Yet Another Cycling Forum

Random Musings => Miscellany => Where The Wild Things Are => Topic started by: David Martin on 24 April, 2015, 10:14:39 pm

Title: What is this plant?
Post by: David Martin on 24 April, 2015, 10:14:39 pm
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7697/17070897160_88d77e83e3_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/s1uNZ7)DSC_3557 (https://flic.kr/p/s1uNZ7) by davidmamartin (https://www.flickr.com/people/62034421@N00/), on Flickr

Growing by the road - these are new shoots about 30cm long - it grows to 2.5+m
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 24 April, 2015, 10:17:35 pm
Triffid
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: fuaran on 24 April, 2015, 10:44:17 pm
Japanese knotweed.
It is a non-native invasive species, so should be removed and destroyed.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Basil on 24 April, 2015, 10:46:54 pm
I'm afraid it is Japanese Knot Weed

Edit.  Bugger.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: David Martin on 24 April, 2015, 10:58:33 pm
Ah. As I suspected. This is not good.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: jsabine on 24 April, 2015, 11:10:04 pm
The council should be *delighted* to hear about its presence.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: David Martin on 24 April, 2015, 11:19:56 pm
It may be helpful. It is an area that is needing cleared to improve sightlines for the attempted cycle path.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Jaded on 25 April, 2015, 12:09:07 am
I think sight lines will be the least of your worries.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: David Martin on 25 April, 2015, 12:19:25 am
It is a fairly localised patch and should have been destroyed but the numpties decided to just dig it up, decided that it was dead and left it.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Wobbly John on 25 April, 2015, 08:27:48 am
I reported some roadside knotweed to our council last year. At first I got the usual "We will have to investigate who the landowner is." reply...


...and then they realised "SHIT - It's on the verge next to the council depot!"  :facepalm:

Whatever they used to kill it appears to have done the trick. I checked on Monday, and there is no sign of it returning.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: ian on 25 April, 2015, 01:02:18 pm
Ah, finally a chance to demonstrate my botany skills and you all beat me. But yes, it's Japanese knotweed, invasive, nasty and potentially expensive. Needs a proper treatment plan for getting rid of it.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: David Martin on 25 April, 2015, 07:02:52 pm
Ah, finally a chance to demonstrate my botany skills and you all beat me. But yes, it's Japanese knotweed, invasive, nasty and potentially expensive. Needs a proper treatment plan for getting rid of it.
It is on the verge of the road. Nasty stuff. Maybe I should have just tipped a bucket of glyphosate over it. Or taken off and nuked from orbit.  A fire might be an appropriate control mechanism.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Bledlow on 25 April, 2015, 08:44:11 pm
Maybe I should have just taken off and nuked from orbit.
I believe this is the recommended extirpation mechanism.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: jsabine on 26 April, 2015, 12:51:37 am
A fire might be an appropriate control mechanism.

Fire's ineffective.

Glyphosate. Let it brown off a bit. Chop it back, collecting all the bits (so don't use a strimmer or a brush cutter or a flail mower). Burn the bits. Wait for it to start growing again. More glyphosate once it's green and fluffy, rinse and repeat.

Or yeah, nuke from orbit.

Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Aunt Maud on 26 April, 2015, 07:57:37 am
You'll need to get your Glyphosate from the local farm store as garden Roundup™ is diluted and is not the shock and awe product it used to be.

Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: pcolbeck on 26 April, 2015, 09:21:28 pm
+1
I have used the garden centre stuff and it kind of works, eventually after multiple sprayings but the back pack of industrial glyphosate a farmer friend of mine gave me was a revelation. You have seen those videos of the Yanks spraying agent orange from planes in Vietnam right ?
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: David Martin on 13 August, 2015, 12:44:41 am
The local council's treatment has done absolutely zilch.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Wowbagger on 13 August, 2015, 11:51:26 am
My daughter had some growing in her front garden (all paved) a few years ago. It seems that whatever she did to it was a great success and it hasn't reappeared.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: ian on 19 August, 2015, 12:42:12 pm
The local council's treatment has done absolutely zilch.

They probably just sprayed it with commercial grade glyphosate. A tramp pissing on it would be more effective. It's needs industrial stuff used to kill tree stumps and even then multiple treatments (usually when it starts to grow in late spring and then at the end of summer before it dies back) if it can't be dug out. The rhizomes run deep enough to knock, knock, knock on Hell's front door so generally it needs treatment over a couple of seasons until those rhizomes give up the fight for another year's growth.

Glyphosate is systemic, so can take 8-12 weeks to see any effect, but the treatment plan should require the council to come back, you can't just leave Japanese knotweed. Unless it can be dug out entirely, realistically eliminating it can take two to four years of multiple treatments.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: rr on 19 August, 2015, 12:58:35 pm
Just discovered next door neighbou has it there house sale fell through as a result.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: ian on 19 August, 2015, 01:17:38 pm
Just discovered next door neighbou has it there house sale fell through as a result.

Provided there's a formal treatment plan and a survey indicates no structural damage from the rhizomes (any mortgage offer will be contingent on these), then there's no reason for a sale to fall through unless the buyers' flinch. It can be dealt with, but it requires persistence especially if the spread is extensive. That said, it's been a issue for a couple of friends, it's relatively common in London gardens. Good luck in my garden, the bear-fertilised triffids will get it first.
Title: Re: What is this plant?
Post by: Legs on 19 August, 2015, 02:28:32 pm
Spraying birch-tree-killing concentrations of Monsanto Amenity Glyphosate 360 at the JKW that has spread from the adjacent verge into our paddock has been pretty effective.  If you've got big stalks of the stuff, cutting them off, rodding through the nodes with a skewer and filling the whole thing up with glyphosate is pretty neat.  We've got to the stage of having the occasional widdy-wee bit poking through, which is irritating because it's difficult to subject such a small target to a large amount of Good, when you know that it's going to take a lot of Good to kill the EVIL RHIZOME.