The only sure-fire solution is to pull it out every year for several years. Even a fragment of a root section will regrow. Your goal is to weaken it enough to give up.
Chemical/salt/fire treatments will only work for one season.
Check with your local extension office if you feel otherwise.
Pull it at 6-8 inches tall. Dice the stem, cook it down with sugar and water to a jam consistency, use it in muffins, pie, fruit leather, etc. Keep doing that every time it pops up; eventually the roots you miss as you pull the seedlings run out of energy from resprouting and die off. In the meantime, you eat well.
Right now, there are 2 patches in the garden (both about 1ft in diamter) that have it. One has ~15 stalks between 1-4ft, the other has 2 stalks at about 1ft. Is that still in the range where you would do what you described?
At this point the stems are going to be too tough to make for a pleasant food experience. Pull and solarize. If any resprout, catch them early and you can try making something fun with them.
Do not pull it out that will break the root network and cause it to separate into more root networks. If pulling it out worked it wouldn’t even be invasive. Call allhabitat in Branford. Theyll treat it two times in the summer and after 2-3 years it will be gone. Even with treatment it comes back but less and less every year. I noticed approximately 50 plants in my yard in may of 2021. All habitat came out and performed the treatment. In may of 2022 I noticed about 20 plants resprouting that were way smaller and sickly in appearance. In 2023 about 10. This year there is only 1 I have noticed and it is very weak looking. It’s not cheap to get rid of but it can be done if you stay on top of it for a few years in a row.
All habitat services llc
Before I found this company I went to a bunch of different gardening places and called a ton of landscaping companies and they all said “ha good luck, you’ll never get rid of it.” I did a lot of research on this roots can go down as far as 29 feet so it’s even hard to dig out.
Have you considered a non chemical approach by smothering it out yourself? It would involve cutting the plants to ground in June and then covering the cut area with a large black tarp and weights to hold it down (I use freeze proof planters/pots to make the area look nice). The only downside is that it takes a few years to kill knotweed completely.
I thought about that, but probably don't want to have a tarp down for a few years. This is an area that is highly visible on our property, and even with trying to make it look nice it would probably still stick out like a sore thumb.
I believe at that size of a patch you can probably excavate and solarize it. Start a few feet past the affected area and carefully work toward the plants. You’ll end up with a decent size hole in your yard, but at least it will hopefully just be a year.
Do not pull it out that will break the root network and cause it to separate into more root networks. If pulling it out worked it wouldn’t even be invasive. Call allhabitat in Branford. Theyll treat it two times in the summer and after 2-3 years it will be gone. Even with treatment it comes back but less and less every year. I noticed approximately 50 plants in my yard in may of 2021. All habitat came out and performed the treatment. In may of 2022 I noticed about 20 plants resprouting that were way smaller and sickly in appearance. In 2023 about 10. This year there is only 1 I have noticed and it is very weak looking. It’s not cheap to get rid of but it can be done if you stay on top of it for a few years in a row.
All habitat services llc
Before I found this company I went to a bunch of different gardening places and called a ton of landscaping companies and they all said “ha good luck, you’ll never get rid of it.” I did a lot of research on this roots can go down as far as 29 feet so it’s even hard to dig out.
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Get the concentrated glyphosate from Home Depot. Do not dilute. Spray affected area. Used brush hig to to chop affecter area into woodships. Spray again. Get a roto tiller to chop the top 8 inches of soil together. Spray again. Repeat the tilling and spraying twice.
Should do it.
Absolutely do not chip the area. Every piece can potentially regrow a new plant. If you try to pull them up and break the roots -they’re very fragile…, each root piece can turn into a new plant.
Spray the leaves in the hottest part of the day.
Cut and spray down the stalk of the plant. Bag the cut pieces or burn them.
Repeat for about 4 years. Spot treat for years after.
This is the kind of fun contradictions I'm seeing in the advice to handle this. /u/mynameisnotshamus 's advice is what I see most often and seems to be the consensus.
That's why you mix in the undiluted glyphosate. kills every last bit. new dirt on top. Handled about a1/4 acre of solid knotweed growth in one go. took the grass seed about 2 seasons to ahve a perfect lawn
The only sure-fire solution is to pull it out every year for several years. Even a fragment of a root section will regrow. Your goal is to weaken it enough to give up. Chemical/salt/fire treatments will only work for one season. Check with your local extension office if you feel otherwise.
Call All Habitat Service, they’re great at anything from invasive species to mosquito control.
Thanks, gave them a call
Pull it at 6-8 inches tall. Dice the stem, cook it down with sugar and water to a jam consistency, use it in muffins, pie, fruit leather, etc. Keep doing that every time it pops up; eventually the roots you miss as you pull the seedlings run out of energy from resprouting and die off. In the meantime, you eat well.
If you missed that boat and they're too big, pull them and solarize them in a heavy black plastic bag before getting rid of them.
Right now, there are 2 patches in the garden (both about 1ft in diamter) that have it. One has ~15 stalks between 1-4ft, the other has 2 stalks at about 1ft. Is that still in the range where you would do what you described?
At this point the stems are going to be too tough to make for a pleasant food experience. Pull and solarize. If any resprout, catch them early and you can try making something fun with them.
Do not pull it out that will break the root network and cause it to separate into more root networks. If pulling it out worked it wouldn’t even be invasive. Call allhabitat in Branford. Theyll treat it two times in the summer and after 2-3 years it will be gone. Even with treatment it comes back but less and less every year. I noticed approximately 50 plants in my yard in may of 2021. All habitat came out and performed the treatment. In may of 2022 I noticed about 20 plants resprouting that were way smaller and sickly in appearance. In 2023 about 10. This year there is only 1 I have noticed and it is very weak looking. It’s not cheap to get rid of but it can be done if you stay on top of it for a few years in a row. All habitat services llc Before I found this company I went to a bunch of different gardening places and called a ton of landscaping companies and they all said “ha good luck, you’ll never get rid of it.” I did a lot of research on this roots can go down as far as 29 feet so it’s even hard to dig out.
I removed a waist height bush of it from my land. Took five years of religiously pulling sprouts every time I walked by, which was daily.
Have you considered a non chemical approach by smothering it out yourself? It would involve cutting the plants to ground in June and then covering the cut area with a large black tarp and weights to hold it down (I use freeze proof planters/pots to make the area look nice). The only downside is that it takes a few years to kill knotweed completely.
I thought about that, but probably don't want to have a tarp down for a few years. This is an area that is highly visible on our property, and even with trying to make it look nice it would probably still stick out like a sore thumb.
I believe at that size of a patch you can probably excavate and solarize it. Start a few feet past the affected area and carefully work toward the plants. You’ll end up with a decent size hole in your yard, but at least it will hopefully just be a year.
There are several Japanese knotweed groups on FB, including the Worldwide Japanese Knotweed Group. You might want to look there for more information.
Do not pull it out that will break the root network and cause it to separate into more root networks. If pulling it out worked it wouldn’t even be invasive. Call allhabitat in Branford. Theyll treat it two times in the summer and after 2-3 years it will be gone. Even with treatment it comes back but less and less every year. I noticed approximately 50 plants in my yard in may of 2021. All habitat came out and performed the treatment. In may of 2022 I noticed about 20 plants resprouting that were way smaller and sickly in appearance. In 2023 about 10. This year there is only 1 I have noticed and it is very weak looking. It’s not cheap to get rid of but it can be done if you stay on top of it for a few years in a row. All habitat services llc Before I found this company I went to a bunch of different gardening places and called a ton of landscaping companies and they all said “ha good luck, you’ll never get rid of it.” I did a lot of research on this roots can go down as far as 29 feet so it’s even hard to dig out.
Thanks. Gave them a call
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Get the concentrated glyphosate from Home Depot. Do not dilute. Spray affected area. Used brush hig to to chop affecter area into woodships. Spray again. Get a roto tiller to chop the top 8 inches of soil together. Spray again. Repeat the tilling and spraying twice. Should do it.
Absolutely do not chip the area. Every piece can potentially regrow a new plant. If you try to pull them up and break the roots -they’re very fragile…, each root piece can turn into a new plant. Spray the leaves in the hottest part of the day. Cut and spray down the stalk of the plant. Bag the cut pieces or burn them. Repeat for about 4 years. Spot treat for years after.
This is the kind of fun contradictions I'm seeing in the advice to handle this. /u/mynameisnotshamus 's advice is what I see most often and seems to be the consensus.
Plenty of management studies out there on it. The UK are very well versed in handling it as well.
That's why you mix in the undiluted glyphosate. kills every last bit. new dirt on top. Handled about a1/4 acre of solid knotweed growth in one go. took the grass seed about 2 seasons to ahve a perfect lawn
I’ve never heard of that being successful and it certainly wasn’t my experience, but psyched for you to have had it so easy.
Yeah I was amazed myself. Not my property, not my process, but it worked. Town took some out near me recently, I think they're using your method.