Another "what is this weed?" question

Davesnave

25_Years_On said:

The second one isn't rosebay willowherb it's just one of the standard willowherbs (Epilobium sp.) which are much more of a pain than rosebay.

I agree and mine's fairly resistant to glyphosate too. Don't want to depress the OP, but they come up every year despite none setting seed here in the past 12 years!

Slinky

Can you even buy glyphosate anymore?  I've got a squirty bottle of Roundup which I'm keeping only to use for the most pernicious of weeds.

Davesnave

Slinky said:

Can you even buy glyphosate anymore?  I've got a squirty bottle of Roundup which I'm keeping only to use for the most pernicious of weeds.

Yes, at present I don't think there are plans to ban it here, as they did in France. Monsanto no longer make a killing as it's out of patent. Those in power would probably bow to the pressure of lily-livered, prosecco-sipping, woke, lefty types, were it not for the fact that without something to squirt people would concoct their own weedkillers. That would be far worse than a product that breaks down quickly and has the potential cancer-inducing quality of a badly barbecued burger!

No need to pay for Round-up though:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/8033849796

Other suppliers and product names are available, all equally weird.

Farway

Davesnave said:

Slinky said:

Can you even buy glyphosate anymore?  I've got a squirty bottle of Roundup which I'm keeping only to use for the most pernicious of weeds.

Yes, at present I don't think there are plans to ban it here, as they did in France. Monsanto no longer make a killing as it's out of patent. Those in power would probably bow to the pressure of lily-livered, prosecco-sipping, woke, lefty types, were it not for the fact that without something to squirt people would concoct their own weedkillers. That would be far worse than a product that breaks down quickly and has the potential cancer-inducing quality of a badly barbecued burger!

I sometimes see on FB pages, people want to be organic, don't want to use chemicals but would like to kill everything, it's a bit like Godwin's Law, within a few minutes it's dump salt, vinegar, detergent, used fag ends, boiling water and God knows what else on them, but at least it's Glyphosate or slug pellets

twopenny

Willowherb seeds float on the wind for miles. Like so many seeds bringing plants we don't want it only takes one neighbour to allow these things to seed.

Davesnave

Farway said:

Davesnave said:

Slinky said:

Can you even buy glyphosate anymore?  I've got a squirty bottle of Roundup which I'm keeping only to use for the most pernicious of weeds.

Yes, at present I don't think there are plans to ban it here, as they did in France. Monsanto no longer make a killing as it's out of patent. Those in power would probably bow to the pressure of lily-livered, prosecco-sipping, woke, lefty types, were it not for the fact that without something to squirt people would concoct their own weedkillers. That would be far worse than a product that breaks down quickly and has the potential cancer-inducing quality of a badly barbecued burger!

I sometimes see on FB pages, people want to be organic, don't want to use chemicals but would like to kill everything, it's a bit like Godwin's Law, within a few minutes it's dump salt, vinegar, detergent, used fag ends, boiling water and God knows what else on them, but at least it's NOT Glyphosate or slug pellets

I think you meant to add the word in capitals.

That reminds me, this is probably the last time you'll be able to buy real slug pellets.  You'll have to search t'internet really hard and then pay some nasty capitalist 3x the usual price for them too.

twopenny

I noticed there is a new sort of slug pellet. Made like the ones we know and have used but without whatever the terrible ingredient was.

I was curious and made a mental note in case but afraid my mental note taking doesn't last long.

Davesnave

I expect it's ferric phosphate 2p; pretty harmless stuff in the environment, but not so with the EDTA that's sometimes added  to aid absorption. It's complex.

In real world situations people often think the ferric pellets don't work, because the slugs usually slime away, go underground and die there 2-4 days later. No bodies = no effect in most folks mind.

Anyway, while it's important what all of us do in our gardens, in the case of slug pellets it's what farmers do that makes most impact. They're the ones who use industrial quantities and they're switching to ferric.

droopsnoot

twopenny said:

Like so many seeds bringing plants we don't want it only takes one neighbour to allow these things to seed.

In this case, that's probably me. I've been having a go at removing them, they do come up easily - almost a bit suspiciously easy and I wonder if I'm just leaving bits in the ground. Every time I get a few minutes to pull some up, it seems like there's more and more of them.

RAS

droopsnoot says:

In this case, that's probably me. I've been having a go at removing them, they do come up easily - almost a bit suspiciously easy and I wonder if I'm just leaving bits in the ground. Every time I get a few minutes to pull some up, it seems like there's more and more of them.

Quite possibly. At least use a handfork to loosen the roots as any nodes let will sprout and willowherbs have straggly roots. Easier to remove properly once that pull several times.