I had a problem with this growing around an old pond when I moved in and used SBK on it. It turned black and stank for a bit but came back. My next door neighbour brought his mechanical digger round and filled the pond in and this seems to have seen it off apart from bits peeking through the gaps in the paving stones that surrounded it. I just keep weed-hooking it at the moment until we get new paving laid. A Google says that its roots can be 7 feet deep OMG!!
They say planting turnips deters it. I assume continually cutting it will kill it. I have field bindweed reappearing after four years of cutting, it is weakening, and disappearing gradually. The problem is the extensive storage roots that go down many metres. Horse tail will be worse.
Don't know what help this is but when I was trying to get rid of this I was told you'd never fully eradicate this weed as it was from the dinasor age. So don't waste a fortune trying to get rid.
It's also supposed to contain silica so is brilliant for pans. My first thought was of selling handfulls of the stuff , make a quick buck !
Didnt someone post an article once which said alkaline soil deters horsetail/marestail (its called mares tail here) .
I have NEVER used a chemical treatment on any plant, but would consider it for this, i suspect the best way to keep it under control is a mixture of constantly digging it up/ cutting its head off and weedkiller...good luck!
I just wanted to bump this topic if that is at all possible.
After posting the initial 'growth' in my garden, everyone clearly agreed it was marestail / horsetail.
I did some research and following an earlier post, I decided to give Kurtail a try (purchased from Pro green i believe). It's not cheap, c£45 delivered.
I give it a quick spray around 5 days ago, with the first day suffering no rainfall. The stuff appears to have worked quite well. Most of the areas that were sprayed now show signs of dying (black in colour and wilting).
I was fortunate, if I can say that, because the weed grew underneath a stoned area of my garden, so no other plant life would have been affected.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this incase anyone else had the same issue. I will report back to the contrary if I see any adverse effects, however so far there has been one or two heads cropping up whereas before it was 10+ a day.
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I had a problem with this growing around an old pond when I moved in and used SBK on it. It turned black and stank for a bit but came back. My next door neighbour brought his mechanical digger round and filled the pond in and this seems to have seen it off apart from bits peeking through the gaps in the paving stones that surrounded it. I just keep weed-hooking it at the moment until we get new paving laid. A Google says that its roots can be 7 feet deep OMG!!
Landgirl100, no need to apologise.
They say planting turnips deters it. I assume continually cutting it will kill it. I have field bindweed reappearing after four years of cutting, it is weakening, and disappearing gradually. The problem is the extensive storage roots that go down many metres. Horse tail will be worse.
Ive a mindfull off useless information !
Don't know what help this is but when I was trying to get rid of this I was told you'd never fully eradicate this weed as it was from the dinasor age. So don't waste a fortune trying to get rid.
It's also supposed to contain silica so is brilliant for pans. My first thought was of selling handfulls of the stuff , make a quick buck !
I have NEVER used a chemical treatment on any plant, but would consider it for this, i suspect the best way to keep it under control is a mixture of constantly digging it up/ cutting its head off and weedkiller...good luck!
If this is any consolation, I passed an allotment today and saw Horse Tail and Ground Elder.
So there we go!
Hi all,
I just wanted to bump this topic if that is at all possible.
After posting the initial 'growth' in my garden, everyone clearly agreed it was marestail / horsetail.
I did some research and following an earlier post, I decided to give Kurtail a try (purchased from Pro green i believe). It's not cheap, c£45 delivered.
I give it a quick spray around 5 days ago, with the first day suffering no rainfall. The stuff appears to have worked quite well. Most of the areas that were sprayed now show signs of dying (black in colour and wilting).
I was fortunate, if I can say that, because the weed grew underneath a stoned area of my garden, so no other plant life would have been affected.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this incase anyone else had the same issue. I will report back to the contrary if I see any adverse effects, however so far there has been one or two heads cropping up whereas before it was 10+ a day.
The weeds that were sprayed are certainly going!
Hope this helps.
Thought I'd update too - there are many heads coming up in what I've now allocated to herbs
bummer!
I have never used Kurtail but isn't it a defoliant rather than a root killer? I would use glyphosate myself.
What a super picture of the spore production machinery! Wish I had one like it when I blogged about this weed last year!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvC4pOb7MhE
The link is to a most fantastic fun video of horsetail spores dancing!