Jap.knotweed

[Trailoftears]

Himalayan Balsalm!A very old friend!Pulls up really easily-then it dawns on you there's 700+individuals ranging from 3" up to 5'+ in front of you!Throw it on the ground in the damp,and it will root from its nodes.I've dumped barrow fulls on tarps in the past,even then,the top layer slowly rears back up growing on its fallen comrades!Plus that explosive seed dispersal action too-a worthy adversary.

[scbk]

No Asulox in Scotland & Wales this year:

 

Farmers denied emergency use of banned chemical for bracken control

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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Asulam is used to treat bracken that could otherwise overpower hillsides used for sheep grazing.

 

[doobin]

12 hours ago, Trailoftears said:

Fascinating.I'm surprised there's no market that I know of for bracken compost bagged up.The Acid-loving plants dream medium I would imagine.Highly regarded for blueberry cultivation I gather.Back in the days on upland Welsh hill farms they would cut/dry and haul down bracken to litter under the animals all winter.Unlike straw,it cost nowt and there was plenty of it!Politically incorrect now,but the same applied to peat too-trench,cut,stook it to dry,hauled down from the hills and re-dried on the zinc roofs.Would pretty much keep them warm thru the Winter plus they couldn't afford coal in those pre-grant days.Probably the hardest work I've ever done!

My local estate are trying to make bracken compost, but all they seem to manage to do is break the cut and collect.

[openspaceman]

14 minutes ago, doobin said:

My local estate are trying to make bracken compost, but all they seem to manage to do is break the cut and collect.

One of those old Tarrup or better Kidd double chop silage harvesters set a foot above the ground might do better.

 

I do not know which way the allelopathy works, whether the chemical is actively given off or it is produced as the fronds brown off but the composting would need to deactivate it.

 

It will be high in potassium.

 

I would favour carbonisation and produce a biochar to be used off site, this would preserve potassium but phosphorus would probably volatilise.

 

Dealing with bracken on a boulder strewn hillside is a bigger problem altogether.

[Brushcutter]

The best way to get rid of knotweed is to inject it. I use round up pro vantage 480 injected into the stem after flowering. As you are going to get to your maximum dose in one application if you want to hit it earlier spray it with something with a different active ingredient.

[Trailoftears]

1 hour ago, Brushcutter said:

The best way to get rid of knotweed is to inject it. I use round up pro vantage 480 injected into the stem after flowering. As you are going to get to your maximum dose in one application if you want to hit it earlier spray it with something with a different active ingredient.

When you say stem inject it,do you mean every single stem in a large stand of say 60 stems?At what height do you inject each stem-down close to the rhizome mass say?It seems to have much the same internal discrete nodal system as bamboo.Do these 'boxed off' nodal areas inhibit internal travel at all?🤔

[Will C]

3 hours ago, Trailoftears said:

When you say stem inject it,do you mean every single stem in a large stand of say 60 stems?At what height do you inject each stem-down close to the rhizome mass say?It seems to have much the same internal discrete nodal system as bamboo.Do these 'boxed off' nodal areas inhibit internal travel at all?🤔

 

On 23/06/2023 at 07:52, Will C said:

We have had success with Cutting it off (burned on site) with loppers at about 8 inch high. Then stick the pointy end of a saw file down through the centre of the stem and fill with max strength roundup in a handheld sprayer - had ink in as well to see where you have been. 
we went back in the spring and sprayed roundup again on the few regrowth bits. 
it was time consuming and a shit job but it has never grown back since and was probably 8 years ago.

 

I didn’t write the job spec just carried it out but it worked.

 My method in my previous post breaks through the internal nodal bits (we call them knees)  and allows the chemical to travel. I would guess injection would need to be below the lowest knee.

[Muddy42]

On 24/06/2023 at 20:10, Trailoftears said:

Himalayan Balsalm!A very old friend!Pulls up really easily-then it dawns on you there's 700+individuals ranging from 3" up to 5'+ in front of you!Throw it on the ground in the damp,and it will root from its nodes.I've dumped barrow fulls on tarps in the past,even then,the top layer slowly rears back up growing on its fallen comrades!Plus that explosive seed dispersal action too-a worthy adversary.

 

I'm fighting a battle with a front guard of Himalayan Balsam as it literally moves upriver, probably via explosive seed blasts.  So there are still few enough plants to simply pull them up.  I seal them in plastic sacks to die.  If you can get the plants before they flower its ideal, however the flowers can help locate them.  I do tackle a few isolated plants once seeded with the 'bag over the head technique.'

 

Seems to be working so far!

[htb]

58 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

'bag over the head technique.'

 

Yours or the plant?🙂

 

[Muddy42]

55 minutes ago, htb said:

Yours or the plant?🙂

 

Haha. Its an officially sanctioned torture treatment for seeding HB, sanctioned under the Geneva Convention. First you quickly place a bag over the victim, grasp the stalk firmly and pull it out by the roots. The bag catches any seeds that explode. Cable ties help if doing a few.