Hi,

Does anyone know a reliable way of ridding Horsetail from my allotment?

Old wives tales, organic methods or napalm..... as long as it works I don't mind.

I was told to use vinegar??? but wouldn't that turn the soil acidic?


Cheers in advance

I've had a quick look round t'interweb and would have thought vinegar was the last thing you need, as it thrives in acidic soil.

Anyway, I found this for you:

"If you don't want to be organic, use a glyphosate based weedkiller.

(I've got japanese knotweed, horsetail and bindweed and use Roundup Pro Biactive. It seems to work instantly on everything but the japanese knotweed which is requiring a bit of persistence!)

Make up the weedkiller as instructed on the packaging and then mix in some wallpaper paste to make it into a gloopy gel. Wear rubber gloves and stroke this on to every bit you see, once a week or once a fortnight and hopefully that should deal with it whilst allowing you to avoid accidentally weedkilling your other plants through spraying the weedkiller.

I've found this very effective on horsetail as well, which is usually difficult to kill of with sprays, as it has a waterproof epidermis that normally stops weedkillers from penetrating."

Looks like you need to head to a wallpaper shop!

I had a lot of trouble with brambles in my garden - every time one popped up and got a bit of leaf on it, I sprayed it with weedkiller. It took me 2 or 3 years to stop the bugger completely, but I got there in the end!

Not sure this is of any help but some years ago some friends of ours moved house and their new house had a tarmac tennis court. Horsetail had grown through the tarmac it is that strong and they had to use commercial contractors who used a product not available to joe public to get rid of it. May be worth asking around some of the comercial operators.

I
(I've got japanese knotweed, horsetail and bindweed and use Roundup Pro Biactive. It seems to work instantly on everything but the japanese knotweed which is requiring a bit of persistence!)

Make up the weedkiller as instructed on the packaging and then mix in some wallpaper paste to make it into a gloopy gel. Wear rubber gloves and stroke this on to every bit you see, once a week or once a fortnight and hopefully that should deal with it whilst allowing you to avoid accidentally weedkilling your other plants through spraying the weedkiller.

I've found this very effective on horsetail as well, which is usually difficult to kill of with sprays, as it has a waterproof epidermis that normally stops weedkillers from penetrating."
!

Brilliant Dozy, thanks for that. Wallpaper paste is the future:)

To the OP, before you paste the horsetails, crush some of them using your hands. This will break open the ultra tough silicone layer on the outside of the leaves and allow the Glyphosate in to do its thing.