The curse of the Japanese Knotweed (jk)

Alfrescodave

sarah Beeny's programme (Help My House is Falling Down) last night on Channel 4 touched on the subject of eradicating JK and as you have already found out the solution it is not a quick and easy one.

Basically it recommended cutting down the canes to a few inches above ground then when the new shoots/leaves appeared, hit them with strong weed killer. In addition, if possible, the roots should be dug up (no mean feat) and all material, roots/canes/branches should then be burnt on site in a garden incinerator. This process to be repeated until no further evidence of the beast but this could take several years !!!

nickj_2

elantan wrote: »

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 ...

no it was a private house . i know they had a lot of hassle and i think they did have to pay for the removal / destroyiong of the plants

nickj_2

Alfrescodave wrote: »

sarah Beeny's programme (Help My House is Falling Down) last night on Channel 4 touched on the subject of eradicating JK and as you have already found out the solution it is not a quick and easy one.

Basically it recommended cutting down the canes to a few inches above ground then when the new shoots/leaves appeared, hit them with strong weed killer. In addition, if possible, the roots should be dug up (no mean feat) and all material, roots/canes/branches should then be burnt on site in a garden incinerator. This process to be repeated until no further evidence of the beast but this could take several years !!!

this would be a huge task as they can go down to 3 metres deep ,

nickj_2

more info here from envioment agency http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/wildlife/130079.aspx#What_to_do_if_you_see_Japanese_knotweed

amcluesent

Just cut, leaving stems and inject with Ammonium Sulphamate (sold as compost accelerant), then slosh the ground with Sodium chlorate. You may have to ask about for that, mind!

annie123

amcluesent wrote: »

Just cut, leaving stems and inject with Ammonium Sulphamate (sold as compost accelerant), then slosh the ground with Sodium chlorate. You may have to ask about for that, mind!

I was just about to suggest Ammonium Sulphamate too.
It was a weed killer (Deep Root and others) till EU decided otherwise, but we're still allowed to buy it as a compost accelerator!

Remember not to spill any on JK en route to compost heap

elsien

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.

Unfortunately they have no enforcement powers to make owners of private land do anything about it. I know, I've tried! The council sent letters galore advising the neighbour of how harmful it is, but couldn't actually make them do anything.
I think burning it is ok (unless you live in a smokeless zone?), the council just reminded my neighbour that it was a fineable offence to take the cut off bits to the tip, as that would have been his next bright idea otherwise.
The national trust have had a bit of success - I'll see if I can find the article.
http://www.conservationevidence.com/Attachments/PDF12.pdf
And isn't sodium chlorate now on the banned list? It's what I used to use but can't any more.

Edit - the cut and inject method seems the best, from this previous thread.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/212975

I've also read somewhere that if you can get hold of agricultural roundup, it's stronger and more effective that the high street stuff. But also more expensive.
If it were me, I'd probably give up on the raspberries rather than risk transplanting it elsewhere. It's a beggar for growing from miniscule bits.

Ocean007

Here's a link to the Sarah Beeny programme where they tackled Japanese knotweed http://www.channel4.com/programmes/help-my-house-is-falling-down/4od it's the July 28th programme.

And a page with lots of useful information and links: http://www.channel4.com/4homes/build-renovate/structural-problems/japanese-knotweed-identifying-and-removing

Good luck with it.

RAS

elantan

Success story here - cleared an area of it totally and it is now used for growing veggies. I was put onto the method by a couple of people who had seen the National Trust work in the South West and the Lakes.

I would avoid moving your plants as you risk moving the knotweed as well. You can safely use this method in and amongst food plants as long as you piant rather then spray plants in the second and third year.

First things first - wait until the end of August up north, early September down south. You need cheap glysophate - may be try an agricultural supplier - a mixing container and a syringe (no needle). You can get the latter at the chemist for about 30p although it can take a bit of explaining. A bit of food dye is useful too and protect yuorselves with gloves.

The mix is glysophate at 5 times the normal concentration (whatever is on the container) with water an a bit of food dye in a container you never want to use again.

Cut the stems above the first node (leaving some stem above to contain the herbicide). Inject 5ml of the mix into the end of each stem, the food dye makes it easier to see which stems you have treated. The syringe is marked, so it is easy to pull up a measured quantity from the container and inject the right amount. The plant draws the herbicide down into the roots as it prepares for winter.

The stems have to be left on the ground (on plastic sheet) to dry out. Burn them later (we go for Bonfire weekend as that caused least objection).

The next spring you will get a small amount of distorted growth, which you can treat with normal strength glysophate - we painted it on because it was in an area where food grew. You do need to wiat until teh growth turn green though - not much use treating it until there is chlorophyll to distrupt.

There will also be a small number of strong shoots, particularly from areas that are between nodes that have died off; the herbicide has just not travelled far enough to kill the root between the two nodes. Leave them to grow strong and then tackle them in the early autumn by injection.

The next year we had very very little growth and most of the nodes had rotted loose and we burned them.

There is one small bit to tackle away from the main area. The pillock there kept pulling up the shoots and consequently there has never been enough growth to effectively treat! So two years after the main area was turned over to cultivation, we are still trying to deal with that little area.

Just a note on the problems of digging it up; the original small problem area became much more widespread the year after the fence was replaced, all along the fenceline. We suspect that the contractors transported tiny bits of the broken root on tools as they moved along the fence line replacing uprights.

And when we had out first bonfire, we added one or two nodes that had broken away during the injection process. The following spring one which was very very charred and partly carbonised started to sprout!

So it is tough.

The major problem we found was that we had very wet Septembers when the regrowth was doing well and we did not have two consecutive dry days to treat the plants. Had those months been dry, I think we would have cleared it completely by the third year.

elantan

Hi all , sorry I have been working so not had the chjance to get on .... Also I am on my phone just now *sigh* .... I got 20 l of clinic ace which is a super strength glysophate so will try the injecting method soon as I'm ooop north thanks you all very much for your help ... Will let u know how it goes and catch up proper when I finish my next run of shifts ( at the weekend )