Japanese Knotweed

There are several patches on the roads near me and now the government are proposing to allow the farmers to cut their hedges in August. It will be a disaster!!

mikeecho

karj28 wrote: »

hi all

we are in the process of buying property about 6 acres and we have noticed the entire boundary where this is a small stream is covered in this weed. There doesn't seem to be much near the old house which we hope to renovate. Is there any hope of getting on top of it, it is fairly extensive! Is it best to take it section by section or what? Also have people pulled out of contracts because of this, I didn't even notice it until a friend of mine spotted it yesterday!!!

Just spray the fu\k outta it for a few years.

That's what I've been doing, and I have 98% of it gone.
Another few yrs and I'll be free of it

NIMAN

Deleted User wrote: »

There are several patches on the roads near me and now the government are proposing to allow the farmers to cut their hedges in August. It will be a disaster!!

I have seen a lot of these signs on local roads up here in Donegal, telling farmers not to cut the hedgerows.

http://www.donegalcoco.ie/services/roadsservice/invasivealienplantspeciesknotweed/

I was wondering, if there is Knotweed 500 yards down the road from my house on the verges, is it inevitable that it will reach my gardens some time in the future?

mayo.mick

NIMAN wrote: »

I have seen a lot of these signs on local roads up here in Donegal, telling farmers not to cut the hedgerows.

http://www.donegalcoco.ie/services/roadsservice/invasivealienplantspeciesknotweed/

I was wondering, if there is Knotweed 500 yards down the road from my house on the verges, is it inevitable that it will reach my gardens some time in the future?

Possibly will if its not treated. Root system travels 7 metres and can be 3 metres deep.

mayo.mick

mayo.mick wrote: »

Possibly will if its not treated. Root system travels 7 metres and can be 3 metres deep.

Yep, and if it gets cut , even a little sliver carried by traffic will start new plants further down the road. The danger of this happening is much greater in August than when it has died back in winter.

karj28

Thanks for the advice. We started our spraying anyway Saturday, We did all the small plants that have shot up around the site because of landscapers who must have moved it from the river bank. We didn't do the river bank yet although we were tempted as it doesn't seem to be flowering? the fisheries website says to spray in July and again in September?

What do ye do with the plants after they die from the roundup? I was advised to burn them only when they are well and truly dead!

It would take a lot of time, effort and expense to inject the weeds near the watercourse, it is growing on the banks, it is really no more then a glorified dike really with a trickle of water going down through it, but I suppose it is a stream and leads to one of the bigger rivers. But the JK is up high on the banks so if we are careful could we spray it it September?

my3cents

@ karj28, there is loads of advice around and even some of the better sources have some rubbish stuff so you just have to go with what seems the most sensible.

The main thing is that you spray with a decent strength of glyphosate based herbicide at least once a year and ideally apply that one spray in August/ early September. If you can get any other doses of glyphosate on the plants the more better just try and time it so you have good growth for the August/ early September application. imo May and late August early September would be the ideal times to spray, but you can also fit in another application in July if you have that much to deal with. Until you reduce the size of the problem you probably won't get every plant when you spray anyway.

I bet you'll find that your JK near the watercourse is growing strongest at the high water mark of your winter floods . What tends to happen is that the JK stops all other plant growth and so weakens the banks of the watercourse. A couple of periods of heavy winter rain wash away the banks leaving the JK roots exposed. The roots either damaged by cattle or other intervention wash out in the worst weather and float off downstream and are left high and dry to root as the water recedes.

If you have a lot of spraying to do you may be best just getting on with it and doing a bit every week, there is always the problem that if you leave it you may not have time or ideal weather when you need it.

JK dies down anyway in the winter so you can cut the dead stems and it fairly obvious they are dead. If the council say you can burn them then fine but you really don't have to. I've seen meter high piles of dead JK stems rot down to nothing in a couple of years. Cutting the dead stems does make it a lot easier to spray next time you have to.

Another trick I have tried with a bit of success is to spray at this time of year (July and up to early August) with a 2,4-D based herbicide. It doesn't do much of a kill but does a satisfying job of distorting and weakening the plants leaving them ready for a late August early September dose of glyphosate. I don't however think you'll find any 2,4-D based weedkillers that have approval for application near watercourses.

While you say it would take a lot of time, effort and expense to inject the weeds near the watercourse, you may find that you get a better kill rate by injecting making a one hit process less time, effort and expense in the long run that multiple applications by spraying.

Most of the formulations of Roundup are cleared for aquatic use and its not the actual glyphsate that is the problem (apart from its longevity in the environment but thats another issue) but the chemicals that are there to stabilise it, make it mix well with water and stick to the target weeds.

mikeecho

looking for an injection kit for JKW, don't have a lot of JKW, so don't want to be spending too much money.

As I've said before, I've killed off 98% of it, and the few remaining bits are small and can be sprayed, but there are 3 large plants that were hidden in palm trees that weren't hit with the spray.

so.. any cheap interjection kits.. or should i just get a heavy duty syringe from the co-op.


There is also some JKW in a nearby field that has been professionally treated, and is all dead.. but i took a walk up there today, and noticed 3 new plants, i'm gonna spray these myself, or inject them if i can get a cheap kit.

karj28

@ my3cents thanks a million for all the advice, will see how the first bit of spray worked anyway in few weeks!!

my3cents

mikeecho wrote: »

looking for an injection kit for JKW, don't have a lot of JKW, so don't want to be spending too much money.

As I've said before, I've killed off 98% of it, and the few remaining bits are small and can be sprayed, but there are 3 large plants that were hidden in palm trees that weren't hit with the spray.

so.. any cheap interjection kits.. or should i just get a heavy duty syringe from the co-op.


There is also some JKW in a nearby field that has been professionally treated, and is all dead.. but i took a walk up there today, and noticed 3 new plants, i'm gonna spray these myself, or inject them if i can get a cheap kit.

For isolated clumps with large stems I use one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/KitchenCraft-Cooking-Syringe-Meat-Injector/dp/B0018BGKUE/ .

I also paint the leaves of small plants with a glyphosate jell I make up by mixing up wallpaper paste to a suitable consistency then mixing in the glyphosate.

Plutonium Kun

dathi wrote: »

what ever you do dont do this knot weed is spread by vegetative cuttings if you chop it up with a strimmer or lawnmower small pieces will stick to the casing of mower and fall off the next time you use the mower spreading it all over the place.

Japanese knotweed will not spread from chopped pieces of the main plant above ground - its only the rhizomes or large sections of stem that can propagate.

two wheels good

Plutonium Kun wrote: »

Japanese knotweed will not spread from chopped pieces of the main plant above ground - its only the rhizomes or large sections of stem that can propagate.

I don't think that's correct. If so, why aren't the councils cutting JKW? Instead there're are "Do Not Cut" signs all round the county (Cork).

I'd suppose I need to find a reference ....

"The principle means of spread of Japanese Knotweed is via fragmentation of stems and rhizomes and the plants very strong resilient underground rhizome growth."
Here

"A tiny piece of root can develop into a plant, and even pieces of the stem can form new plants."
Here

If you're cutting JKW you need to stop and get some expert advice.

Plutonium Kun

two wheels good wrote: »

I don't think that's correct. If so, why aren't the councils cutting JKW? Instead there're are "Do Not Cut" signs all round the county (Cork).

I'd suppose I need to find a reference ....

"The principle means of spread of Japanese Knotweed is via fragmentation of stems and rhizomes and the plants very strong resilient underground rhizome growth."
Here

"A tiny piece of root can develop into a plant, and even pieces of the stem can form new plants."
Here

If you're cutting JKW you need to stop and get some expert advice.

If you follow on from your first quote to the next paragraph, you'll see clearly that they refer only to fragments of rhizome:

Japanese Knotweed thrives on disturbance, the tiniest piece can regrow, in the past fly tipping and transportation of soil containing rhizome fragments have been a major cause of spread in both the urban and rural environments

Your second quote is from the US, where high summer temperatures match the native lands of Knotweed, so upper parts of the plants can have seeds and propagate more easily. In these isles, its too cool in summer for this.

I was involved both professionally and in conservation groups in the UK in Knotweed control for many years in the West Midlands in the UK, where it is an enormous problem. Knotweed can propagate occasionally from large stems, but this is rare and isn't considered a major problem, although it is the law in the UK to dispose of the entire plant as controlled waste, and this is the norm on construction sites and in Council landscaped areas (in reality, its only the rhizomes and soil which is usually treated this way). Strimming is certainly not advised if there are reasonable alternatives, but its hard for an amateur to deal with knotweed by watercourses any other way. Spraying herbicides on watercourses is in most cases illegal.

As I stated, the best way in my experience for amateurs is to break the stem at the end of the growing season and apply small quantities of Roundup to the wound with a sponge - this is the method used by most UK conservation groups when non-professionals are involved. Repeat cutting over about 3 years also works. On commercial sites, complete excavation and removal to landfill is the normal process (actually, the only legal method in the UK if the plant can't be dealt with on site). I've seen many cases where multiple applications of Roundup have failed to kill off the plants.

my3cents

Plutonium Kun wrote: »

Japanese knotweed will not spread from chopped pieces of the main plant above ground - its only the rhizomes or large sections of stem that can propagate.

I've seen it root. I had a windrow of it where I'd cut a path through an area so I could get access to more of it to spray it and when I came to move it the stems at the bottom of the pile had started to root.

Anyway what are "large sections of stem" if they are not parts of the main plant above ground.

The stems are a far less efficient method of propagation than even small parts of the root, but if you cut enough of the stems then your are eventually going to have some that are of suitable size and end up in the right environment to propagate.

pawrick

Noticed do not cut signs and something about invasive species (sign too small to read fully while driving) appearing lately outside of Athlone along the hedgerows. It was only recently the county council was cutting hedges near me so I hope they haven't spread Knotweed all over the locality.

magicbastarder

i saw similar in galway recently on the leenaune to letterfrack road.

km79

pawrick wrote: »

Noticed do not cut signs and something about invasive species (sign too small to read fully while driving) appearing lately outside of Athlone along the hedgerows. It was only recently the county council was cutting hedges near me so I hope they haven't spread Knotweed all over the locality.

One just outside athenry since Xmas and then I seen someone out from council treating it
ITS HEEERRREEE

my3cents

magicbastarder wrote: »

i saw similar in galway recently on the leenaune to letterfrack road.

All over the country now as coco's have started to take some ownership of the problems they have themselves contributed too.

Another point that hasn't been made about the no cut rule isn't due to the chance of spreading JK but instead that cutting will reduce the effect of whats its been sprayed with. I've sprayed a big area of it recently one that hadn't been touched before and after 3 weeks you still wouldn't know it had been sprayed with anything. On year I injected some plants in June that you could hardly tell had any treatment at all during the growing season but they didn't grow back the following year.

mikeecho

i just bought a JKW injector gun from ebay for circa €80

i don't have a lot of knot weed to deal with, but there are some large plants that escaped spraying because of their location, and they will be tackled this Sept.

I don't see the point in paying a "professional" hundreds of euro, for what will be a small job.
i can always resell the gun in a few years when i'm sure JKW has been eradicated.

i also have some Sodium Chlorate, but i don't know if i should use that to inject or just stick to Glyphosate.

karj28

hi mikeecho where in amazon did you get the injector gun? I might inject the ones near the watercourses in September, will be tedious but like my3cents said it might save time in the long run.

my3cents

karj28 wrote: »

hi mikeecho where in amazon did you get the injector gun? I might inject the ones near the watercourses in September, will be tedious but like my3cents said it might save time in the long run.

Two I know on Amazon.co.uk around the price both from the same guy, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07333Z1G7/ and https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WTC7MDK/ .

If you are injecting the JK soaks up the glyphosate over a long period so no need to wait till September. In fact I'd recommend starting asap and doing them over a period of time. Its hard boring work so ideal to do an hour or so at a time rather than trying to do them all in one go and loosing your sanity.

r3nu4l

I'll be getting a few lorry loads of topsoil soon. How can I ensure that it is free from JK rhizomes or fragments? JK is a problem on the locality and county in general and I want to be sure the topsoil I get doesn't bring me problems...

my3cents

r3nu4l wrote: »

I'll be getting a few lorry loads of topsoil soon. How can I ensure that it is free from JK rhizomes or fragments? JK is a problem on the locality and county in general and I want to be sure the topsoil I get doesn't bring me problems...

Tough one, only way I can think other than a written guarantee from the supplier is to ask to take a look at the site its coming from then to jump up and check the load before its tipped.

You are likely to see large pieces of the brown rhizomes if the soil is contaminated, if there are no larger bits then its less likely there are any smaller bits because all the soil is handled by machine and no one will have tried to remove roots by hand.

mikeecho

karj28 wrote: »

hi mikeecho where in amazon did you get the injector gun? I might inject the ones near the watercourses in September, will be tedious but like my3cents said it might save time in the long run.

I think the price has gone up, since I bought yesterday.

I was on a mobile, so couldn't get the url.. but here it is now

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/japanese-knotweed-injector-stem-injection-killer-control-glyphosate/351426158935?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Shemale

Have been reading this thread and just saw https://www.google.ie/search?client=ms-android-samsung&ei=4mNoWcCKKuGXgAaxk72oAQ&q=roundup+stump+killer+instructions&oq=roundup+tree+stump+and+root+killer&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp.1.1.0i71k1l5.0.0.0.3203.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1..64.mobile-gws-serp..0.0.0.PoWHbvQJvVA
havent seen or heard of it before but it specifically mentions Knotweed, hope it helps

mikeecho

So my knotweed injector gun arrived this morn.
Within 3 min, I had loosened the handle, pulled the trigger and it came apart.

I shouldn't have pulled the trigger with the handle removed.

So I reassembled it, but I think I'm missing a piece.
The piston won't return to the open position, is there a spring or something that I'm missing?

Please help.

my3cents

mikeecho wrote: »

So my knotweed injector gun arrived this morn.
Within 3 min, I had loosened the handle, pulled the trigger and it came apart.

I shouldn't have pulled the trigger with the handle removed.

So I reassembled it, but I think I'm missing a piece.
The piston won't return to the open position, is there a spring or something that I'm missing?

Please help.

Get on to the guy that sells them I noticed that he replies to feedback on his amazon pages.

mikeecho

my3cents wrote: »

Get on to the guy that sells them I noticed that he replies to feedback on his amazon pages.

I bought on eBay, prob same guy.
Sent him a message thru ebay app.

I think it's a spring im missing that should push the piston back to an open position.

edit, I found a black clip. This clip attaches to the piston, that is encompassed in a spring. This clip is what returns the piston to the open position. I found it and reattached it, and i think i'm good to go, i just don't know if i have it correctly positioned, as in i dont know how much i should compress the spring before attaching the clip.

Does anyone have one of these guns, and could you take a pic. of the position of the black clip?
How many rings of the spring should it be inside.

CaraK

my3cents wrote: »

Tough one, only way I can think other than a written guarantee from the supplier is to ask to take a look at the site its coming from then to jump up and check the load before its tipped.

You are likely to see large pieces of the brown rhizomes if the soil is contaminated, if there are no larger bits then its less likely there are any smaller bits because all the soil is handled by machine and no one will have tried to remove roots by hand.

The roots flesh has a very distinctive orange flesh colour

If the topsoil has being screened first the big rhizomes will have being screened out of the pile that just leaves the small bits which are just as bad

To the people looking at the injector guns what I done was drilled a hole in the stems with cordless and then injected a neat solution into stem using big ass syringe no need for the needle on it either as hole already drilled. Helps to have 2 doing this one one drilling and injecting and the other filling syringe. Once filled I covered the drill hole with duck tape.

Also if I disturbed roots digging I brushed neat solution of roundup onto all exposed broken bits of rhizomes