scats
Well-Known Member
Best way to deal with this? We’ve got a paddock that’s covered in the stuff this year.
Marestail
- Thread starter scats
- Start date
Britestar
Well-Known Member
It's prehistoric, nigh on impossible to get rid of.
Agri specialist said best to flail it to break it up and then spray with a specific thing, but sorry can't remember what it is
.
Even then it's going to come back.
Agri specialist said best to flail it to break it up and then spray with a specific thing, but sorry can't remember what it is
.Even then it's going to come back.
Burnttoast
Well-Known Member
Can you use that field in the winter? If so I would graze over winter and start mowing as soon as the new spore heads appear, then mow the relevant area frequently all summer, if possible. It may take several years but this can really knock it back. The alternative is something like kurtail, which will kill everything (not always the horsetail though) and necessitate a reseed.
dreamcometrue
Well-Known Member
I had it on my allotment and had to give it up. It’s soul destroying trying to get rid of it. Only repeated application of strong herbicide will do it. The roots go down metres and it just regenerates.
It is poisonous to horses too.
It is poisonous to horses too.
scats
Well-Known Member
Oh what a nightmare. The field was grazed during the winter but rested pretty much since around end of Feb. It’s absolutely covered in the stuff. We could have done with it this summer but can make do without if need be.
Clodagh
Playing chess with pigeons
It tends to grow in wet/compacted and or marshy and sour soil. So as a long term I’d try to outcompete it. Agrivate, fertilise the grass and top it all hard. We never got rid of it at the farm in one paddock but it lessened.
Gloi
Too little time, too much to read.
My garden has marestail. It must have been there when the house was built in the 70s and is still there now. Over the years I have tried to control it but have now given up as keeping on top of it us soul destroying. The best thing I've found is keeping the area as lawn and mowing it short regularly which weakens it a bit. I grow big plants to cover it up.
Burnttoast
Well-Known Member
Only if they eat lots (it causes B1 deficiency) and ill effects are fortunately easily remedied with vitamin injections if they occur. In small amounts it has benefits and I used to pick it occasionally for our guys as part of their plant bouquets when we were on livery.
SEL
Well-Known Member
It's a very bad year for it - the grass is stunted but mares tail roots go so deep they can get water. My winter field is covered. We sprayed 2 years ago and killed everything but the bl**dy stuff is back stronger than ever.
I left my horses on that paddock late the first year we owned the yard and got some quirky liver results so now they are off it by the end of March.
I left my horses on that paddock late the first year we owned the yard and got some quirky liver results so now they are off it by the end of March.
PurBee
Well-Known Member
It’s dotted around our land where it’s either boggy, or compacted soil. Soil type it seems to like all! It’s in sandy limestone aswell as pure black peatland.
In 1 field a certain small section had a fair bit of it last year so I mowed it down to an inch, removed clippings and grazed it - it was weakened by the tight mowing - I strimmed other inaccessible to mower areas.
This year there’s still a bit in those sections but not as much, so I think mowing it tight knocks it back.
As an aside, anywhere that’s overgrazed will encourage weeds to fill in the gaps between grasses. So keeping a well stocked grassland will enable grasses to dominate and weeds minimised.
I have deer on my land buggering up my ‘rested grazing’ efforts, but my human-crops deer-fenced large area has grass sections which I allow to grow, and its dominating, with barely any undesirable (to horses) weeds. It’s thick with grass and no weeds, whereas where there is bare soil, there are weeds. Mother Nature does fill-in bare soil with weeds. So keeping paddocks over-seeded and thickly sown with grasses minimises weeds.
In 1 field a certain small section had a fair bit of it last year so I mowed it down to an inch, removed clippings and grazed it - it was weakened by the tight mowing - I strimmed other inaccessible to mower areas.
This year there’s still a bit in those sections but not as much, so I think mowing it tight knocks it back.
As an aside, anywhere that’s overgrazed will encourage weeds to fill in the gaps between grasses. So keeping a well stocked grassland will enable grasses to dominate and weeds minimised.
I have deer on my land buggering up my ‘rested grazing’ efforts, but my human-crops deer-fenced large area has grass sections which I allow to grow, and its dominating, with barely any undesirable (to horses) weeds. It’s thick with grass and no weeds, whereas where there is bare soil, there are weeds. Mother Nature does fill-in bare soil with weeds. So keeping paddocks over-seeded and thickly sown with grasses minimises weeds.
rextherobber
Well-Known Member
Progreen are great for advice, maybe give them a call?
Highmileagecob
Well-Known Member
On small areas, excluding the light will knock it back. I realise that sheeting a paddock in light excluding fabric is a non starter, but it may be possible to cover the worst areas with big bale wrapping. Probably the only way to deal with a field would be to plough and chain harrow several times, and physically remove the root runs. Weed killer only works if you can break down the tough outer membrane of the plant first - in a garden, brushing with a stiff brush will do it.
Keith_Beef
Novice equestrian, accomplished equichetrian
What plant are we talking about, here?
Erigeron canadensis, Hippuris vulgaris and Equisetum arvense are all called marestail among other names.
Erigeron canadensis, Hippuris vulgaris and Equisetum arvense are all called marestail among other names.
Erigeron canadensis - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Hippuris vulgaris - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Equisetum arvense - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Highmileagecob
Well-Known Member
Probably vulgaris. That's the common one.
rextherobber
Well-Known Member
Progreen sell an additive to put in the weedkiller mix to break down the waxy coating and a dye so you can see where you've been if you're spot weedkilling. ( a friend then told me Fairy Liquid and food colouring would also work!) And Sporestop, which you can spray on the "flower" spikes. It's been a few years since I spoke to them, but I believe the most effective treatment for it can only be applied by a tractor mounted boom sprayer. I thought I'd killed a patch by putting a thick layer of horse poo on it, similar to your black plastic idea, but it came back after a year or two. Progreen also didn't recommend disturbing the soil ( ploughing) as the roots are dark and brittle and every tiny piece can start growing. There does seem loads more of it this year...
scats
Well-Known Member
What plant are we talking about, here?
Erigeron canadensis, Hippuris vulgaris and Equisetum arvense are all called marestail among other names.
Erigeron canadensis - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.orgHippuris vulgaris - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.orgEquisetum arvense - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
The third one. Is that horsetail then, not marestail?
I’ll admit that my knowledge of plants and weeds is pretty useless.
SEL
Well-Known Member
We know what you mean! I think they're all thugs.
I saw the stuff punch it's way through a tarmac drive so I'm not sure weed suppressant fabric would do much. I'll be interested if @PurBee strimming does anything long term. We've backed off doing that in case it has the opposite effect.
Burnttoast
Well-Known Member
That's an aquatic plant. I am assuming Equisetum arvense, often called marestail, though the 'proper' common name is field horsetail
Miss_Millie
Well-Known Member
I have a sizeable area with marestail, that part of the field is boggy with bad drainage. In theory if the drainage is improved and the soil PH and fertility is altered, it may just die out. That is presuming there are some conditions it doesn't like. I know it has a reputation for being very difficult to get rid of though.
Northern Hare
Well-Known Member
We had the common horsetail (3rd on the list above) covering a garden at a new build property built on an old allotment. I dug down to see if it was just contaminated topsoil but the roots went way down, so it must have regrown from the old weeds.
A local farmer told me they get rid of it by rolling it with a ridged roller to bruise it, then spray, but I'm not sure what with I'm afraid.
So he told me to bruise it with a rake and spray it with weedkiller (I used glyphosate) with a couple of drops of washing up detergent to help it stay on the plant. Everyone else had told me it was a lost cause, but after a couple of bruising/spraying cycles it got on top of it and died off.
A local farmer told me they get rid of it by rolling it with a ridged roller to bruise it, then spray, but I'm not sure what with I'm afraid.
So he told me to bruise it with a rake and spray it with weedkiller (I used glyphosate) with a couple of drops of washing up detergent to help it stay on the plant. Everyone else had told me it was a lost cause, but after a couple of bruising/spraying cycles it got on top of it and died off.
Ahrena
Well-Known Member
I’m on year 3 of attacking it with a vengeance. Last two years I’ve sprayed and pulled all of it up by hand in 1 paddock, sprayed and mowed another paddock.
There is less but still loads. As it’s in two patches, this year I’m covering it in a sheet and see if that’s more effective. Luckily it’s confined to two patches rather than the whole field but I don’t want it spreading further.
There is less but still loads. As it’s in two patches, this year I’m covering it in a sheet and see if that’s more effective. Luckily it’s confined to two patches rather than the whole field but I don’t want it spreading further.
Lois Lame
Well-Known Member
What plant are we talking about, here?
Erigeron canadensis, Hippuris vulgaris and Equisetum arvense are all called marestail among other names.
Erigeron canadensis - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.orgHippuris vulgaris - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.orgEquisetum arvense - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
I think we are talking about Fleabane, this fellow:
NSW WeedWise
weeds.dpi.nsw.gov.au
We had this in the nursery in which I worked, also at the paddock where I last kept a horse, but only in the front section of said paddock. At the nursery, it loved growing in pots of neglected Grevillea something or others, down the back. Management at that time was poor and there were problems, least of all the fleabane. People problems were the worst. Gawd.
Anyhow, my experience with fleabane is that it's easy to pull out when it's young. When it gets a metre tall, and it's growing in pots of grevilleas (140mm pots, the old 6" pots), and it's spread its roots into the ground below and having a lovely time and it keeping the pots upright, you cannot get it out. Well, you could, but you'd be cleaning up the area and chucking the grevilleas unless you decided to salvage them and take them up to the potting shed and repot, and spread the fleabane, so you'd probably just want to shove them into the rubbish pile. Every good nursery needs a big area for rubbish plants.
So that's my experience of fleabane. It's not a nasty, vicious beast; it's just strong and enjoys water from the sprinklers that is meant for other species.
I am a loather of poisons. I don't know why we want to poison everything and contaminate out world, just because companies want to make money and so convince us to use them. [Clobbers self of soapbox] It is interesting that fleabane is hard to poison. Maybe it's trying to teach us something. Pull me out when I am young, and if i get a foothold, chop me down beneath my crown. (Leave the roots that are beneath the crown in the soil. Roots are very good for soil.)
Lois Lame
Well-Known Member
Ah...
Conzya canadensis seems to have been renamed Erigeron canadensis.
(Obviously, not to be confused with Erigeron karvinskianus which is a pretty little plant when trimmed occasionally, otherwise it's spindly. Note to self: cut back the erigeron.)
Erigeron canadensis - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Conzya canadensis seems to have been renamed Erigeron canadensis.
(Obviously, not to be confused with Erigeron karvinskianus which is a pretty little plant when trimmed occasionally, otherwise it's spindly. Note to self: cut back the erigeron.)
TheOldTrout
Completely Unknown Member
We had this on our allotment. Nothing we tried got rid of it. It blasted its way through any cover we put over the soil.
Burnttoast
Well-Known Member
The OP's plant is Equisetum arvenseI think we are talking about Fleabane, this fellow:
NSW WeedWise
weeds.dpi.nsw.gov.au
We had this in the nursery in which I worked, also at the paddock where I last kept a horse, but only in the front section of said paddock. At the nursery, it loved growing in pots of neglected Grevillea something or others, down the back. Management at that time was poor and there were problems, least of all the fleabane. People problems were the worst. Gawd.
Anyhow, my experience with fleabane is that it's easy to pull out when it's young. When it gets a metre tall, and it's growing in pots of grevilleas (140mm pots, the old 6" pots), and it's spread its roots into the ground below and having a lovely time and it keeping the pots upright, you cannot get it out. Well, you could, but you'd be cleaning up the area and chucking the grevilleas unless you decided to salvage them and take them up to the potting shed and repot, and spread the fleabane, so you'd probably just want to shove them into the rubbish pile. Every good nursery needs a big area for rubbish plants.
So that's my experience of fleabane. It's not a nasty, vicious beast; it's just strong and enjoys water from the sprinklers that is meant for other species.
I am a loather of poisons. I don't know why we want to poison everything and contaminate out world, just because companies want to make money and so convince us to use them. [Clobbers self of soapbox] It is interesting that fleabane is hard to poison. Maybe it's trying to teach us something. Pull me out when I am young, and if i get a foothold, chop me down beneath my crown. (Leave the roots that are beneath the crown in the soil. Roots are very good for soil.)
Andie02
Well-Known Member
https://www.progreen.co.uk/problem/mare-s-horse-tail They are very helpful if you need to ask their advice.
dreamcometrue
Well-Known Member
It was the same on mine @TheOldTrout. I dug the plot over and sieved the soil to remove every trace of the roots and within a year the soil was riddled with the mature plants and a dense network of the roots. You can’t win and I gave up.
Other allotment holders told me that repeated applications of Diamond weed killer were the only method of keeping it down but who wants to eat vegetables grown in that soil afterwards?
