Weed problem with new planting

[Quickthorn]

You can get Kerb flowable*, which you apply with a knapsack and works out a lot cheaper per acre.

 

* or you could a few years ago - pesticide withdrawals are happening so fast it's hard to keep up with what's gone now.

[daveindales]

like the previous comment. spray in winter with kerbflo. does not cause problems if sprayed in winter when trees are dorment. pop some down the tube. The only problem with kerb is that it does tend to encourage thistles to grow in the dead area. Might then have to spray with glyphosate to kill them.

 

another warning: when using kerb be aware of runoff in wet weather and on hillsides. If it runs it will kill large areas of grass. This can be most annoying, especially when you tell a former boss that this is likely to happen, but he tells you to spray it anyway. The result was dead fairways on a golf course.

[oldgustav]

Thanks to everyone for all your replies and advice. Kerb granules sound like a good idea but will cost over £1,000 to do this lot. And, because the grasses have done so well in the tubes I won't be able to drop the granules into the tubes - except for the one we have manually weeded. I think we will get one pack of kerb granules in to treat the worst cases and see how they do.

 

For the record, we planted 15,000 trees through the BWFW scheme. The native species all went in last December/January. in 2007 we planted about 4,000 trees through WGS. The alder and ash have done well - in some cases they are up to 10-12ft. There is however one area where the trees just haven't got going - they are still 2-3ft and struggling. We don't have rabbits around here but we do have voles. The voles appear to under-mine the trees (they are not eating the bark because the the trees are tubed). I haven't weeded since 2009 and where they are doing poorly there is a lot of plantain. Could this explain the trees poor growth?

 

Thanks again for all comments and suggestions. This is really helpful.

[coppiceer]

I had this sort of problem with weeds and old crops on an ex-arable site. The standard answer was that the weeds inside the tube didn't matter as long as a 1 metre diameter area around the plant was being sprayed. I followed this advice on all but the worst affected tubes and the trees suffered no damage and grew away vigorously.

 

However on the worst affected specimens I pulled up the tube a couple of inches, pulled out the weeds, flattened them on the ground, replaced the tube and then sprayed them.

 

Trying to spray the tops of the weeds will inevitably cause damage to the young trees as they take in the weedkiller through the stems as well as the leaves.

 

Remove your guards as soon as the trees begin to crowd the space inside, as this is when you will get damage through rot.

[oldgustav]

Thanks Coppiceer. Great advice. When you say remove the guards begin to crowd the space inside because of rot - this is my worry with the grasses inside the tubes. But I think I'll just have to attend to the worst cases and get as many as I can done. It's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge...

[toxicity2182]

Hi oldgustav..how did this go? Did you use kerb granules inside the tubes? What were the results?

[Goaty]

Hi oldgustav..how did this go? Did you use kerb granules inside the tubes? What were the results?

 

He hasnt been on here since 2012 according to his profile.

[headgroundsman]

I know this is an old thread but surely if planting into grass spraying the planting sites before planting would help

[spandit]

I didn't spray at all and most of my trees are doing fine. A few have grass coming out of the top but most of these have the trees with the most growth too. They tend to self mulch, I find, but looking at the progress of the naturally seeded trees, I think the advantage of the tube alone should suffice.

 

Only got 1,500 trees, mind