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Mares tail

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  • happymarionhappymarion Posts: 4,591

    Equisetum was planted for illustration in the Evolutionary Dell of Bristol Univ. Botanic Garden and soon got out of hand.  To stop it spreading into the next garden which is the Mediterranean Bank one of the gardeners has just dug out a massive long ditch about four feet deep it looks like..  A barrier to keep the mares;tail out will be going in.  It has been going since well before flowering plants or even ferns so is a great survivor.  You are not alone.  I am lucky as it is not endemic in my district but if I did have a garden with it in I would start by digging ditches and putting in barriers, a bed at a time.  It has no spores or seeds so if you clean the beds inside the barriers it will not return there.  

  • I have tried injecting glyphosate directly with needles and found it is quite hard to get the needles and fluid in. I ended up digging down in my trenches a couple of foot and then as they start to come through pull them out, this does seem to weaken them.

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    happymarion wrote (see)

    .........  It has no spores or seeds so if you clean the beds inside the barriers it will not return there.  

     

     

    I wish it didn't have spores, but I'm afraid it does - the fruiting body looks like this and appears in the spring - cut down/pull up and bag and bin immediately you see them.

    image

     


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    Yes - those are the real issue if they appear. Once they 'explode' the problem's a lot worse. image

    I had them at a rented property which was rife with mare's tail. Fortunately, I was able to keep it at bay as it was a small garden and mainly paved. More like a car park really image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    ...and a four-foot trench probably isn't deep enough.  I was talking to a grave digger (actually he was quite cheerful) who said that he regularly finds the 'roots' six feet under, and I've heard that they can go down as deep as ten feet.  Or was it metres?

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Metres Steve!

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • I have found that the only effective membrane is Terram 1000 geotextile as used by car park builders for weed suppression and railway engineers for ground stabilisation. It is a heavy duty non-woven white fabric which mares tail will not penetrate.

  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    I should think sheet steel would do the job.   Maybe.

  • GWRSGWRS Posts: 8,478

    Sorry , we have a problem on our allottment site and the association had bought some   Special weed killer and so far it seems to be working ! Fingers crossed for next spring , I am sure we have not got it all but making a difference and perhaps after a couple year we might have got on top of it ,  or if lucky goy tid of it image

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