Japanese Knotweed - anyone got experience of successfully removing it?

[Snowstorm]

Just moved house and have had a patch of 'bamboo' identified as Japanese Knotweed, which I understand is a big problem (just to add to all the other expensive problems in the house ... great!).

Has anyone any experience of dealing with it themselves and successfully eradicating it? It's a patch about a foot square and I understand we need to get ALL of it out ASAP.

TIA.

Gardeners question time once recomended 4ft of concrete

more usefully, yes you will need to get rid of all of it , you won't manage it in one season. Dig it out, if you are happy to use a glyphosate spray, spray the re-growth and repeat if not just keep digging and removing until it goes - it will take an age.

Oh dear, bad luck. You need to check out the environment agency info on this - removal is regulated. I work in construction and it is our worst nightmare - sod the concrete, it finds a way through, gotta be totally eradicated.

Removal for residential gardens tends to be use of herbicide, but again don't just use regular sort from garden centre as this might not do the job, and the longer this stuff remains the more serious problem you have. I would call in experts to remove and buy a guarantee - it can be difficult to get a mortgage when knotweed has been identified for example.

Meantime - don't disturb the ground, don't pull out and compost, DO NOT rotavate.

Sorry to be bearer of woe...

Sarah Beeny covered <a class="break-all" href="//twww.channel4.com/4homes/build-renovate/structural-problems/japanese-knotweed-identifying-and-removing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this in 'Help my House is Falling Down' recently , a long term job iirc

Sarah Beeny dealt with a garden full of knotweed on Help My House is Falling Down. It was very serious, as you can't allow any of the plant at all to leave your premises. Hang on, I'll see if I can find it... Aha! it's here -

www.channel4.com/4homes/build-renovate/structural-problems/japanese-knotweed-identifying-and-removing

Good luck, it sounds like a lot of work. :(

Great minds think alike LIZS. Glad to see I'm not the only Beeny addict. :)

we have the same problem (moved in in january). We've been spraying with roundup every 3 weeks or so, as soon as there's enough green regrowth to give the poison a chance to penetrate. After a summer of this treatment, it's definitely ailing. But am under no illusions, sure we're in for a few years of this at least.

Personally I wouldn't risk digging it up - the risk of spreading it seems just too great.

Incidentally, apparently it tastes delicious:) Next year we might try revenge by eating the buggers (before we glyphosate obviously!)

Thanks everyone. Have just contacted a gardener, recommended by a friend, and he's going to come round and inject it and then will dig it up and remove it a couple of weeks later. Think that's the safest/surest bet and from what I've read, I wouldn't have even been able to take the stuff to the dump for the amount that he's going to charge me.

Fingers crossed.

Am now off to read your links!

Burn it. You can't get rid of it as per 'normal' weeds (i.e. through council 'green bag' system) or, as you rightly say, through the tip. Crikey I really do sound like the harbinger of doom... Latter stages of pregnancy I'm afraid, bugger all to do but bounce on this infernal ball and worry...

Don't think you are allowed to transport it anyway, it has to be dealt with in situ and can take several seasons to clear completely.

We only moved in 3 weeks ago and already the house has been nick-named 'They Money Pit' ... We tried to expect the unexpected but never expected half of this, even with a full survey. Even DD1 (8) commented that it could only happen to this house that we had to have this Japanese Knotweed stuff in the garden. Would just like a normal day, without tradesmen, without unforseen expenses.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... and breathe ....

'The' Money Pit ... tis the wine, and the worry, and the stress of it all :)

Is this not something that the previous owners should have told you about? Surely they must have known about this problem?

Don't know whether she knew about it - the garden's kind of overgrown in a corner and it was a behind a lilac bush/tree. My mother thought it was bamboo. The only reason that we found out what it was, was because I'd got a gardener/tree surgeon in for a quote because we have a 50+ food pear tree in our garden dropping very solid pears ... from that great/untended height.

Oh dear, done it again 'foot', not 50+ food!

My parents suffered with this too - they had a patch of about 10 square metres.
It took about three years to get rid of entirely, but as soon as you start with the chemical-warfare you start weakening it. He injected into the stems (which are kind of hollow). He initially used gypsophylate (eg round-up)every few weeks for the first couple of years, but he swore by injecting it in the late summer/autumn (i.e. about now) rather than spraying it, and it definitely did work. Autumn is supposedly a good time because the plant is wanting to take things from the top growth into the roots for over the winter. It sounds wrong, as mostly you're supposed to use weedkillers etc during active growth. But honestly, it did work for him.

The gardener I used filled the cavity with something he referred to (jokingly) as agent orange, apparently you have to be a specialist/have a licence to use the stuff. He said it was so strong that he didn't expect it to survive and is coming back to dig it up/take it away in a couple of weeks. Fortunately we only had 3 small'ish clumps and some of it was dead, which is good.

Fingers crossed for its speedy demise!

I'm a gardener and have successfully got rid of 3 infestations of knotweed.You need Roundup Biactive-any othe glyphosate is too weak.Spray the plants in May,then any regrowth in Sept.As far as I remember the dilution rate is 1 part Roundup to 5 parts water,but will double check for youy.Beware that regrowth can be stunted and not look like knotweed,and make sure that any growth going into next doors garden or ajoining land will have to be treated too,or it'll just return.It takes between 1 to 3 years persistant treatment to really get rid of it.Good luck and pm me if you need any more info..

Thank you very much Mirage - appreciate that.

Gardener who's treating my small (thank goodness) patch seems fairly confident that his stuff is going to do the job and because of various connections, I think he believes that and it's not just him spouting rubbish to get money.

Plan to turn that area into a children's play area next year (sounds a bit grand, am going to put down some kind of membrane and then put rubber tyre bits on it ... as I hear that bark chippings cause splinters and put the climbing frame on top) ... then hopefully it means that if anything does break through then I'll have a fairly clear idea if it is the dreaded Knotweed and will be on to the gardener asap re. his 'agent orange'!