Author Topic: What is this plant?  (Read 3343 times)

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
What is this plant?
« on: 24 April, 2015, 10:14:39 pm »
DSC_3557 by davidmamartin, on Flickr

Growing by the road - these are new shoots about 30cm long - it grows to 2.5+m
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #1 on: 24 April, 2015, 10:17:35 pm »
Triffid

fuaran

  • rothair gasta
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #2 on: 24 April, 2015, 10:44:17 pm »
Japanese knotweed.
It is a non-native invasive species, so should be removed and destroyed.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #3 on: 24 April, 2015, 10:46:54 pm »
I'm afraid it is Japanese Knot Weed

Edit.  Bugger.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #4 on: 24 April, 2015, 10:58:33 pm »
Ah. As I suspected. This is not good.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #5 on: 24 April, 2015, 11:10:04 pm »
The council should be *delighted* to hear about its presence.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #6 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.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #7 on: 25 April, 2015, 12:09:07 am »
I think sight lines will be the least of your worries.
It is simpler than it looks.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #8 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.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #9 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.
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

ian

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #10 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.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #11 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.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #12 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.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #13 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.


Aunt Maud

  • Le Flâneur.
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #14 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.


Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #15 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 ?
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #16 on: 13 August, 2015, 12:44:41 am »
The local council's treatment has done absolutely zilch.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #17 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.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

ian

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #18 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.

rr

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #19 on: 19 August, 2015, 12:58:35 pm »
Just discovered next door neighbou has it there house sale fell through as a result.

ian

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #20 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.

Re: What is this plant?
« Reply #21 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.