How do I get rid of the weed "Mares Tail"?

Question

Our garden is overrun with mares tail - what is the best way to keep it at bay / get rid of it?

Answer 1

It's the most difficult weed to kill, the roots go down 30ft or more, the best thing I've found is just to keep hoeing regularly, you will find that after 2 or 3 years they have almost gone.

Answer 2

Radstar is correct, you won't get rid of it and if you have it so do your neighbours, so it's going to reseed.

It's one of the oldest plants on the planet, when dinosaurs ruled, it was what passed as trees at the time, growing huge.

Principle thing to know about it is it needs a water source, so you have water under your garden. Sodium Chloride will set it back, but kill everything else, much the same as Roundup, but cheaper. The only way to stay on top of it is to constantly dig it out, but you never get the whole root.

There's a story where I live of an old man putting a yard long root on his fireplace for a year as an experiment and then planting it. Legend has it the poxy stuff sprouted.

Answer 3

Sodium CHLORATE(Not Chloride,which is common salt) is a sure killer.Use only on vacant ground,it's persistent and will kill all plant growth.

Otherwise,Sodium Chlorate is the cheapest and most readily available weedkiller for large scale use,if applied correctly in accordance with the instructions.

Answer 4

try diesel it kills nearly everything

Answer 5

Roundup, roundup and roundup!

Mares tail is a swine....the roots are very deep (known to be up to 8 feet) and you only need a bit left for it to start again!

It has a "waxy" coating which will prevent most of any applied weedkiller from entering it (thus making the weedkiller less effective)

So, you need to "bruise" the plant - stamp on it or bash it about and then spray with Roundup.  Roundup is a translocated weedkiller which means that it kills down to the roots but this takes time (a couple of weeks before you see any effect)

It will "knock" mares tail back.  However, it will return - so do it again and "zap it every time you see new shoot!

Vigilance is the key - keep vigilant and you will control (if not eradicate) this pesky weed!

Have fun!