Japanese Knotweed

Davesnave

Glyphosate is not the only weedkiller with an action which translocates to roots; the RHS site also lists products which are hormone based. There are others, which I use.

These are especially useful in grassland, but may cause problems if that grass is subsequently composted, or even if eaten by animals and the resulting manure used on sensitive crops. e.g. tomatoes.

They are also useful on weeds which now have some resistance to glyphosate. e.g. American Willow herb.

I agree there would be no advantage using them on JK, though.

cyclonebri1

Davesnave wrote: »

If you knew the first thing about glyphosate, you'd not expect any visible signs of action yet, or indeed, even this time next week.

Adding extra weedkillers with instant action may actually harm the take-up of the glyphosate.

This is why professionals get fed up with Joe Public. (See snowcat's comment.) Triple concentrate? This is why the sale of strong weedkillers to Joe is being phased out.

I don't see any reason to expect let alone see "death" the day after.

Maybe a week on, but I doubt it, first visible signs are 2 weeks later from my experience.

Look, you are killing it by stealth, slowly poisoning it, you haven't pushed a dagger through it's heart.;);)

I_have_spoken

:spam::spam::spam::spam::spam::spam:

Gingernutty

UPDATE

On Friday morning, I got a knock on the door from the guy who owns the house next to mine accompanied by an Environmental Officer from the local council.

My neighbour had just lost a sale. The buyers had to pull out after the mortgage lender saw the survey which noted that there was Japanese Knotweed less than 20m from the house and withdrew the mortgage offer.

:eek:

I told him that I knew about it, that I had sprayed it over the Autumn and that I was lying in wait for the sod to rise again in the Spring.

The environmental officer said that Jeyes Fluid was useful. :huh:

Apparently all our houses are now worth approximately what someone can pull out from down the back of the sofa.

I gave him the details of the woman who owns the offending house and left him to it.

Fabulous. More good news.

moneyistooshorttomention

Isnt there some new law that has just come through that enables people who arent dealing with JK to be fined? As I recall = "£2,500 for a householder and £25,000 for a business. That's not very much at all in the grand scheme of things for allowing something as major as that to put neighbouring properties at risk, but I suppose every little helps.

Could you club together with other nearby owners affected by this woman and arrange that each and every one of you will go after her for £2,500 per house and, by the time she tots up the bill she'd have to pay for that claim, then maybe she'd co-operate about removing it from her house?

EDIT; Just done little googling and she'd also have a criminal conviction (which is something that may or may not bother her). Hopefully she's working age and needs to have a job and the thought of that would then bother her.

Davesnave

I doubt if the local constabulary is aware of this yet!

If the law has "just come through," can someone with more time than me give a link to it in definitive form?

http://www.innertemplelibrary.com/category/asbos/

dampdaveski

My understanding is that recent legislation change wasn't anything major, it just meant that in theory if you had Japanese knotweed on your own property but you allowed it to spread to an adjoining property then if you failed to treat it then you could be issued with an ASBO (ridiculous I know).
Having JK on your land is definitely not illegal, however as the above implies ALLOWING (intentionally or otherwise) it to spread past the boundary of your land IS.
This also includes removing and disposing of it, as a live viable plant (or any part of it is classed as controlled waste, hence why the cost of skips of eye watering.
When the plant is dead at this time of year primarily the stems you can simply chuck it in your garden recycling bin, though you should NEVER throw any roots or the crown/node in (the lumpy bit at the bottom of the stems)
Lots more info here https://www.gov.uk/japanese-knotweed-giant-hogweed-and-other-invasive-plants

For mortgage valuations the magic number is 7 metres from an inhabitable part of the house, if it's more than 7 metres away then it shouldnt cause any problems.
If it is then you'll need to get a report by an approved specialist.

Lastly as others have said increasing the dose of pesticide from what is said on the label is not only foolish it actually breaks the control of pesticides regulations (amongst others).

sorry for the waffle and maybe repeating a bit of what others have said

DD

Gingernutty

I ripped up the old dead stems and burnt them.

I'm lying in wait for something to pop up so I can spray it.

Burning even the dead stems was scary. Every so often, a load bang would make me jump and send firey 'bits' off at all angles.

The segments of the stems are still airtight even after they're long dead. The smoke was pretty dense too.

Davesnave

You have one of the qualities needed here....persistence!

Gingernutty

Davesnave wrote: »

You have one of the qualities needed here....persistence!

Thanks.:o

Well, I'm in this for the long term now aren't I?