Mares tail

[The Xmas Furry]

As in the weed.
I've noticed I have a huge amount all sprouting across one end of a paddock where I've not seen it before.
Occasionally I've found the odd bit over the years much further up the fields but in minute amount, just one or 2 plants. This is a forest of the spears poking up covering about a 40m x 40m area, v v odd.

What is the most up to date effective method of dealing with it?

 

[Rowreach]

Not an up to date method as such, but an older farmer friend advised scuffing the plants up with your boot before applying your choice of weedkiller. It works, it allows the weedkiller into the plant and down into the roots. Just squirting it on undamaged plants is largely ineffective as that stuff could survive an apocalypse.

 

[Goldenstar]

I think the only control is chemical spray you will need to talk to a specialist about which one .
whatever you do don’t dig it up each break you make in a root makes another plant .

 

[SEL]

Envy was a fail, round up was a fail. Both knocked it back but in last year's drought the green at the bottom of my paddock was solely mare's tail.

 

[Rowreach]

Envy was a fail, round up was a fail. Both knocked it back but in last year's drought the green at the bottom of my paddock was solely mare's tail.

Did you squish the plants before you applied it? It was the gamechanger for me.

 

[Britestar]

Its prehistoric, very hard to get rid of. Speak to a professional about it.
Crushing is recommended.

 

[southerncomfort]

Definitely get a licensed professional sprayer in. Nothing off the shelf will do the job unfortunately.

Ours took 2 sprayings but hasn't come back this year.

 

[Andie02]

https://www.progreen.co.uk/weed-control/horsetail-marestail-control/ have a look at the products here. The addition of the K Plus adjuvent assists in the breakdown of the silica coating on the marestail. We only had a small amount re growing in our garden so used the SBk last year but added extra of the K Plus as we are in a very hard water area. It is too early for us to see if it has regrown. The SBK is for use with a knapsack sprayer and the Kurtail is for use with a boom sprayer. They both have good reviews. It started to turn brown within 48 hrs when sprayed last year.

 

[PurBee]

The soil is lacking in silica. From a soil-nutrient perspective, we get weeds suddenly pop-up in our paddocks that are there to bring nutrients that are lacking into the topsoil.
Silica helps all plants/grasses be resistant to insect damage, over-grazing, makes stronger plants to withstand drought, and inversely excessive flooding (excess water washes out nutrients from the soil so weeds are common on wetlands)
You’re likely finding a lot more this year than last due to the uk’s summer extended heat-drought, which stressed-out many fields.
Silica helps grasses hold water better within the leaf, so the field would have used-up silica stores last year in the topsoil to help the grass hold on to water, before drying out
Mare’s tail is nature’s answer to bringing more silica to the surface soil, as mare’s tail is very high in silica. It’s roots can be 2m deep.

The Role of Silica in Field Crops - OMEX

Silica is one of the most abundant elements on earth and can help alleviate the effects of biotic and abiotic stress in plants.

omexcanada.com

The permanent solution would be to apply silica to the topsoil, as the soil is trying to do with mare’s tail plant.
I’d also mow the shoots of it very low, then apply silica. Keep mowing it this year so it doesnt get developed. Mowing knocks-back most weeds and weakens them. Also mowing speed-up the process nature is trying to do - it grows these plants for nutrients for the topsoil that are lacking - those nutrients will only be available when the plant dies-off at the end of the grow-season and rots into the soil. So if we mow them regularly, they will rot regularly throughout the grow season, adding nutrition to the soil, aswell as us reducing the size of toxic plants for our horses to eat, reducing risk of toxicity-effect.

Whatever route you choose, silica or herbicide, if there’s lots, you’ll have to fence off and not allow grazing. The thiaminase is still present in the dry plant in hay, so would still be present in the sprayed plant drying out - youd have to wait for it to be completely rotted-away for it to be safe to graze.

They say its not palatable to horses, but my 2 have grazed a section and they were not avoiding the few plants i had poking up! So dont rely on the ‘its unpalatable’ rhetoric that ive read here and there.
If you find you have it poking-up in all grazing areas but sparse, think of a long-term plan of applying silica dusting to the surface of affected fields, keep it mowed low to weaken the plants, and have some B1 50mg or 100mg on hand in the horse medicine box should you find a horse affected by it - slight neuro-type conditions, stumbling and losing condition/weight loss.

Its an accumulative toxin, that destroys B1, so its not a 1 mouthful and theyre dead-type plant, thankfully. But because they dont get B1 in many bagged feeds/balancers, they can become depleted by thiaminase in mare’s tail, so its important to keep a close-eye on amount of mare’s tail growing and pull them off areas where there’s 1 plant per metre.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Thanks all, I should have also added, that I don't think I can spray over even half of it. It's all towards a corner where there is a natural spring which goes towards drainage ditch outside my boundary. The natural spring is only a mere trickle but I do have marsh thin reeds on part of it too.
V frustrating as never ever had mares tails in that paddock, nor any ragwort (and still no rag currently)

 

[DirectorFury]

Kurtail with K Plus (and Amvista spore stop) has made a massive difference to our garden which was overrun with the stuff. I can already see that I’ll need to spray again this summer — I did 3 rounds last year so expecting the same again this year.

You can use Kurtail in a knapsack sprayer but need to wear waterproof overalls and ideally have a filtered respirator.

My only other advice would be to sell up and move away . It seems to be impossible to get rid of permanently, the best you can do is hold it at bay.

I *definitely* wouldn’t mow it!! You’d have to fully decontaminate the mower (rhizomes can sprout from as little as a 1mm fragment) and burn the cuttings. It’s not worth the hassle.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

The soil is lacking in silica. From a soil-nutrient perspective, we get weeds suddenly pop-up in our paddocks that are there to bring nutrients that are lacking into the topsoil.
Silica helps all plants/grasses be resistant to insect damage, over-grazing, makes stronger plants to withstand drought, and inversely excessive flooding (excess water washes out nutrients from the soil so weeds are common on wetlands)
You’re likely finding a lot more this year than last due to the uk’s summer extended heat-drought, which stressed-out many fields.
Silica helps grasses hold water better within the leaf, so the field would have used-up silica stores last year in the topsoil to help the grass hold on to water, before drying out
Mare’s tail is nature’s answer to bringing more silica to the surface soil, as mare’s tail is very high in silica. It’s roots can be 2m deep.

The Role of Silica in Field Crops - OMEX

Silica is one of the most abundant elements on earth and can help alleviate the effects of biotic and abiotic stress in plants.

omexcanada.com

The permanent solution would be to apply silica to the topsoil, as the soil is trying to do with mare’s tail plant.
I’d also mow the shoots of it very low, then apply silica. Keep mowing it this year so it doesnt get developed. Mowing knocks-back most weeds and weakens them. Also mowing speed-up the process nature is trying to do - it grows these plants for nutrients for the topsoil that are lacking - those nutrients will only be available when the plant dies-off at the end of the grow-season and rots into the soil. So if we mow them regularly, they will rot regularly throughout the grow season, adding nutrition to the soil, aswell as us reducing the size of toxic plants for our horses to eat, reducing risk of toxicity-effect.

Whatever route you choose, silica or herbicide, if there’s lots, you’ll have to fence off and not allow grazing. The thiaminase is still present in the dry plant in hay, so would still be present in the sprayed plant drying out - youd have to wait for it to be completely rotted-away for it to be safe to graze.

They say its not palatable to horses, but my 2 have grazed a section and they were not avoiding the few plants i had poking up! So dont rely on the ‘its unpalatable’ rhetoric that ive read here and there.
If you find you have it poking-up in all grazing areas but sparse, think of a long-term plan of applying silica dusting to the surface of affected fields, keep it mowed low to weaken the plants, and have some B1 50mg or 100mg on hand in the horse medicine box should you find a horse affected by it - slight neuro-type conditions, stumbling and losing condition/weight loss.

Its an accumulative toxin, that destroys B1, so its not a 1 mouthful and theyre dead-type plant, thankfully. But because they dont get B1 in many bagged feeds/balancers, they can become depleted by thiaminase in mare’s tail, so its important to keep a close-eye on amount of mare’s tail growing and pull them off areas where there’s 1 plant per metre.

Purbee, that paddock isnt lacking in silica, had routine soil tested due to the natural spring in the corner - just away from the mares tail.

As mentioned in my 1st post, I've had the odd piece much further away, but never there. It actually looks like some clown planted it as it's in such a regimented area! I know they haven't....

I have 4.5 acres of grazing, this patch is a very small percentage area, its v odd how it's just arrived this year after owning and knowing my yard for well over 40 years!

 

[Andie02]

Thanks all, I should have also added, that I don't think I can spray over even half of it. It's all towards a corner where there is a natural spring which goes towards drainage ditch outside my boundary. The natural spring is only a mere trickle but I do have marsh thin reeds on part of it too.
V frustrating as never ever had mares tails in that paddock, nor any ragwort (and still no rag currently)

I would contact Progreen.co.uk I have found them to be very helpful.

ETA

The blue dye that they sell is very useful to add to any mix that you spray so that you can see where you have been.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I would contact Progreen.co.uk I have found them to be very helpful.

Thank you, I'll give them a try

 

[Burnttoast]

The soil is lacking in silica. From a soil-nutrient perspective, we get weeds suddenly pop-up in our paddocks that are there to bring nutrients that are lacking into the topsoil.

Is there any evidence that occurs? It sounds implausible tbh. How is soil going to 'know' what it lacks and influence a particular plant to grow? What happens if the seeds/spores of the necessary plant are absent?

 

[SEL]

Did you squish the plants before you applied it? It was the gamechanger for me.

Not as well as I should have done I suspect. It came through in big patches and caught me by surprise.

I'm going to try Kurtail and if adding silica helps I'll do that too. Takes 1/4 acre out of circulation until winter.

 

[DirectorFury]

Purbee, that paddock isnt lacking in silica, had routine soil tested due to the natural spring in the corner - just away from the mares tail.

As mentioned in my 1st post, I've had the odd piece much further away, but never there. It actually looks like some clown planted it as it's in such a regimented area! I know they haven't....

I have 4.5 acres of grazing, this patch is a very small percentage area, its v odd how it's just arrived this year after owning and knowing my yard for well over 40 years!

Can you look over the boundary into neighbouring land and see if you can spot it there? The root systems can span as far as a football pitch, so it’s likely got in from one of your neighbours.

That’s assuming that your neighbours aren’t as stupid as mine - they bought some back that they found on a walk and planted it because the woman thought it was such a pretty plant!! It’s completely taken over about 10 gardens. Unfortunately they’ve moved away now or I’d be trying to get them to pay for the cost of the weedkiller.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Can you look over the boundary into neighbouring land and see if you can spot it there? The root systems can span as far as a football pitch, so it’s likely got in from one of your neighbours.

That’s assuming that your neighbours aren’t as stupid as mine - they bought some back that they found on a walk and planted it because the woman thought it was such a pretty plant!! It’s completely taken over about 10 gardens. Unfortunately they’ve moved away now or I’d be trying to get them to pay for the cost of the weedkiller.

I've already checked, but thank you. It's old water meadow adjacent to that side, I used to rent it for about 20 yrs. It does have a small patch of hemlock in (I never managed to completely eradicate it either) but not a hint of mares tail in there.

 

[rextherobber]

I'm in the same position as you, only saw the odd sprig a few years ago, this year the "flower" spikes seem to be everywhere. Second speaking to Progreen, they are really helpful. Being near water could be an issue. I've just sprayed with Spore Stop, prior to the SBK and adjuvant mix later. Last year I tried a thick manure mulch on a corner patch, so far I can't see anything growing there, and have hand picked the spore spikes in the field I'm actually using at the moment.

 

[rextherobber]

Kurtail with K Plus (and Amvista spore stop) has made a massive difference to our garden which was overrun with the stuff. I can already see that I’ll need to spray again this summer — I did 3 rounds last year so expecting the same again this year.

You can use Kurtail in a knapsack sprayer but need to wear waterproof overalls and ideally have a filtered respirator.

My only other advice would be to sell up and move away . It seems to be impossible to get rid of permanently, the best you can do is hold it at bay.

I *definitely* wouldn’t mow it!! You’d have to fully decontaminate the mower (rhizomes can sprout from as little as a 1mm fragment) and burn the cuttings. It’s not worth the hassle.

Progreen were quite emphatic about only using Kurtail with a boom sprayer when I asked - apparently it can cause irreparable damage to your eyes, amongst other things...

 

[Gloi]

I have been trying with no success to get it out of my garden since we moved in in 1985. There is a culverted beck along the road in front of the houses so it was likely there before they were built in the 70s. Nuke it from orbit perhaps.
I will look into spore stop. My way of dealing with them is to hide them in larger plants.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Bizarrely, Grazon90 seems to zap it dead for a whole season. I've got pockets of mare's tail and the Grazon works on it.

 

[Andie02]

@DirectorFury said Kurtail with K Plus (and Amvista spore stop) has made a massive difference to our garden which was overrun with the stuff. I can already see that I’ll need to spray again this summer — I did 3 rounds last year so expecting the same again this year.



I only needed to spray our barstewards once last year, no re-growth again, but I did wait until they were about 6" long, and did make the mix up stronger with both the SBK and the K Plus, than suggested in the instructions. I didn't squish / stamp on the beggars. I had a look yesterday, no sign of any yet but in previous years it has been a little later on into May before any has appeared. Later on last year we had the drive extended with block paving on the area of garden where some of the marestail has previously come up, so that we have a flat area to park as the drive is sloping, and to reduce the amount of gardening to do on the front of the house. There is still a large area of garden remaining where it has come through before. I will update later on if it returns, I think that it will probably need to be hit full on hard for a few years. If it appears through the new block paving I will give it plenty of K Plus and salt.