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Arc Tourist
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Our back garden was riddled with them too, never thought of WD 40, but tried the vinegar-epsom salts-fairy liquid concoction, round up, and other commercial offerings to no avail. A can of WD 40 would be cheap enough to test on a small area, and I'm confident many of us here would like to know your results ? I just ended up getting a strimmer to clear the mares tail and other weeds. Except for raking it up a couple of days later, an hour's work cut it all away.
Suphate of ammonium - as mentioned by others, and me, lots of times on here.
I sprayed it and killed everything. Where it mattered that I didn't wipe everything out, I used a plastic syringe to shove it down the snapped off stems of individual plants.
I'm now not over-run with it - but it took a couple of years to do so. It still reappears but only a few individual stems (that I can see) - its been around forever, and its goes deep - so unlikely to ever completely go, especially as surrounding gardens have it.
I sprayed it and killed everything. Where it mattered that I didn't wipe everything out, I used a plastic syringe to shove it down the snapped off stems of individual plants.
I'm now not over-run with it - but it took a couple of years to do so. It still reappears but only a few individual stems (that I can see) - its been around forever, and its goes deep - so unlikely to ever completely go, especially as surrounding gardens have it.
daleyd
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I think I’m going to have to try that route at the front of our house, the stuff is pushing through the tarmac on the drive, which is not a problem as it’ll be going soon but I want to make sure it doesn’t come back through whatever we replace it with …
brightspark
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its a pig to get rid of. vinegar kills the tops off but not the roots ive just gone to town on back garden. tons of brambles of the railway and used 2 doses of sbk . if its bad your best off digging it all out and putting fresh soil in
steveo3002
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been using this and yes it kills it within 48 hrs , trouble is for us it pops out somewhere else instead , so im not sure if its getting to the roots or were just riddled with it
brightspark
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i dug out soil along the daughters border with neighbor and the bloody stuff came back they had it as well so the roots must travel
steveo3002
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we had them coming up here n there , then i redid the fence and disturbed all the borders and thats woken them up and theyre coming up regular , not uncommon to spot 6-8 new ones every couple of days
doesnt help the neibours dont keep on top of thier gardens so theyre probably rampant there
doesnt help the neibours dont keep on top of thier gardens so theyre probably rampant there
steveo3002
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comments says it still comes back ....wd40 wont work out any cheaper than the weed killer stuff
marlinspike
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We have an issue with it since having the garden landscaped. It's moved from the beds, where we use weed suppressing fabric, to the lawn.
Ordinary weedkiller did little but a product called Neudorf from Amazon works - but it takes a long, sustained campaign. You paint it on the leaves and it travels down into the root, killing that plant and any linked to it. Requires several applications though.
Check the details though to make sure it says it kills horses tails as they make several different weedkillers.
Ordinary weedkiller did little but a product called Neudorf from Amazon works - but it takes a long, sustained campaign. You paint it on the leaves and it travels down into the root, killing that plant and any linked to it. Requires several applications though.
Check the details though to make sure it says it kills horses tails as they make several different weedkillers.
Seadog
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As suggested, Ammonium Sulphamate. It will kill the root as well, even though they can go down several feet. Make sure that you add a few drops of washing up liquid to aid wetting, and only spray when you've at least four or five dry hours expected. I completely eradicated it from my garden in little over a year.
marlinspike
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Called in Aldi this morning and ended up buying their £20 heat weed killer. Doubt it would do much to eradicate horse tail but thought we'd give it a go on the other ones.
mart
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I'm not not sure if you meant to type sulphate of ammonia, but sulphate of ammonia is a high nitrogen fertiliser. It makes plants grow really well.
I meant sulphamate of ammonium, or really ammonium sulphamate - oops! I'll correct my original post!!!!
Well, I would edit it -except there doesn't seem to be the option to edit it!
Thing with mares tail, its not a single plant, or even multiple plants . . . its a massive underground network that sends shoots to the surface . . . you get rid of one shoot emergence . . . but there's another ten behind the greenhouse . . . five more the other side of the shed . . . probably millions in the lawn, shawn off enough not to spot . . .
I spotted some coming through the tarmac out front yesterday . . .
I spotted some coming through the tarmac out front yesterday . . .
