Japanese Knotweed - Does it taste nice?

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Japanese Knotweed - Does it taste nice?
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Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat May 29, 10 9:01 am Post subject:
I think I was told that if you keep cutting it down when it reaches 5 leaves, then it depletes the roots. Not sure I believe it though. A syringe full of glyphosate is, I believe, the best way to kill it.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45460
Location: yes

Posted: Sat May 29, 10 9:45 pm Post subject:
ninja gardening

bingo

Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 4401
Location: The Games Room normally!

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 10 11:19 pm Post subject:
Yeah, eat it......with sugar like Rhubarb.

Grenwich

Joined: 20 Jan 2008
Posts: 151
Location: Leicestershire

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 10 10:23 am Post subject:

I think I was told that if you keep cutting it down when it reaches 5 leaves, then it depletes the roots.
Not sure I believe it though.

Yes HL, it does work but takes persistence. I had a large patch under an apple tree when we moved here 5 years ago. I dug out as much of the root system as I could but had to be careful of the apple tree roots. Since then I grub up the shoots as soon as they appear and they have gradually reduced in number. I've only pulled up about 10 or 12 spears this year. But I KNOW that if I were to stop being so vigilant it would be back in a blink. G.

mihto

Joined: 03 Feb 2008
Posts: 3273
Location: West coast of Norway

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 10 3:47 pm Post subject:

SO.

I always knew I had knotweed in my garden. Stuck in the wilderness at the back of the house where nobody goes except for blueberries in July, the patch was left undisturbed. Three years ago I realized that the plant is an alien and able to take over large patches and turn them into monoculture. I played with the idea of getting rid of it, eventually.

This year a state agency declared war on ten alien plants/animals and I was interviewed by the local newspaper on the topic. By then I had decided to sort out my own back yard. This thread spurned me into action.

Thank you ever so much for starting it, Katieowl! I just spent two very hot and tough hours clearing the stuff out and making a huge pile. It will dry for a couple of weeks and then be burnt.

The Five Year War against knotweed has started.

Let the games begin

matt_hooks

Joined: 01 Aug 2010
Posts: 312
Location: Lambourn(ish) Berkshire

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 10 5:10 pm Post subject:

mihto wrote:

The Five Year War against knotweed has started.

Let the games begin

Shall we run a book? I've got 10 to 1 on that the knotweed wins!

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45460
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 10 5:49 pm Post subject:

dig out and bury at least 5 m deep with a machine

good for sword practice every few weeks in the summer

i know a couple of patches that have died ,one by a tree growing over it ,one by hardcore poison by spray several times

tough plant

i recon it needs biological control but that might be the cane toad revisited or we learn to live with it

the upside is if one needs an obsession removing this plant is ace cos it will always be there

matt_hooks

Joined: 01 Aug 2010
Posts: 312
Location: Lambourn(ish) Berkshire

Posted: Mon Aug 09, 10 6:54 pm Post subject:
A bit like the rhodies in Scotland. The councils spend hundreds of thousands every year, just to stand still!

mihto

Joined: 03 Feb 2008
Posts: 3273
Location: West coast of Norway

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 11 12:25 pm Post subject:

mihto wrote:

SO.

Second year in the war against knotweed.

Never knew a plant like this ever existed. I'm now pulling out roots as thick as my wrist. They are rather brittle and break off at the slightest tear. I must have pulled out 20 kg at least. The patch is no more than 10 square meters but the roots are in layers and probably reach China. They are too close to the house for comfort. Our town is full of the stuff and nobody seem to care. Once it reaches the waterways it will be too late.

This plant is a triffid and it will eventually take over the world

Katieowl

Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 4317
Location: West Wales

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 11 2:35 pm Post subject:

Ours is straggly looking from being pulled up regularly, but still there! OH thinks it has moved quite a way forward from the original spot we noticed it. We're dealing with it the way recommended for plants growing in SSSI's, by just pulling of the top growth to weaken.

I'd lay money on the local farmer using his digger to dig out for the septic tank here at some point in the past as our source of 'infection' - he's got a stand of it on the boundary of one of his fields...he's spraying it every year with something which only kills the top growth, every spring we've been here it's come back, and new growth is appearing a LONG way down the lane (both ways)

You are treating it as a bio hazard aren't you Mihto

? I'm carefully drying it out and burning it on site. It's 'controlled waste' here!

Oh...and I still haven't tried eating it!

Kate

mihto

Joined: 03 Feb 2008
Posts: 3273
Location: West coast of Norway

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 11 2:58 pm Post subject:

Bio-hazard indeed. The roots are all piled up to dry out and will be burnt ASAP. I intend to go over the area once a week and dig out whatever root is left.

Roundup has been used but according to the book only the above-ground bits die. Only way to really get rid of the stuff is taking all the roots out. This is only year two and the progress is massive. Maybe nothing will come up next year?

(The Optimist: Sure, baby. The Pessimist: In your flippin' dreams).

Katieowl

Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 4317
Location: West Wales

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 11 3:14 pm Post subject:

Well this is Wales, so progress is slow....too cold, too windy, it's hardly ideal growing conditions for anything!

We always vowed if we had knotweed in the garden we'd move. It was steadily advancing towards us from the railway embankment in London, it had already made it's way UP a long garden (a good 100'), and UNDER the house opposite

to grow in their front Garden. It only had about fifteen yards to go to our front garden. So we moved here, and BINGO it came up first spring!

But at least we don't have s*dding Bindweed here too

Kate

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 11 8:54 pm Post subject:
It occurred to me that, since it grows so prolificly, could it be used for biofuel? The danger is obvioulsy the risk of dropping any bits during the harvest and spreading it further...

Northern Boy

Joined: 04 Oct 2010
Posts: 976

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 11 9:42 am Post subject:

Living in the Swansea Valley this stuff is more common than rain. We are apparently a site where biocontrol is being trialled..... using another non-native species.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8585344.stm

Discovered a patch at the bottom of our garden. It's embedded in the wall/hedgerow and thus impossible to dig out. Vigorous and repeated Glyphosphate appears to have done the trick for now.

Gavin Bl

Joined: 14 Jul 2006
Posts: 281
Location: Cardiff

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 11 9:56 pm Post subject:
I cut a load of it down, with a conservation group here in Cardiff to try and suppress it. From being cut down to ground level by my, it was 5ft high again, less than 2 months later will be cutting again in a couple of weeks.

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