Japanese knotweed?

glasgowdan

missbiggles1 wrote: »

If only it were that easy - that'll keep it in check but it won't eradicate it.

I'm a professional ground maintenance contractor with first hand experience of eradicating knotweed.

missbiggles1

And I've had it in my garden and know that your method "Buy some roundup, spray it, then when it's dead chop it down and burn it" only controls rather than eradicates it.

The RHS agrees that your suggestion isn't effective in getting rid of the stuff permanently.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=218

glasgowdan

Maybe you sprayed it at the wrong time. It won't work all the time, but it does a fine job in killing off large areas. One treatment isn't usually enough.

I tend not to pay too much attention to the rhs as they often over complicate things to cover their backsides.

student100

The RHS do say "It usually takes at least three to four seasons to eradicate Japanese knotweed using glyphosate. Professional contractors, however, will have access to more powerful weedkillers that may reduce this period by half". So a year or two.

I'll speak to the estate agent on Monday and firstly find out if the seller knows about it, and whether he knows the landowner, with a view to either the landowner or the vendor getting some professionals in.

bibbity_2

Our buyers survey identified Japanese knotweed on our property - we didn't have a clue what it was. We had to pay £2600 for an eradication management plan and a five year guarantee. This will satisfy mortgage lenders but our buyer pulled out anyway. We luckily got another buyer but had to reduce our house by £20,000 for a quick sale (we didn't want to lose our next house). It's so unfair, we didn't plant it! I think things will change in the future as it's absolutely rife in the UK and will effect more and more people and not everyone will be able to reduce their house price our pay for expensive management plans.

Davesnave

bibbity wrote: »

Our buyers survey identified Japanese knotweed on our property - we didn't have a clue what it was. We had to pay £2600 for an eradication management plan and a five year guarantee. This will satisfy mortgage lenders but our buyer pulled out anyway. We luckily got another buyer but had to reduce our house by £20,000 for a quick sale (we didn't want to lose our next house). It's so unfair, we didn't plant it! I think things will change in the future as it's absolutely rife in the UK and will effect more and more people and not everyone will be able to reduce their house price our pay for expensive management plans.

It's "absolutely rife" in this country because people such as yourselves haven't had a clue about it for a century, or more, or if they have, they haven't cared enough.

The way to get home owners to take an interest is to put penalties on selling property which harbours it, otherwise there is too little incentive for action, which either has to be systematic, informed DIY, or expensive professional eradication.

You see that as unfair, but it's grossly unfair if JK on your land causes selling problems for a neighbour who has none.

I'm not being unkind; I'm merely pointing-out that your analysis may be flawed, because legislation and measures to deal with JK should ensure it's less of a problem in future, rather than more.

Having said that, articles in the media do tend to whip up unreasonable fears about JK, which will not invade anyone's home overnight and render it uninhabitable before remedial action can be taken.

moneyistooshorttomention

glasgowdan wrote: »

I'm a professional ground maintenance contractor with first hand experience of eradicating knotweed.

.....and your qualifications/training/experience are?????

....and do you go back and repeat the procedure for the several years this takes?

....and give a guarantee?

Now the RHS, on the other hand, I will listen to...

moneyistooshorttomention

bibbity wrote: »

Our buyers survey identified Japanese knotweed on our property - we didn't have a clue what it was. We had to pay £2600 for an eradication management plan and a five year guarantee. This will satisfy mortgage lenders but our buyer pulled out anyway. We luckily got another buyer but had to reduce our house by £20,000 for a quick sale (we didn't want to lose our next house). It's so unfair, we didn't plant it! I think things will change in the future as it's absolutely rife in the UK and will effect more and more people and not everyone will be able to reduce their house price our pay for expensive management plans.

This is the thing - I do think a lot more "education" about it is necessary. Then...one could monitor one's land/garden and the second it even tries to raise its little head above the soil on your own property - then deal with it immediately and one would assume it wouldnt have the chance to get any further than the "What are those little shoots in the ground that look a bit like pink-tinged asparagus?" stage before the spade was out and one was digging it up thoroughly fast. I would think it would be a quick/easy job for a gardener when it had only got to the stage of one or two shoots just starting to grow stage.

I would imagine the problem lies where it's been ignored for a couple of years and had a chance to "get its feet well under the table" and its become entrenched so to say.

So - I quite agree there have to be "penalties on selling property" as Davesnave puts it for home/land-owners that dont deal with it.

So a combination of education about how to recognise it at every stage, home/land-owners regularly monitoring their property to check if its got in and the fallback position of penalties against those who have it and arent dealing with it appropriately and promptly.

TheGardener

I agree that there should be more education to identify JKW but digging it up is not a good idea at all. JKW should be treated in situ. Digging it creates two problems - 1. When JKW is dug - it starts sending out new runners underground as a response to the 'attack' and 2. The reason JKW spreads around the country is because people dig it up and move it :eek: Even a cm or two of root will regrow and disposing of it is a problem as putting it in green waste bins is a sure fire way to spread it about (and possibly illegal)
Spray and inject on site and burn dead stems on site. A professional who knows what they are doing can eradicate it on site in 2 years but the kind of money I've seen quoted on this thread seem astronomical compared to the prices I'm charged by my contractor at work.

moneyistooshorttomention

Any thoughts on the effectiveness (or otherwise) of those weed root barriers that are sold? I've seen this barrier stuff for sale in widths of up to 2'.

Dont know if that would be "good enough" to keep any neighbouring JK at bay? Or are the roots quite capable of heading down past that 2' or so in depth and then turning and heading sideways from there?