium, and bast from around the trunk.  That'll stop sap rising and will eventually kill the tree .... or so I'm told !  ;)
    When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Yes, the B@$tard builders did it to a 170 year old atlas cedar next to us so that it wouldn't get a TPO.  Two years looking sick, then dropped all its needles.  It has taken them three days to take it down.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Sorry, bit off topic.

    Nostoc, also known as star jelly, troll’s butter, spit of moon, fallen star, witch's butter, and witch’s jelly, is the most common genus of cyanobacteria found in various environments that may form colonies composed of filaments of moniliform cells in a gelatinous sheath of polysaccharides.

    I think I like Trolls butter best.

  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    @fidgetbones that's hideous! I know lots of builders 'accidentally' cut down trees with a PO. Nothing ever happens about it though. 😢
  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    I have a big patch of it on the drive in summer. I didn't know it was so interesting!

    https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/319815-Nostoc-commune
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