Just got an allotment but it's all weeds...

berries

This is it from the front of it I did start to cut down and pull out as many of the weed's.

glasgowdan

cubegame wrote: »

It's a tricky one as an autumn dig will certainly help the (probably) neglected soil. However, digging and rotavating is incredibly bad advice. If your plot has a severe case of perennial weeds all this will achieve is chopping the roots up and hence providing the plants with many hundreds more root cuttings to grow from next spring.

Glyphosate will still work (I used some at the weekend) and will be a good start, but removing perennial weeks by hand will be the best bet as many of these will need repeat applications to get to the roots of these.

I do this kind of work for a living, all day every day, and I price per job so it's become my obsession to ensure maximum efficiency at all times. The problem is if you only hand-weed you think that's it done, but come the spring you are hit with a constant battle of new weeds and weeds you have missed. You end up weeding almost constantly. If the soil has not been worked properly this is a headache. If, however, the soil has had the right treatment then any future weed control becomes easy.

A working plot should be treated in this way. The OP may use glyphosate in the spring to hit new shoots but the soil needs to be turned over properly now and the organic material time to leach through the top layer of the plot.

Hand-digging an established and weedy compacted plot is simply not feasible. The time spent will be many times more than the autumn work described plus any spring herbicide applications needed.

oldtractor

I'd burn off the vegatation on a dry day,then rotovate and in spring when the weeds start growing back roundup weedkiller on the whole allotment. then start your digging and wait for more weed germination then roundup again. then you can start getting the soil into a fine tilth add organic matter [compost] and start your planting then. It may be mid May or June until you can plant but it will mean everythings easier from then on.

berries

glasgowdan wrote: »

I do this kind of work for a living, all day every day, and I price per job so it's become my obsession to ensure maximum efficiency at all times. The problem is if you only hand-weed you think that's it done, but come the spring you are hit with a constant battle of new weeds and weeds you have missed. You end up weeding almost constantly. If the soil has not been worked properly this is a headache. If, however, the soil has had the right treatment then any future weed control becomes easy.

A working plot should be treated in this way. The OP may use glyphosate in the spring to hit new shoots but the soil needs to be turned over properly now and the organic material time to leach through the top layer of the plot.

Hand-digging an established and weedy compacted plot is simply not feasible. The time spent will be many times more than the autumn work described plus any spring herbicide applications needed.

Pleas could you explain the right treatment for me?? Im very new to this so would like to learn more and to see if Im doing it right??

glasgowdan

Hi berries, in general all I am talking about is ensuring the soil stays loose. You should have paths that you walk on and beds that you don't walk on, which prevents the bits of ground you grow in becoming compacted and hard.

A hoe such as a Fiskars Swoe can be drawn very quickly over the surface to uproot any new weeds, and you can cover a large area with this tool, but only if the soil is loose. A fortnightly hoe over an allotment will keep it immaculate.

You should have a look on the grow your own forum for everything you ever need to know http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/vegging-out/

berries

glasgowdan wrote: »

Hi berries, in general all I am talking about is ensuring the soil stays loose. You should have paths that you walk on and beds that you don't walk on, which prevents the bits of ground you grow in becoming compacted and hard.

A hoe such as a Fiskars Swoe can be drawn very quickly over the surface to uproot any new weeds, and you can cover a large area with this tool, but only if the soil is loose. A fortnightly hoe over an allotment will keep it immaculate.

You should have a look on the grow your own forum for everything you ever need to know http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/vegging-out/

Thank you. After making some mistakes like walking on the soil after it had been harrow isnt a good idea!!! I've been hoeing regurly and as such now I have a bunt hoe off it went to be sharper today!! I will have a look at the forum thanks again. I havnt used any weedkiller on my plot as I thought you can't as growing veg in it could I use some next year as I know there will be loads of seed's wanting to show they ugly heads!!

kerrirobberts

I'm going to stay clear of weed killer with my new plot. The way I think about it is that the veg draws it's nutrients from the soil. If those nutrients include pesticides for killing weeds then it's going to mean I end up eating them. I'd rather the hard slog of weeding, hoeing and aerating the soil. If you keep turning the weeds up so they don't root, then I don't see why they wouldn't stop growing. But then again I'm new to this just like yourself.

glasgowdan

I know what you mean - personally I don't use glyphosate on my veg patches for the same reason, no matter how safe they are meant to be. The one thing I did use, reluctantly, was pyrethrum on the brocolli and artichokes to kill the greenfly, caterpillars and aphids, as I was simply struggling to keep them under control any other way. Last season I lost the brocolli as the catties completely took over; this year they got a nice surprise!

berries

glasgowdan- How would deal with my plot if it was your's???? So far Ive done load's of digging root's up,hoeing and laying load's of horse manuare down. Im covering it bit by bit. Once it's harrow again Im planning on laying cardborad down then plastic on top ready for winter. There's Blilndweed and so many other weed's that Im pulling up and putting it in a sack.

glasgowdan

I would strim off all the growth in a couple of weeks when there's going to be no more growth. And I would get rid of all the plastic and stuff covering it and go over it thoroughly with a rotovator, mixing in the manure and roughly breaking up all clumps of hard soil.

Then leave it open to the air for the winter.

In the spring I would again rotovate it (you can use a wee mantis tiller this time) and do a bit of a hand-weed. The soil will be very loose and the weeding will be easy. Add some sand if it's clayey and, patch at a time, I would plant up what I want to plant. For a month or so the patches will do best with a weekly hoe, but once the veg is in and getting established you can hoe fortnightly instead.

That's what I would do!