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unknown red stemmed weed help?
anton
Posts: 20
Hi All, I've recently moved house and the back garden is teeming with a weed/plant I've never seen before. It has taken hold in the lawn, the plant beds and also between some paving. I've tried using online identifiers which draw a blank and have spent hours trawling through images. It has thick stems of which some are red, the stems are hairy as are the leaves. The leaves are roughly 10cm long and look like a cross between a maple leaf with the lobed sort of effect of a dandelion leaf. It appear the bigger the weed/plant gets the more dandelion like the leaf gets. It seems to grow about 50cm tall and almost crawls across the floor. I haven't had flowers appear as yet but it's probably abit early. it is taking about 6 to 8 applications of weed killer to even make a dent in the weed/plant. If anyone can help identify the weed/plant I would greatly appreciate it. Below are a few links to the pictures. Thanks https://www.dropbox.com/sc/x0vam05o2ku00t9/AACltnW0cuZq5QvnZoC_CZnHa
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ive never seen that before anton but i'm sure someone will be along to tell you
tetley if you copy and paste the link it will show you the photos
Hi Anton - that looks like Common Hogweed to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_sphondylium
If I'm right the leaf stalks should have a groove down them.
As children we picked loads of it for our pet rabbits. It's a common roadside weed and is often gathered by foragers http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/?page_id=948
What sort of weedkiller are you using? It's usually pretty easily dealt with using glyphosate - but you need to bruise the leaves before spraying, then wait until the leaves turn brown before pulling the plants up - that can sometimes take two or three weeks - that way the chemicals will have got back to the roots and killed them.
I imagine that the garden has been neglected for a couple of years and hogweed has been allowed to flower and seed - if you don't allow it to do that you'll get rid of it relatively easily.
Good luck.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The weedkiller I'm using is roundup fast action.I think the problem is that I've just been spraying the leaves and then also saturating the point at which the stems emerge.
I'll have a go at bruising them first and spraying again, the pictures are after 9 days and 4 applications. Hopefully it uses less weed killer too haha.
Yeah the garden is a little neglected, thank you for your help its put my mind at rest
It's the leaves that will absorb the weedkiller and they absorb more when they're growing fast and slightly bruised. You will beat it - don't worry! Of course, there may be a few more appear over the next few springs, but now you know what to look out for you can spray them individually as they appear and that'll sort it out.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
That's one of my weeds, b.........y stuff
In the sticks near Peterborough
It took 2 weeks before my lawn started showing the effects of glyphosate. I was intending to renovate and reseed. So wait a bit longer, it may well be working.
Aha sounds good to me, I'm gonna get bruising and spraying tonight after work, yeah I'm sure I will, it's easier when you know what it is, thanks for your help again.
Leifuk
I will bare it in mind. It does say it can take 2 weeks I think I was just getting paranoid as I didn't know what it was and it was spreading.
Thanks everyone for your help
You do need to let leaves grow well before you spray. The weedkiller is absorbed through growing leaves
I don't know the weedkiller you mention but those don't look as though they've had a dose of systemic weedkiller. Some of the quick action ones work very quickly and annual weeds are dead as a dodo. Perennials need glyphosate or a brushwood killer like SBK. There may be other chemicals that aslo work but forget quick acting, that's not going to work
In the sticks near Peterborough