Can anyone tell me what this is please? Pic inc

Foxy0810

There is quite a lot coming up on my allotment and in my greenhouse does anyone know what it is please?

All help greatly appreciated

Michelle

rhiwfield

Horsetail?

kj*daisy

Horse tail or mares tail - apparently it has spores so when you remove it you should cover it with a bag as you do to stop it spreading.

Foxy0810

Will it kill my stuff? There's quite a bit of it

DebtFree2012

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=257

HTH

fwor

My Gran's remedy: "Never let it see light of day".

If you pull out every new shoot that you see, every time you visit, you will eventually kill it.

But your neighbours on the allotment will need to do so too, or it will just spread back from their plot to yours.

Foxy0810

Hmmmmm this is going take a fair bit of time to remove grrrrrrrr where can I get the chemical weed killer without spending loads on round up or what ever it called?
I'm going need get digging it has spread quite a bit across our plot it's shooting up everywhere

savageHK

Chemical doesn't work well on it as it's hard-leaved. Keep plucking! The roots are very hard to spot and digging might not help as they are soil-coloured. You might end up just spreading it about. We have it in our garden. It's quite pretty actually when it gets big but exceptionally invasive (so don't let it get big - pluck now!!)

(PS - doubt it will kill anything)

Foxy0810

Nothing will kill it? That's not good will it kill my vegetables?

madjackslam

It's a "living fossil" that's been around for about 100 million years, so it's tough!

It won't kill your veggies, but it will compete with them, when they should be concentrating on the important job of making food for you. Keep pulling it out wherever you see it. Don't pass it by.

It's high in silica, and I remember Bob Flowerdew suggesting that you could use it as a pan scrubber.

Farway

Because it is high in silica, should you choose the chemical route, you should break or rough up the the stems first

As others have said, just pull it up when you spot it

You will never dig it up, just one tiny piece left will get going again

As alluded to, dinosaurs eating it never got rid of it

My son has it in his garden, his lad, age 4, now spots the dinosaur weed and pulls them up without prompting