Japanese knotweed - ?????HELP! please

Mr_Thrifty

Can't you just chuck a bit of bleach on it or something?

Snail368

Substances like bleach and diesel do not kill Japanese knotweed. They may destroy the top growth, but won't kill the roots. In addition to this they will pollute the ground, ground water and (in the case of diesel) be quite toxic to humans and any pets.

warehouse

Read the thread! In my post above I linked to the following, I'll post it as you lot don't appear to be able to click links .



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.

blossomhill_2

I have worked on conservation tasks at clearing JK and as an estate manager on an estate with a small area of JK - and knowing it was in the garden would certainly prevent me buying at any price

It is quite possible to make this stuff disappear (which your sellers may have done, to give the impression it is "not much") - only to have it pop up after a couple of years a few feet from the original - IMHO you'd need 7 years before you could be sure it had gone.

We had it appear about 10 foot off the ground in the tower of a Grade II listed property when we thought it had been eradicated at ground level, and Ive seen it emerge through concrete - there are other properties, buy one of those instead!

perthperson

The sellers may have just snapped off the tops of the plants or even dug down as far as they could to remove the roots and the 2 plants you see above ground are just the plants starting to grow again from the roots that remain. Plants like this can grow again from the smallest piece of root left in the ground and you don't know if there is a huge root system wound all round underneath the garden and possibly the house.

Even though you like the house and it's a great price I wouldn't take the chance. It's a shame, a shame for the present owners too.

Waitrose_Carpark

I had an infestation of this awful plant in an old house (garden, rather). It came back time and time again after I thought I'd dug it out. It's a nightmare as you can't just dig a bit and pull the root out as it snaps - you have to carefully dig around it and lift it out.

Anyway, I got rid of it in the end by literally injecting it into the stem with glysophate ('Roundup' is the go-to off the shelf product). Yes, when I say injecting it I mean with a needle and everything.

It eventually died off and about 6 months later there was no regrowth so hopefully that did it.

AlexMac

You only have two options-
1. Walk away, or
2. make a low offer; in today's market, they'll probably bite your hand off, especially if they've removed structural roof trusses and done other damage which reduces the house's value, as you imply in your posts above.

If you follow option 2, you'll be into a few hundred pounds of expenditure, but you can limit this, and you don't have to go through with the purchase, because you can drop out at any time prior to 'exchange of contracts' which normally takes many weeks, and is usually the point at which you lay down a deposit, having, by then,
a)-secured a mortgage (which will probably require you to pay the mortgage lender's survey fee and maybe their arrangement fee)
b)- seen the results of the solicitors' 'searches' on your behalf (planning search, environmental search, responses from the vendor and their solicitor to your solicitor's 'standard enquiries' and possibly other searches)
c)- seen the results of your own 'full structural survey' if you choose to commission one at a likely cost of a few hundred pounds. Given that you know there are problems (the knotweed, the roof...) you'd be strongly advised to do this rather than accept the lesser survey alternatives: (such as) (i) The Mortgage lender's valuation survey which gives you no protection as it's often superficial and because their surveyor has no responsibility to you; or (ii) A lesser survey called a 'Homebuyers' report which you might be offered cut price but which is useless as it does not look at structures, nor roof void nor necessarily even lift carpets to look for rot or damp. The full structural survey will be all the better if you tell your surveyor what worries you (the roof, the knotweed,,,). Don't start messing about with your own diagnosis or builder's or gardener's advice or cost estimates of possible solutions yet; it's not yet your problem, but the vendor's. A decent surveyor will know where to get advice on the knotweed- that's what you'll be paying them for.

If, after having this investigation, listened to a solicitor, lender and surveyor, you get cold feet, then you can just walk away, or negotiate a further drop in the price, backed up by the surveyor's inconsiderate though this might seem.

You can minimise your legal costs by asking your solicitor not to start incurring costs on searches and always apply for a mortgage anyway (incurring some legal costs) and see what their valuation surveyor says.

And given that you are worried about getting a mortgage in the first place, as Knotweed may be present, remember that different lenders' policies vary; and you can just ring 'em up to ask. We were buying in a hurry (at auction with a 28-day deadline) once and were offered a mortgage by my own High Street Bank- but it was subject to 100% retention pending a street tree survey, a full Structural Survey and a Timber & Damp survey; in other words; no dough! So I went next door and got a loan from a Building Society indside the (by then) 2-week deadline. I know another lender who won't give a loan on any property with a falt roof.

So take your time, think step-by-step, and - If this really is the only house in the world which you like; GO FOR IT

bubbles29

Thanks for all the advice
having spoken to the bank they have agreed they would lend- following a survey done on the knotweed and the roof. The roof seems fairly straight forward to sort so that isnt my main problem... the knotweed is!
have a lot of decisions to make ! lol