Horsetail - how do I kill it?

Ladybump

We have lots of horsetail (or mare's tail) appearing throughout our garden. It has horrible thin long roots which break off when you try to dig it out. I'd like to keep garden organic (if possible) but need to get rid of this nightmare weed. With a whole house requiring DIY, a young toddler and 2 of us working there is not much time for nightly weeding. Can anyone help??

Ted_Hutchinson

I'd recommend Glyphosphate weedkiller if you weren't wanting to be organic. Even for Glyphosphate (roundup) you would have to bruise the plants to get them to take up sufficient to kill off the roots. As they grow from very small bits of roots (rhizomes) pulling them up almost inevitably leaves parts ready to spring up again when your backs turned.
If you could plant up that area with turnips I gather they find that offputting. Otherwise I'd be tempted to cover the whole area with an old carpet/plastic/ground cover sheet and wait till they've rotted away.

Mado

A tip I read in my gardening book is if you use Glyphosphate, it is best applied on the plant with a brush. A bit tediuos I know but at least that way you will not spray other plants. Mix it with a little bit of washing up liquid as it will help sticking to the leaf.
Had a go at groundelder with this method... worked a bit but still is coming back as there was a real infestation and too may roots left in. Also it takes a while for the plant to die as it has to travel to the root.

culpepper

I would be inclined to hoe the tops off every few days with all the other work you already have .Ive been clearing my wilderness for veggies next year and have been doing that with the non dug areas to keep it manageable ,till I get round to digging it.

Faith_2

I have a small problem with horsetail on some part of my allotment (dear, it makes me sound like i know what I'm talking about!!!).

One school of thought is that sowing turning very thickly in September and then hoeing it in in the spring prevents the dreaded thing to grow back.

Another is that horsetail thrives in poor acidic soil and will not do so well in good rich organic soil, so improving the quality of the soil might be an answer.

One of the gardeners where I have my allotment even took the drastic action of covering his plot in black sheets for a whole year!

From my research on the matter, one thing is sure, if you're an organice gardener there is no quick solution!!

angela110660

When we moved to our bungalow, what we thought was lawn was in fact horsetails. They run underground (very deeply) and I don't think you can completely eliminate them. We fed the lawn a lot and kept cutting it during the first year. The things still appear in the rockery and down the side path but what I did was hand weed them and then painted them with the red gel stuff mentioned above. It was a labour of love but it worked really well. I did not have any for several years to speak of but I have noticed that they have sprung again this year because I have not been as vigilant. Once you see one or two popping through - pull them out as best you can; it really make the difference. I am going to spend 15 minutes every evening this week to do weeding to get on top of them again.

raeble

Apparently the only way to remove it is to rotavate the land about three times in rapid succession - when you see it re-growing. As I don't have a rotavator I'm going to have to start pulling, and get some weed killer.

squeaky

I just googled horsetail and there's all sorts of fascinating stuff about it. You might be able to sell yours on ebay