Posts: 477
From: u.k
Registered: Apr 2009

posted July 02, 2008 06:36 PM            

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Help me Knowflakes! I beg of you.
A property I bought has an infestation of something called horsetail or marestail or f*!%*! b"**!%: as I like to call it.

I paid £4000 or approx $7000 to have a driveway installed in March and this bloody stuff is breaking it up and growing through.

I have searched on the internet and basically the upshot is...you shouldn't buy a property if it has it.
Oh Yeah??? Bit late in the day pal!

So I am nothing if not up for a challenge.
It has to go. We cannot co exist.
It laughs in the face of sodium chlorate.
Gobbles up with relish my salt vinegar concoction.
If I pull it up it cheerily pops up somewhere else.
So I am open to some
a. Advice from farmers.Either chemical annhilation or old wifeys tales.
b. A spell "To rid ye garden of damned pestilence"
c.Some words of comfort and hope
Sadly at the moment I am a bit cross with Gaia's garden.

P.S It's silica and has been around since the beginning of time. I have a theory it may have been responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs.
HELP ME!!!!!!

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posted July 10, 2008 04:46 AM            

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http://128.104.239.6/uw_weeds/extension/articles/conhorsetail.htm

It doesn't look good... Looks like it reproduces in three different ways. Three!
Hell's teeth. No wonder it's been round for millennia, it does what it does very well. I guess there must be tubers under your drive. But there's a section in the link which says that scientists weeded it and the next season there appeared to be no difference to the 'control' plot where no weeding took place. I don't know what to suggest but I'll keep looking.

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posted July 10, 2008 04:48 AM            

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http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0705/equisetum.asp

Intense chemical murdering is your preferred option, unfortunately. Really sorry to hear about your drive hun.

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Posts: 477
From: u.k
Registered: Apr 2009

posted July 10, 2008 01:06 PM            

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Oh Lord wheels! That first one makes for depressing reading!
I'm doomed! Doomed I tell you.
It's been around apparently since the Carboniferous period, so it's a little older than me but I will not be beaten.
I will fight it on the driveway..I will fight it in the beds and I will never never surrender....
I have made up a spell

Horsetail, horsetail on my drive
Bugger off and do not thrive.

To be said whilst sprinkling sodium chlorate to the four corners

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posted July 24, 2008 10:44 AM            

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Common horsetail, Equisetum arvense was the first vascular plant seen recovering after the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and therein lies the answer.
Equisetum arvense is found in areas with soil with little or no nutritional content, for example, gravel pits. Simply raising the nutritional content of your soil by adding generous quantities of composted materials will, in time, get rid of your horsetail.
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6795

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Posts: 164
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posted July 24, 2008 10:44 AM            

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Good luck, lovely.

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Posts: 477
From: u.k
Registered: Apr 2009

posted July 26, 2008 09:24 AM            

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I have to nurture it!!!!
Well if that doesn't just take the proverbial.
Thanks NoSiS.
Armed with Miracle Gro I shall sally forth!

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posted July 27, 2008 09:53 AM            

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If that doesn't work, it's not too hard to start your own compost bin. Your situation sounds a bit difficult though, since your dealing with this in your driveway. I really think this is the answer, but I'm no expert and the info I got that from is just another kind of forum so it could just be a hypothesis. Nonetheless, the suggestion feels right. There are some horsetails growing in an area near my home and I know for certain that the soil where they are growing has got very little nutritional value.

The only other suggestion I had is kind of a random thought, but maybe if you did some research on how you might go about treating the soil to kill all the plant life in that area? It's only the driveway, after all. It seems risky though, since I have no idea how that might affect the rest of your property or if it has the chance of spreading.

Whatever the case, hang in there. Horsetail may be annoying, but it has a remedy. Some things are just better hidden.

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posted September 01, 2008 11:01 PM            

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How's the fight goin'?

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Posts: 477
From: u.k
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 05, 2008 02:42 PM            

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It's basically indestructible.
I have no issue with it trying to grow in my flower beds because I will just weed every other day BUT....it's stopped growing there and is forcing it's way through the tarmac and breaking it all up.
Why NoSis why!!!!
Why is it choosing the most difficult and destructive route?

Oh wait! Is there a lesson for bunnies in that?
Is the Universe trying to tell me something?

Why struggle through the tarmac of life when you can thrive with ease in a flowerbed? Mmmmm

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Posts: 11656
From: The Goober Galaxy
Registered: Apr 2009

posted June 16, 2009 05:49 PM            

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*bump*

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"Fortune favors the bold." Erasmus

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Posts: 1461
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posted June 22, 2009 10:24 AM            

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I think the horsetail is your soulmate but you are not evolved enough to see it. You're a runner, bunnies.

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Posts: 11656
From: The Goober Galaxy
Registered: Apr 2009

posted June 23, 2009 11:17 PM            

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"Fortune favors the bold." Erasmus

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Posts: 477
From: u.k
Registered: Apr 2009

posted August 04, 2011 06:21 PM            

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It may have been around since the Cretaceous period but it hadn't met me...yet
I won

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Posts: 11656
From: The Goober Galaxy
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 20, 2011 10:28 AM            

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It's great for hair (has silica in it).

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I have CDO. It's like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order, as they should be.

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Posts: 11656
From: The Goober Galaxy
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 21, 2011 12:11 PM            

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In supplement form, I mean.

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