Methods of dealing with horsetail in the country. Horsetail in the garden, how to get rid of the weed
Field horsetail - medicinal plant, which in everyday life is called a cat's eye, panicle, ponytail. Based on it, medicines are made that help with gallstone disease, diarrhea, eczema, dermatitis, and lichen. Of course, in the field of medicine, the plant has great benefits. As for his stay in the summer cottage, here he acts as a weed, which is quite difficult to get rid of.
Horsetail is a perennial spore grass that reaches a length of up to 40-50 cm. The weed has a long creeping rhizome with tuberous processes, with the help of which the plant reproduces vegetatively. Aerial shoots (those that are above the ground) are generative and vegetative. Generative ones have a brown or pinkish tint, brown leaf teeth in the form of a triangle. The color of vegetative shoots is green. Upright, with a pointed top.
Weeds reproduce by spores. As soon as the latter ripen, the plant dies off completely. Within a few weeks, the bushes will turn green again. Then lateral branches are formed, which outwardly resemble vegetative processes.
Fact. Horsetail is an ancient plant that appeared in nature 400 million years ago.
Horsetail grows in the subarctic, temperate and tropical climates of Eurasia, in North America. The plant actively reproduces on moist sandy soil. It is in great demand in traditional medicine.
Why is horsetail dangerous?
It has already been said above that horsetail gives a lot of trouble to summer residents, since it is considered a weed. Moreover, it is worth considering that the plant is poisonous. It actively reproduces in the soil, it only takes a few spores to get into the soil, and next year it will flood the entire area. It is not easy to eradicate horsetail. Weed control is not always successful, even if popular proven means are used for this. The main thing in this business is an integrated approach.
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Vegetation control methods
With annual digging suburban area, you can detect the appearance of weeds. Her root processes lie at a depth of 40-60 cm. In this regard, it is not always possible to dig them out with a conventional shovel. As a result, the weed remains intact and begins to grow rapidly. You can exterminate field horsetail using a complex method. We will definitely tell you how to proceed.
Decreased acidity
Horsetail is a plant that loves soil with high acidity. Given this feature of the weed, it can be eradicated. To do this, it is necessary to reduce the acidity index. The process is quite difficult and requires serious time costs (from six months to 2 years). You can lower the indicator by adding dolomite flour, slaked lime or ash. These funds will give a positive result, subject to compliance with the dosage. In the first year for 1 square meter the site will require 2-3 kg of limestone, in the future this amount is reduced by 6 times.
If you combine the deacidification procedure with regular weeding, after a few years you will be able to completely forget about this weed.
Fact. In Japan, a plant such as horsetail is used for polishing. wooden products in order to give them an unusual shine. For this, the stems of the plant are boiled in a special way.
Chemicals
Horsetail belongs to the class of plants that do not bloom and reproduce by spores. To get it out of the summer cottage, you can use herbicides, which have a detrimental effect on different types weeds.
Many preparations have been assigned the 4th hazard class of substances, so they are not capable of harming bees. Herbicides block the synthesis of aromatic amino acids, resulting in the death and death of the weed.
To eradicate weeds, you can use the following drugs: Prima, Ground, Zenkor, Stomp, Agrokiller, Lontrel-300. It is recommended to carry out the processing of the site in the evening. It is best to choose a dry and calm day for this.
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Horsetail: photo, types, cultivation, medicinal properties and contraindications
Carry out processing chemicals Need rubber gloves. Do not spray the weed in rainy weather and during a drought period. It is necessary to process actively growing grass. If, after harvesting, young shoots were identified, they must be destroyed immediately. This method will make it easier to deal with horsetail next year.
Important! To destroy the weed, you can use potent means in the form of herbicides "Glyphos" or "Titus". In this case harmful substances penetrate not only into the soil, but also into the fruits themselves.
Biological methods
For weed control horsetail It is not necessary to use chemicals at all. You can go the other way. It is enough just to land on the site of his enemies - representatives of the Cruciferous. Horsetail does not tolerate their stay nearby, therefore, if you suspect that it is actively growing, sow the seeds of cabbage, radish, arugula, rapeseed, mustard next season. The thing is that they secrete substances from the rhizomes that are detrimental to weeds. This method will completely eradicate it.
Another safe way to overcome horsetail is mulching or covering with black film the areas where it grows. In this case, organic and inert materials can be used.
Horsetail is a special guest in the garden. They are constantly fighting with him, trying to completely get rid of him. He is not afraid of marshy or dry places. Such a weed is in the category of difficult to remove. It lives on acidic soils and deepens the roots by 1-2 m.
Ways to fight
It is quite difficult for opponents of chemicals to get rid of horsetail. When digging, carefully select the rhizomes and take them outside the site. Shoots left on the ground can take root again and give impetus to the development of new plants. Segments of rhizomes 1 cm long are capable of producing new shoots. In the spring, it is better to cut the processes immediately so that the spores do not have time to spread by the wind. So you can fight horsetail for more than one year.
Liming lowers the acidity of the soil, thereby slowing down the growth of the weed. Under the digging, slaked lime is brought in, dolomite flour, limestone, ash. In the first year, 2-3 kg per 1 sq.m., in the next two years, 500 g per 1 sq.m. At the same time, be prepared to simultaneously reduce useful substances in the soil. Combine liming with weeding.
Eco-gardeners get rid of horsetail with the help of cruciferous plants. The weed plot is densely sown with rapeseed, white mustard, oilseed radish, horseradish, or cabbage. So at the same time the soil is good and the weeds stop growing.
Without special efforts complete absence of light will help get rid of horsetail. If there are zones of a continuous carpet of grass, then cover with dense black plastic wrap for several years. It is good to press down the edges with bricks, and sprinkle pebbles or gravel on top. Use mulching: sawdust, wood chips, shredded bark.
For herbicidal treatment, choose a cloudy evening so that there is no wind. Don't forget to wear protective equipment: mask, respirator, latex gloves, use . Work carefully, don't rush.
Field horsetail spreads quickly, it is enough to get at least one spore into the garden and next year you will be expected an unpleasant surprise. Destroy new shoots immediately so that the grass does not have time to develop a defense mechanism against herbicides.
This is a perennial herbaceous spore plant. Horsetails are the remains and "heirs" of an ancient group of plants that reached their maximum diversity during the Carboniferous period.
Tree-like relatives of horsetails - calamites - were more than 10 m high with a trunk diameter of up to 0.5 m.
Modern horsetails look much more modest, they are all herbaceous plants with relatively thin stems..
However, horsetail is difficult to confuse with any other plant. Horsetail has stiff, ribbed, silica-rich stems, and the leaves are small and fused together.
In many species, side branches diverge from the main stem, giving the plants a resemblance to a small Christmas tree.
Both the Slavic name "horsetail" and the Latin equisetum (equus - horse; seta, setae - bristle, hard hair) reflect the similarity of horsetail shoots with the tail of an animal.
We recognize the weed "in the face"
One of common species horsetail is well known to many homeowners - this is field horsetail.
It is widespread in all regions of Ukraine.
As a rule, it grows along roads, on embankments, in floodplain forests and meadows, among bushes, as well as in fields and gardens, preferring rich nutrients moist, acidic soils.
Horsetail is one of the indicators acidic soil. Often forms large thickets.
In many ways, the ability of horsetail to reproduce rapidly is explained by the formation of long underground rhizomes capable of short terms give rise to many ground shoots.
The root system in the form of a thin articular rhizome penetrates the soil to a depth of 30-50 cm to 100 cm.
The bulk of the rhizomes is concentrated at a depth of 30-60 cm. Small nodules are formed on the nodes of the rhizomes, which contain nutrient reserves.
Growth and development of horsetail
Field horsetail is characterized by a pronounced dimorphism of shoots. In early spring brownish or reddish, juicy, unbranched, erect thick shoots develop, 7-25 cm high, 3-5 mm in diameter, bearing one spore-bearing spikelet at the top.
After maturation and shedding of spores, these shoots die off and instead of them, barren summer vegetative shoots 10-50 cm high grow from the same rhizome - much more rigid, green, with whorled side branches.
The whole plant is hard and rough, as it is impregnated with silicic acid.
Horsetail reproduces both vegetatively and by spores. Shoots from spores and shoots from underground buds appear with the onset of stable warm weather. Segments of rhizomes and nodules, having high viability, can grow from a depth of up to 60 cm.
Due to these biological features, horsetail has a high competitive ability in relation to cultivated and weed plants and becomes a malicious weed on acidic soils.
The economic threshold of harmfulness, that is, the number of weeds, which significantly affects the yield, is 2-5 pieces per 1 sq. meter.
How to deal with field horsetail?
The main measures to combat this annoying weed are agrotechnical. Considering biological features horsetail and its ecological features, you need to act in two directions:
- Firstly, this plant prefers acidic soils, so first you need to achieve a decrease in acidity.
- Secondly, since horsetail has a deep branched root system, with the help of which it spreads, control measures aimed at its depletion are applied. This is regular weeding with careful selection of the roots (together with root nodules), as well as deep pruning of the root system with bladeless tools.
How to reduce soil acidity?
Soil acidity can be reduced by adding lime. Doing so better in autumn. The doses of lime applied depend on the pH value, the mechanical composition of the soil, the content of humus in it and the quality of the lime material.
Our advice:
Lime must be finely crushed before application, as particles larger than 1 mm no longer have a neutralizing effect. Lime is scattered evenly over the soil surface, after which the site is dug up to a depth of at least 20 cm. Thorough and uniform mixing of lime with the soil increases the efficiency of liming.
If lime is applied unevenly, in places where there was an excess of it (for example, a lump fell), the plants may be inhibited, and even their death.
It should be noted that the application rates of lime fertilizers depend on the acidity of the soil, its granulometry, and composition (on heavy soils, lime rates are increased). They should be sufficient to maintain a slightly acidic or close to neutral soil reaction (pH 5.5-6.0).
In the absence of lime, it can be replaced with wood ash, dolomite flour or chalk. Chalk take 10-20 kg per hundred square meters if the soil is light, and 15-20 kg if the soil is heavy.
At the same time, it is better to apply 2/3 of the dose for digging or plowing (in autumn), and 1/3 later (in spring) and harrow or rake. Liming is repeated after 5-6 years.
You can make chalk and annually in the rows before sowing or planting vegetable plants, and together with peat, humus or simply with earth in a ratio of 1: 2. In this case, the dose is reduced to 2-3 kg. If wood ash, then spruce is taken twice as much as lime or chalk, and birch and pine - one and a half times.
When lime is added, acidity does not change immediately. Depending on the applied dose, a slightly acidic or neutral reaction is established after 1-2 or even 3 years.
Lime improves soil properties for several years. When making 300-400 g of lime per 1 sq. meter, its action can last 5-7 years, and at large doses (600-800 g) - 12-15 years.
Our advice:
On soils of light mechanical composition (sandy and sandy loam), lime is applied in smaller doses, but treatments are carried out more often (when applying 100-200 g per 1 sq. Meter, its effect lasts about 2 years). On these soils, the application of dolomite flour or dolomitic limestone gives particularly good results, which, in addition to calcium, contain a lot of magnesium and not only neutralize the acidity of the soil, but also enrich it with magnesium.
Liming will significantly reduce the number of horsetail, because the conditions for its growth will no longer be so favorable. And after several deep weedings, the horsetail will disappear completely.
Today there are no herbicides that would effectively destroy horsetail.
Since the rhizomes are one of the reproductive organs of horsetail, chemicals will be effective only when the drugs penetrate the root system.
Igor Shevchuk, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Institute of Horticulture UAAS
© Magazine "Ogorodnik"
Photo: depositphotos.com
Horsetail is a well-known weed that can put up spore-bearing shoots anywhere in the garden. Its active growth occurs in mid-May. It is necessary to fight this plant as fashionably before. Otherwise, you can forget about the high and high-quality harvest of those crops that grow on your site. Can be used to remove horsetail various methods struggle, among which distinguish biological, chemical.
Harm
Since horsetail is a weed, therefore, it is of great harm to many garden crops. It consists in the fact that weeds suck out all the useful nutrients from the soil.
These include potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen. He focuses them in his roots. As a result horticultural crops do not receive the necessary nutrition, their growth and development is inhibited.
But besides the harmful effects, horsetail is also unique. medicinal plant. Many useful components are not concentrated in it, including silicic acid. She is very necessary human body for full functionality. She plays important role in the construction of the skeleton, the work of the mucous membranes and wound healing. But this is a separate issue. If no plants grow on your site, then you can afford to grow horsetail for medicinal purposes. It may also be useful for you to learn about and what means should be used.
Prevention
Most often, the weed starts up if the gardener does not carefully cultivate the brought land. To prevent this from happening, immediately after the soil has been brought to the site, it is necessary to assess its standing. Make sure that there are no black rhizomes there. Otherwise, be sure that very soon horsetail will flaunt on your site. But getting rid of it would be much worse.
This weed also begins to grow in those soils where there is high acidity. To avoid this, it is necessary to carry out liming of the soil. For these purposes, preparations that contain calcium are excellent. These include lime, ash, chalk and dolomite flour.
It will also be useful to learn about how tree roots are removed on the site, and what are the problems.
Dolomite flour remains the most popular and convenient means for liming the soil. In addition to lowering the acidity of the soil, it also improves its structure and saturates it with magnesium. Compared to lime, dolomite flour can be applied to the site at any time of the year.
On the video - the prevention of the appearance of the plant:
Another preventive measure is the timely removal of foliage, plant residues and weeds. Keep track of soil moisture. It should not be too high, as this creates favorable conditions for the growth and development of horsetail. It is also worth paying attention to how
How to get rid of horsetail
Today, every gardener can solve this problem if he chooses one of the proposed options.
biological method
For the plant in question, proximity to cabbage crops is not permissible. The fact is that their root secretions have a detrimental effect on weeds, as a result of which they die.
chemicals
The horsetail is herbaceous plant, which has no flowers, and reproduction occurs by spores. To defeat this weed, you can use chemicals. There are quite a lot of them today, then gardeners allocate such a tool as Glyphos.
Glyphos chemical
This water solution which effectively eliminates both annual and perennial weeds. He has a hazard class of the fifth. The drug was developed in such a way that its components do not have a detrimental effect on beneficial insects.
The action of the agent is based on the fact that there is a blocking of the synthesis of aromatic amino acids, which occurs in the horsetail. As a result of this, a slow death is observed, and after that the death of the weed itself.
Glyphos should be used in the evening, when the street is quiet and calm. When doing this, the gardener must wear protective equipment such as gloves. It is not recommended to spray weeds after rain or during periods of drought.
Next effective drug remains Puma Gold. This herbicide is used to control annual and perennial weeds. No less effective is Furore Ultra. It is a selective herbicide with a systemic effect. It can be used immediately after the first sprouts of horsetail have been discovered. By clicking on the link you can learn more about how to destroy on the site.
Puma Gold
A wide range of effects and the absence of phytotoxicity in the presented preparations is the merit of modern scientific developments. The presented chemicals allow not only to save the crop from weeds, but also not to achieve the development of new plants. Thus, it is realistic to increase the quantity and quality of products harvested at the end of the season. In the same way, you can destroy
Reducing soil acidity
It should be clear to every gardener that the development of horsetail is associated with increased soil acidity. So for weed control it is necessary to reduce this figure. But it should be noted right away that the decrease in acidity is a long process. It can last from six months to a couple of years.
To get a guaranteed result from liming, you must initially know the level of acidity in your area.
So, if the indicator is exceeded, then it is worth adding lime to the soil. Approximately 2-3 kg of lime will go per 1 m2. This is for the first year. For the second and third years - 500 g. If liming is combined with regular weeding, then in a few years there will be no trace of horsetail on your site. In addition to lime, dolomite flour or ordinary ash can be used to reduce acidity. In exactly the same way, one can derive
On the video - reducing the acidity of the soil:
It will be interesting for every gardener to know how to get out of the garden, and what chemicals should be used in the first place.
When fighting such a weed as horsetail, it must be remembered that this is a long and regular process. Do not leave the site unprepared after harvest. The soil definitely needs to be dug up, and if the first shoots are found, they should be removed immediately. A complex approach will allow every gardener to forget about weed crops for a long time.
In June, the fight against horsetail occupies the thoughts of many gardeners, because this weed is not so easy to lime with traditional weeding. Liming often does not bring the expected effect (as you probably remember horsetail - acidic soil) and even the all-powerful Tornado usually gives in to this tenacious grass.
Horsetail most often enters the site along with imported land extracted from peat bogs, where this plant loves to settle. First and main preventive measure against this weed is a thorough check of any imported soil mixture for the presence of inconspicuous blackish horsetail rhizomes in it.
Both during autumn and spring digging of the soil, the roots of this grass practically do not stand out against the background of the earth and are rarely selected. By the way, they can hide in the soil at a depth of 40-60 centimeters, and often more than a meter, which significantly exceeds the thickness of the arable layer. Thus, with the help of a shovel, it is impossible to completely get rid of this scourge, and horsetail continues to quietly multiply, clogging all new areas in your garden.
Liming usually bears fruit in the fight against horsetail only after several consecutive years of application of deoxidizing materials. Think about it: after all, it is necessary to neutralize not only in the arable horizon, but to a depth of up to 1 meter. In addition, for complete success in the war against horsetail, additional calcium-containing preparations (chalk, lime or dolomite) are required to be added to the soil. For more exact definition doses of the above preparations, I recommend that you first find out the general acidity of the soil on the site using one of the methods described. With high values of this indicator, it is advisable to introduce 1-2 kilograms of lime per square meter of garden soil in the first year, and repeat this operation in the next 2-3 years, but with a lower dose - about 0.5 kilograms per square meter. (best to do this in the spring). If you alternate this technique with regular cutting of green stems of horsetail, then after three or four years you can finally remove this insidious plant from the garden.
Horsetail belongs to spores, not flowering plants, so the use of drugs such as Tornado and Roundam is usually ineffective. This grass can be destroyed only by using more potent herbicides (Glyphos, Titus, etc.) in high concentrations (up to 10 liters per hectare). But in this case, there is a great danger of getting harmful chemical compounds not only in the soil, but also in the crop.
The benefits of horsetail
Of course cultivated plants field horsetail does nothing but harm: it depletes the soil of the main macronutrients and accumulates them in nodules on its rhizomes. On the other hand, all its green parts contain a huge amount of valuable substances, including silicic acid, a substance that is extremely difficult to obtain in the proper amount from the usual diet. It is involved in the process of building the human skeleton, in the work of the mucous membranes and promotes the speedy healing of wounds and damage to the vascular walls. Silicon compounds, which are part of the horsetail, prevent the formation of kidney stones. Generally speaking, the importance of this plant in the treatment of almost all diseases of the urinary tract is undeniable.
Herbalists also often prescribe a decoction of horsetail as a blood purifier. Therefore, it is excellent for detoxification and treatment of various allergies.
To prepare a super-healing drink, you need to take 4 tablespoons of dry horsetail greens, pour it with 200 milliliters of water and keep it in a water bath under the lid for 30 minutes, then let it brew for another 10 minutes and strain. Then bring the volume of liquid to the original and drink half a glass 3 times a day an hour after eating.
