Japanese Knotweed

[peds]

Yeah I know, knot exactly a tree, but you guys are just so bloody clever I know you can help with this.

 

I've just inherited the use of a polytunnel which has lain dormant for a couple of years, and a nearby clump of Japanese Knotweed has started to poke through the ground in places. It's not too bad, but the problem will only get worse, obviously. I'll try and get a couple of photos tomorrow.

I've got plans to move the tunnel in the future, maybe next season, maybe the year after... but for this year, what can I do to minimise the problem? I'm wary of cutting the stems out, but I'd much rather keep the ground that I have available instead of putting in raised beds or benches after putting down sheets or slabs or something, as I hope to move the tunnel in the future. How much of an extra problem am I creating by just cutting the stems now and pretending they don't exist for the rest of the season?

 

Thanks for any advice dudes.

[peds]

12 minutes ago, Jimbo1982 said:

Not a downer mate just a nutter. I think there’s much more to worry about in this world if you want to break it down like that. But fare play for the reply was definitely an argument even if it is massively inflated lot of horse 💩

Like I say, I'm not looking to chat about it here, because it's a little pointless. But the time for discussing whether or not the impending climate catastrophe was actually real was back in the 80s, before the huge wealth of data started coming in. In the 90s, we still had the chance to ask "How do we stop it?", but we wasted time by still discussing if it was real. Throughout the noughties, we should have been talking about how to mitigate the worst of the damage, instead of still trying to convince people that it's real, and happening now. For the last decade, the burning question should have been "What can we do to ensure mankind's survival past the year 2050?", but instead, we've had some of the most powerful and influential people on the planet still yelling that it isn't happening, when it is visibly destroying people's lives across the planet.

Now, here we are in the 2020s, and the hot topic is... is the impending climate catastrophe real, or is it just a scam thought up by Big Keep Cup to sell more reusable mugs?

 

You are absolutely right though, there is much more to worry about in this world... herbicides and industrial fertilisers are only the tip of the iceberg (whatever those are).

[Squaredy]

38 minutes ago, peds said:

Yeah I know, knot exactly a tree, but you guys are just so bloody clever I know you can help with this.

 

I've just inherited the use of a polytunnel which has lain dormant for a couple of years, and a nearby clump of Japanese Knotweed has started to poke through the ground in places. It's not too bad, but the problem will only get worse, obviously. I'll try and get a couple of photos tomorrow.

I've got plans to move the tunnel in the future, maybe next season, maybe the year after... but for this year, what can I do to minimise the problem? I'm wary of cutting the stems out, but I'd much rather keep te ground that I have available instead of putting in raised beds or benches after putting down sheets or slabs or something, as I hope to move the tunnel in the future. How much of an extra problem am I creating by just cutting the stems now and pretending they don't exist for the rest of the season?

 

Thanks for any advice dudes.

This is the right time of the year to get a load of systemic weedkiller on them - Glyphos like Roundup.  Treat them each spring (and possibly later in the year if more shoots come up) and you will soon get them under control.