Apparently spraying at the wrong time HELPS horse tail by removing competition. Spray at the right time for three years and it goes. Plant lots of plants, and it is restricted by competition.
I moved to a property 3 years ago and soon discovered I had MaresTail, something I had never experienced as a gardener before. The person who lived here before me laid the garden to lawn and never noticed it as she would have cut it every time she cut the lawn. Not knowing it was lurking, I got rid of all the lawns in favour of beds and paths.
I have used Kurtail on it since the first summer - this is now its third. I was almost terrified to use it at first, given all the warnings, but I certainly haven't got a desert like garden or any dead people since I began. I'm still on the first bottle of Kurtail as you dilute it quite a lot, so although it's dear to begin with it does the trick!
When I say it does the trick, it does NOT do what it appears to do on the YouTube video - I reckon he must have used it undiluted to get that effect, but it does keep popping back less each year and I just give it a spray. It's almost an old friend now - I said "hello" to my first piece last week! The frond are male and the little sticking up things are the females - I call them the "mummys" and go round looking hard for them because if there's no mummys, there can't be any babies!
Enjoy - you might win the battle but you won't win the war!
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I found this interesting:
http://www.nodiggardener.co.uk/2015/03/control-of-marestail-and-horsetail.html
Apparently spraying at the wrong time HELPS horse tail by removing competition. Spray at the right time for three years and it goes. Plant lots of plants, and it is restricted by competition.
I moved to a property 3 years ago and soon discovered I had MaresTail, something I had never experienced as a gardener before. The person who lived here before me laid the garden to lawn and never noticed it as she would have cut it every time she cut the lawn. Not knowing it was lurking, I got rid of all the lawns in favour of beds and paths.
I have used Kurtail on it since the first summer - this is now its third. I was almost terrified to use it at first, given all the warnings, but I certainly haven't got a desert like garden or any dead people since I began. I'm still on the first bottle of Kurtail as you dilute it quite a lot, so although it's dear to begin with it does the trick!
When I say it does the trick, it does NOT do what it appears to do on the YouTube video - I reckon he must have used it undiluted to get that effect, but it does keep popping back less each year and I just give it a spray. It's almost an old friend now - I said "hello" to my first piece last week! The frond are male and the little sticking up things are the females - I call them the "mummys" and go round looking hard for them because if there's no mummys, there can't be any babies!
Enjoy - you might win the battle but you won't win the war!