The curse of the Japanese Knotweed (jk)

elantan

hey all,

the jk has made it into the garden ... arrrggghhhh ... i am treating it with glysophate as best as i can but have had to admit defeat in several areas , i need to remove some raspberry canes and some rhubabrb so that i can treat the full area ... i understand that it will take me several years to complete the treatment and honestly am not looking forward to it,

my husband is annoyed that i have spent money on the garden and have been unable to get much out of it ( due to the jk i will not eat anything that has been anywhere near any chemicals) , he has suggested that i transplant the raspberries and the rhubarb and anything else that is liable to get in the way of treating the jk, i am unsure whether i want to transplant it tbh, i know that even 1cm of the dreaded stuff can take root so am concerned about spreading the jk to another area of the garden ( i want to try and contain it as much as possible)

i really want to do so much with the garden but i fear that it is going to take me several years of dealing with it and in doing so i may loose patience with actually doing anything i want to do.

we may realistically never get the problem solved, this is due to only myself and one other neighbour dealing with the issue and the other neighbours burying their heads in the sand regarding it, my neighbour and myself have kindve got a 6 ft or so boundary outside our gardens that we are trying to stay on top of ( obviously though it has gotten into both our gardens)

the people that own the land where it seems to be origonating from are unreachableit's like they have gone up in a puff of smoke, so they are no good,

anyone got any advice? should i try and transplant the raspberries etc or just accept they will be yet more casualties in the battle against jk?

thanks for reading

ceridwen

Sorry to hear about this problem - as I've read JUST how bad it can be:eek::eek:.

Maybe you need to show the neighbours who arent concerned about photos of how much it has wrecked other buildings and then they might comprehend just what you are on about?

So - my suggestion is to show these neighbours some photos of what it could do to their properties and info. as to how fast it spreads on the one hand

and - get your own back and eat the darn stuff on the other hand - ie the stems are edible and I gather taste much like rhubarb on the other hand.

Personally - I'm in the category that it would never get anywhere near my house (thank goodness!) and looking out for some to try out as a rhubarb substitute on the other hand and I still havent found any locally (despite months of looking for it). I DO know that I must take utmost care not to leave so much as a trace of it anywhere because of what a pest it is and am bearing in mind the comment I read somewhere recently about a forager boiling up leftover odd bits of it to destroy its ability to "grow on" before they disposed of it and intend to do the same (I imagine "nuking" it in a microwave for some time would have the same effect???? - considering that microwave cooking destroys the Life Force in food even when we DONT want it to as I understand it).

forgotmyname

Pretty sure you can report this to the council or enviromental health, It needs to be sorted fully. You doing your bit
wont work if a neighbour has it and does nothing.

elantan

ceridwen wrote: »

Sorry to hear about this problem - as I've read JUST how bad it can be:eek::eek:.

Maybe you need to show the neighbours who arent concerned about photos of how much it has wrecked other buildings and then they might comprehend just what you are on about?

So - my suggestion is to show these neighbours some photos of what it could do to their properties and info. as to how fast it spreads on the one hand

and - get your own back and eat the darn stuff on the other hand - ie the stems are edible and I gather taste much like rhubarb on the other hand.

Personally - I'm in the category that it would never get anywhere near my house (thank goodness!) and looking out for some to try out as a rhubarb substitute on the other hand and I still havent found any locally (despite months of looking for it). I DO know that I must take utmost care not to leave so much as a trace of it anywhere because of what a pest it is and am bearing in mind the comment I read somewhere recently about a forager boiling up leftover odd bits of it to destroy its ability to "grow on" before they disposed of it and intend to do the same (I imagine "nuking" it in a microwave for some time would have the same effect???? - considering that microwave cooking destroys the Life Force in food even when we DONT want it to as I understand it).

sadly we have already informed the neighbours exactly what it does ... they dont seem to care ... i think maybe when it is sitting in their living room waving to them going see told you we would arrive then maybe then they will do something ... it also doesnt really solve the problem as the land that it is orginating from no one can seem to find them ... hudini was never as good at hiding as this lot ... many have tried to get a hold of them ( to buy the land so they can build houses on it) but none have managed

jk can believe it or not survive fire ... it has been found to grown in active volcanoes . nuking in a micro i dont think would work ... in order for us to eat it we need to let it grow .. that is NOT and option ... it is virulent spreads faster than anything i have seen for a long long time .. three years ago it was no where near out property we have been tackling it for two years before it even got to our property and now it has invaded it ... thankfully it is till about 30ft from the house... we have to draw a line and not allow to it get any further

thanks for the suggestions though

emiff6

That's absolutely the worst rotten luck a gardener could have, elantan, you're in for a long battle. I would deffo contact the council about the untraceable owners - they will find them or treat the land themselves, or hire a company to do it.

Also take a look at this website because apparently you can get help with the costs of dealing with JK. (Edit: Might just be for companies, but worth looking into.)

Apparently the best way to poison it is not to spray it, but to cut off the stem about a foot from the ground and pour weedkiller down into the hollow stem. That way all the weedkiller goes inside the plant, with least harm to anything else. The professionals add a red dye so they can see which stems they've done, you could use food colouring I guess. It's laborious, but it's going to be a laborious job anyway.

It's a funny thing - on the edge of the playing fields near us, among the bank of nettles and brambles, is a patch of what I'm pretty sure is knotweed. It has been there for at least 10 years, has never been touched in any way, and has never spread anywhere else, or got any bigger. It is the only JK I have seen within 10 miles of us.
It grows up, it flowers, it dies down. I am considering the theory that the more you cut it the more it spreads and because this is untouched, it is staying put. That's why I haven't pointed it out to anyone. I reckon as soon as someone tries to kill it off, it's going to spread like wildfire.

Wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted.

elantan

forgotmyname wrote: »

Pretty sure you can report this to the council or enviromental health, It needs to be sorted fully. You doing your bit
wont work if a neighbour has it and does nothing.

there are legal laws that ensure it is dealt with ... try getting the council to do their job though ... i have tried the biodiversity officer , i have tried the council, i have tried the environmental officer and i have tried sepa ... no one wants to know ... they just inform me of my legal obligation to get rid of it without spreading it ...

i agree with you that us doing our bit wont work and that the neighbours have to do theirs ... but i cant force them and i cant afford to do it all for them either ... the stuff that we are using s over £50 a tub and we are going through approx 4 tubs a year between the neighbour and myself to keep on top of what we are currently managing ... we hope to get control of some this year ( accepting that it will still grow but should be short enough for us to keep on top of it) then slowly year by year extend it by maybe 6 inches or so across the length of the two properties


it is just a total nightmare

elantan

emiff6 wrote: »

That's absolutely the worst rotten luck a gardener could have, elantan, you're in for a long battle. I would deffo contact the council about the untraceable owners - they will find them or treat the land themselves, or hire a company to do it.

Also take a look at this website because apparently you can get help with the costs of dealing with JK.

Apparently the best way to poison it is not to spray it, but to cut off the stem about a foot from the ground and pour weedkiller down into the hollow stem. That way all the weedkiller goes inside the plant, with least harm to anything else. The professionals add a red dye so they can see which stems they've done, you could use food colouring I guess. It's laborious, but it's going to be a laborious job anyway.

It's a funny thing - on the edge of the playing fields near us, among the bank of nettles and brambles, is a patch of what I'm pretty sure is knotweed. It has been there for at least 10 years, has never been touched in any way, and has never spread anywhere else, or got any bigger. It is the only JK I have seen within 10 miles of us.
It grows up, it flowers, it dies down. I am considering the theory that the more you cut it the more it spreads and because this is untouched, it is staying put. That's why I haven't pointed it out to anyone. I reckon as soon as someone tries to kill it off, it's going to spread like wildfire.

Wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted.

you may actually have a point there tbh .. since we have been dealing with it it has grown exponentially (sp) i was aware of the method you talk about but the problem with that is you have to get rid of the bits you cut off ... we were told by the council that we cant do that ... we have to spray it ... its such a quandry we are being given advice from different areas ... the bio diversity officer says something different from the environmental officer etc ... i may however go back to trying that method and see where it gets us


thanks


all i want is to grow veg, flowers and have a wee wildlife bit in my garden ... didnt think i was asking for much *sigh*

nickj_2

one of my customers had some jk in his garden , he had to notify the council (if i remember correctly ) and they sent someone in to fence the area off and each stem was cut and injected with a poison http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Japanese-Knotweed---Choosing-The-Right-Treatment-Option/2655858

elantan

can i ask was your customer a council tennant? when i phoned my council they said they only deal with council land they dont deal with private land ... that private land is the responsibility of the owner ... maybe different councils are different ... well in fact i know they are ... i do work with a nature reserve in a different council area and have spoken to some of the volunteers there about this issue ... they had theirs dealt with by their council ... but others that live in my council havnt ... i think it costs too much for some councils so it wont be high on their priority list

emiff6

elantan wrote: »

you may actually have a point there tbh .. since we have been dealing with it it has grown exponentially (sp) i was aware of the method you talk about but the problem with that is you have to get rid of the bits you cut off ...

Can't you pour a bit of weedkiller into the cut off stalks too? And lean them upside down against a fence or something to let it trickle right down to the tip?

Edit: And when they've dried out, have a big bonfire when the wind is blowing in the direction of the un-cooperative neighbours...;)

elantan

Now i LOVE that for an idea lol