Mares Tail [shock]

[Mum2KSS]

Hi, the house next door has been empty for a few months and the driveway is full of mares tail we have well established flower beds but I've pulled out a huge amount of it a couple of days ago, not digging out roots, just pulling it out - am I now doomed to do this forever or is there a way to get rid of it without killing all my beautiful plants?

My mother in law had it in her garden. The only way she got rid was by moving house. Am interested to see if you get a more useful suggestion. Good luck

thanks @Buzzer3555 .... moving is not an option...!

Sorry i wrote that with my tongue in cheek. It was tactless of me

you need to learn to live with it.
pull as much as you can, but you will never get completely rid, especially if your neighbours are not pulling it either.

(it's a fascinating plant, very pre-historic. you can use the green to scrub pans as they contain silica)

Mares tail is the worst. Sadly we have it and are struggling to get rid of it. It doesn't however seem to invade our neighbours garden to the same extent as it does mine and my other neighbour.

Probably little you can do this year other than just pull them out. I do see a difference when I use strong weed killer (needs to be strong, the stuff we use is for hard to kill weeds including mares tail) but needs to be used basically from when they first appear in April time really. Hasn't stopped them coming back every year ☹️

I did read that they were the first thing to grow back after a volcanic eruption

thanks all - I guess it will just be one of those jobs I'll have to do but really hate...like trying to keep on top of my greys..! no worries @Buzzer3555 - I took it in jest...happy weekend all :)

Pulling it out may make it worse as bits can break off and can grow into new plants.

PPs suggestion is a good one if you can find a local volcano, and then immediately apply weed killer at the first sight of new growth.

No mare's tail here but I'm battling with bindweed so you have my sympathies! This year I've been doing a round of the garden every 1-2 days and pulling new shoots out. It's surprisingly effective if you keep on top of it and only takes a few minutes each time. We were absolutely overrun with the stuff last year when I was too busy with work and the year before after going away on holiday for 3 weeks.

Probably no help with mares tail but might help @MilduraS with her bindweed - the Kew remedy is to grow each tendril of the bindweed up a cane and then when you've got a foot or so of it to paint each leaf with the strongest and most poisonous weedkiller you can find so that it is absorbed by the plant and kills the roots - using the can stops the rest of the bed from being deluged in weedkiller.

I have the double whammy of bindweed and mares tail, do I win 😂😂

@FiveGoMadInDorset

I have the double whammy of bindweed and mares tail, do I win 😂😂

You have my sympathies!

@FiveGoMadInDorset

I have the double whammy of bindweed and mares tail, do I win 😂😂

No! I have both as well! I’ve battled with mares tail for almost 30 years, the garden is infested with it. I pull up what I can, has to be done frequently, but there are some areas that are unreachable, behind big shrubs etc. And of course, it comes up right in the middle of plants, which makes it difficult to get at. Resigned to living with it…

I must be weird. We don’t have any and I love it. Always look out for when walking. It’s prehistoric, just imagine if it could talk.

I posted about this some time ago and someone suggested glysophate so all spring/summer I have been at war with this in the hope that I weaken it so that next year’s war will be less intense.

It is horrible so you have my sympathies.

It's dreadful stuff. Our rental house has it but they don't really do gardening so it's absolutely invaded the patio!

@Bargebill19 come and take ours!!

Back in the 1980's my parents moved into a house that had mares tail. They are keen gardeners and took drastic steps.

They dug down significantly removing vast quantities of earth. They lined the area with thick black plastic and made a bog garden. Refilled it with non contaminated soil.

All other parts had to be dug over and weeded very carefully by easing it out by the roots so non breaks off to form new plants.

It's great for nails and hair growth, but it's a bloody nightmare. I had it on an allotment once.

I had mares tail, bindweed, ground elder, nettles and brambles in my last garden. Moving house was the only way I found to get rid of it all. Thankfully rosebay willow herb is the worst I have here.

Glyphosate doesn’t work for mares tail. Our garden (which is huge - 100m x 50m) is covered in the stuff and I’ve made it my life’s goal to get rid of it.

The problem with it is the waxy coating which means pretty much all weed killer doesn’t get absorbed into the plant. If your garden is small enough to deal with it my hand then you’re at an advantage! Mix a 2,4D weed killer with either some fairy liquid or wallpaper paste and brush it onto each plant/stalk/stem. You might have to do this 2-3x between March-Sept but this worked like magic on the patch I tried it on. Alternatively, using 2,4D based weedkiller and a needle and syringe, you can inject it straight into each plant. This is a one-and-done job, and I recommend using a can of spray paint to mark the ones you’ve injected.

If the area is too big for either of these to be feasible then you’ll want to strim all of the plants leaving half a foot-a foot of plant sticking up (bag up or burn what you strim). Then spray with a strong 2,4d weedkiller. Another option is Kurtail Gold but we found we had to make it double strength and spray 4-5x in the season, and they grew back the next season anyway .

The silver bullet for mares tail used to be ammonium sulphamate, which can still be purchased as a compost heap accelerator, but it is now illegal to use as a weedkiller and it would be illegal to recommend using this!

There is a fairly new weed killer on the market that claims to control mares tail, and doesn’t contain glyphosate called Neudorff Weedkiller Plus
It does seem to kill top growth (needs to be crushed before spraying) but isn’t a permanent cure as the mares tail will reappear from the roots. It contains Pelargonic acid.

Thanks Nan will check it out

Thanks @londonmummy1966 I'll give the Kew Gardens method a try!

@CrashBank thanks for the tip! So far I have been religiously mixing my glysophate with wallpaper paste and brushing it on every two weeks and have had some success. However v, the war is not yet won so may look for compost accelerator reinforcements!

I've got a bit of mare's tail in my damp, shady back border. I just pull up what I see, it doesn't seem to get out of hand because there's so much competition from the plants that are supposed to be there - mostly astilbe, purple loosestrife and something else I've forgotten the name of (I think a polygonum but may have that completely wrong. It's the latter which is taking over since a rhododendron died and it got a lot more light.

So in some situations that may be the easiest (and wildlife-friendly) option - smother it with other stuff.