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advice on horrsetail
suzanne1953
Posts: 14
I was having a stroll around my garden this morning and I noticed these odd looking shoots comeing up every where so I looked it up on the web and its the dreaded horsetail ,ive never had this weed before and we have only had the garden a few months and we have done a lot of work on it help please
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Oh dear, I have it on my allotment. Not much you can do as it grows so deep underground. The man on the plot next to me weed killed his last year but its made no difference
Horsetail is a very persistent perennial and as its roots go down metres under the soil surface it is almost impossible to eradicate. Even the smallest piece broken off the main plant can regenerate. You can use a systemic weed killer making sure you crush the stems so that the weed killer is absorbed but if the horsetail is growing in a lawn or flower bed this is not an option. Regular mowing of grass weakens it. I have lived in my house for 33 years and I have still not got rid of it. I do weed it out the minute I see it and on my drive I use the weed killer I mentioned above but I have resigned myself to living with it
I believe that if you completely cover the ground with a weed resistant membrane and leave it for several years so light is excluded it will eventually give up the ghost but which gardener can do that!
Keep pulling it up and although you won't eradicate it, you will keep it under control.
Weed killer may help, but only if you bruise the stems first.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
thank you for your help its in a large flower bed when we moved in it was badly neglected so me and hubby worked very hard to put it right .I will keep pulling it up I have a Labrador and I feed the birds so im a bit afraid to use weed killer thanks again
You get 2 stones and mush the stems between them and then apply a weedkiller, otherwise it will not work. They have a skin of silica around them that was traditionally used to clean pots, which shows how impenetrable it is.
"Old wives tale" ( sorry ladies)... Pick it on a Sunday, that is, every Sunday. OK for small infestations only, but you will weaken it to death eventually.
I think your problem is that it may be in neighbouring land in which case you can only really keep cutting it back. If it is only on your land, Kurtail is said to work. Someone told me it can survive under cover five years at least. I have field bindweed, I have been picking it at the first sign of shoots for four years, and it is weakening. I know the roots are very deep and extensive, you should have seen how much roo I pulled out! Don't dig out horsetail roots, it is said to be a good way to spread it.