Methods of dealing with horsetail in the country. When to harvest horsetail. Field horsetail control methods

Very unlucky for those who have horsetail growing on their plot. This is a malicious weed that is very difficult to get out of the garden. It is also harmful in that its powerful rhizomes draw all useful substances and water from the soil, taking them away from cultivated plants.

Digging the site from the horsetail, of course, helps, but the roots of the horsetail are hardly noticeable and can go deep to a meter deep. So after digging horsetail will still show shoots. Therefore, when using imported land, it is necessary to ensure that there are no horsetail roots there, otherwise it will provide a cheerful life for several years.

It is also possible to displace horsetail with the help of liming, since it is known that horsetail grows on acidic soils, and on alkaline soils it can even die itself. Usually chalk, ash, lime are used for these purposes, dolomite flour…

Of all the preparations, dolomite flour is more preferable. Liming is carried out for two years - for the first time a full dose of lime is applied, and for the second - half. If liming is reinforced by digging and digging up green shoots of horsetail, then after three or four years there will be almost no horsetail left.

Herbicides against horsetail are ineffective. Roundup and Tornado have almost no effect. Only high doses of Glyphos help to cope with the enemy. But it is not suitable for supporters of organic gardening, so horsetail has to be fought with liming and a hoe.

It is known that horsetail does not get along with rapeseed, mustard and oil radish. Therefore, if these green manure crops are sown after harvesting the main crop, they will help to stifle the weeds.

Of course, for us, horsetail is primarily a malicious weed, but we must not forget about it. medicinal properties. It helps with rheumatic pains, chronic cough, diseases of the heart, kidneys, edema and other ailments.

Therefore, the appearance of horsetail is not only a nuisance, but also an opportunity to dry valuable greens.

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Horsetail - perennial herbaceous plant from the Horsetail family, which has about thirty various kinds and is one of the oldest plant cultures on our planet. This aggressive and at the same time useful weed consists of a long (about 100 cm) creeping branched rhizome and succulent erect shoots - "herringbones" (30 to 50 cm long) with a spike-shaped inflorescence at the top. An unpretentious and tenacious plant easily tolerates frosty winters and high summer temperatures, it is not even afraid of Forest fires. The grass grows on any soil, but it feels more favorable in moist forest areas, as well as in meadows, along roads and in vegetable gardens.

Horsetail in the country, garden or garden is a serious problem and cause for concern. The weed reproduces by spores and rhizomes, therefore it easily and very quickly spreads over a vast territory and significantly reduces the quantity and quality of the expected crop. Its main nutrition is such useful components as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. The root system of weeds absorbs all these nutrients from the soil, leaving horticultural crops without feeding. Vegetable plants stop their full development and growth.

Popular species in our country are horsetail "Meadow" and "Bolotny", and in the dachas of the Moscow region you can most often find horsetail "Field" (or "Ordinary"). The people have many different names for this weed - a marsh column, a cat's tail, a pusher, an earthen cone, a field tree, a ponytail, a panicle and many others.

The main feature of horsetail is the ability of its reproductive organs long time maintain their vitality and survival, due to the deep occurrence in the soil. When adjacent to other weeds (for example, fescue and wheatgrass), horsetail can form real dense thickets that are not afraid of drought or excess moisture, sun or shade. To get rid of this culture completely will require a lot of strength and patience, as well as a comprehensive, timely and systematic approach.

Weed control methods

Since the weed culture feels more favorable on moist soils, one of the measures to combat it is to drain the waterlogged area.

Covering areas with horsetail thickets and row spacings with dense opaque material (for example, plastic wrap black color or pieces of plywood) also leads to good results. Herbaceous crops do not have access to light, the heat under cover simply burns them out - all this eventually leads to the death of most of the weeds.

Mulching beds performs two functions at once - it protects against weeds and feeds the soil. As a mulch, it is recommended to use chopped tree bark or shavings, spruce or pine needles, small tree branches, dry grass, straw and even small river pebbles. First, you need to lay out the geotextile or spunbond, and on top of it a layer of 5 - 7 cm of mulch. Such an obstacle horsetail "too tough."

After harvesting vegetables, you can prepare the site for the next season by sowing it with any plants from the cruciferous family. The roots of crops such as mustard, radish, or canola secrete substances that many weeds, including horsetail, hate. In such a neighborhood, weeds do not grow.

There is another simple proven method. Need to dig deep land plot, along the way, carefully choosing all the roots perennials and then apply to the soil a large number of wood ash. You can replace deep tillage with its deoxidation by adding slaked lime or dolomite flour.

Good efficiency is obtained by tillage with weeds with chemicals "Zenkor", "Agrokiller", "Prima", "Hurricane", "Roundup" and "Glifos".

Special preventive actions for weed control. The most popular are repeated liming of the soil (for 2 to 3 years) and maintaining a stable level of soil acidity. For each square meter land will require from 500g to 2kg of lime. If we add regular weeding to this, then gradually their number will become minimal.

Is there any benefit from it?

Horsetail is used in official and folk medicine in dry and fresh form, in tinctures and ointments, decoctions and teas, in the form of compresses and powders, lotions and baths.

The herb is used in cooking, cosmetology and as a "medicine" in floriculture.

Horsetail is an obsessive weed, very tenacious, loves to grow on sour and clay soils. Its summer shoots are very similar to young Christmas trees. In spring, the plant produces spore-bearing shoots of a pinkish color, very juicy and not branched.

Refers to root shoot weeds that propagate through rhizomes. They have a thin and strong root, black or dark brown. Lies at a depth of sixty centimeters.

How to get rid of horsetail in the garden

Prepare a respirator and gloves, garden tools, lime fertilizers, chemicals and cruciferous seeds. Now let's get started.

1. According to agronomists, fields and gardens become more and more clogged every year. Marsh horsetail is rightfully considered the most intrusive weed that loves to clog crops. Its thickets actively deplete and dry up the soil, which makes it difficult to care for crops, reduces the yield of vegetable gardens and fields.

2. Horsetail roots break through enough great depth, and the processes are very large, so a special approach is needed to them. How to get rid of horsetail in the garden? Exist special ways control of this weed, which work well.

You can stop at mechanical method- weeding, digging, loosening. Of course, this method is very laborious, but the most reliable. Weeding is done carefully, all weeds should be removed from the garden, otherwise they will sprout in a new way. The roots, as mentioned above, penetrate very deeply, so it will not be possible to completely pull out the plant. The rest will give new shoots very quickly.

3. It is worth taking advantage of horsetail's love for acidic soils. It is necessary to introduce limestone, calcite, dolomite, sugar into the ground. This helps to reduce the acidity of the earth. And horsetail does not like non-acidic soils. Get rid of it in this way, albeit not immediately, but it will work. This method reduces concentration nutrients in the ground, so you should carefully read the instructions on the packaging of the chemicals used.

4. How to get rid of horsetail in the garden with the least effort? You can populate the territory with such as white mustard, arugula or winter rapeseed. This will greatly overshadow the existence of horsetail.

5. You can plant seeds that act as a kind of orderly on the site. But the fastest and perhaps the most in an efficient way still considered chemical. In specialized stores, buy fertilizers that destroy weeds, but do not harm cultivated plants.

6. Another method of getting rid of horsetail in the garden is to prevent its spores from ripening, as a result of which the plant gradually dries out. To do this, from the beginning of spring, every twelve days, simply mow the weed and weed the aisles. However, you should watch the growth of horsetail, because in rainy weather, its sprouts appear and stretch much faster. Good luck!

Horsetail is common throughout almost the entire temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. Now there are about 32 species of horsetail. The most common are field, meadow, swamp.

Horsetails take root in both swampy and dry areas. Some species contain silicon in the epidermis, which gives the stem stiffness and strength.

This weed especially likes wet places, acidic soils, swamps, damp meadows, river banks and various reservoirs. Horsetail ripens in March-May, after which the fruiting stems die off. The formation of shoots from rhizomes continues until late autumn.

The main reason for such survivability of horsetail is very powerful, well developed and deep into the ground (up to 1-1.5 m) root system. A large number of nodules ripen on the roots of horsetail, which are the organs vegetative propagation. It is enough to leave a very small piece of rhizome only 1 cm long in the ground after mechanical weeding, and a young shoot of horsetail will appear from the nodule located on it. It is because of this feature of reproduction that only mechanical weeding will not allow you to completely clear your site of horsetail. You can get rid of it only in combination with other methods of struggle.

METHODS OF FIGHTING WITH HORSEtail

1. "Disastrous neighborhood."

Horsetail does not tolerate proximity to cruciferous plants - such as winter rapeseed, oil radish, white mustard, arugula, etc. Their root secretions suppress weeds and contribute to their death. Sow cruciferous plants after harvest and during soil preparation until next year. If you do not find the seeds of these crops, sow winter rye - it also has powerful allelopathic properties.

2. Removal by chemical means.

To effectively destroy unwanted vegetation by chemical means, Roundup (glyphosate) or its analogues should be used. This drug is able to destroy all weeds, both on the soil surface and due to systemic action in the soil itself, since it tends to penetrate the root system.

When using herbicides, it is necessary to observe certain requirements. First of all, you need to spray weeds that are actively growing. But in severe drought, which is characterized by poor germination of weeds and acute water stress, you should refrain from spraying until it rains. If precipitation is expected within 4-5 hours, spraying should not be carried out, as the herbicide must be completely absorbed by the leaves of the weeds.

For the chemical control method for spraying, choose the afternoon time. A windless, quiet evening is the perfect time. Prepare a respirator, rubber gloves, a spray bottle in advance. You should work carefully, without haste.

3. Method of "scorched earth".

Places where horsetail grows can be covered with black plastic wrap or mulched. Materials for this can be either organic (shredded bark, chips, needles, branch trimmings, dried lawn grass, cut hay, sawdust), and inert (gravel, river pebbles). It is important to pour any mulch material not on the surface of the earth, but on a spunbond or geotextile previously laid on the soil.

4. Drainage of waterlogged areas.

If the land in your area is very waterlogged and there is a high level of standing ground water, then it is advisable to carry out drainage.

5. Reducing the acidity of the soil.

As already mentioned, horsetail loves to live in acidic soils. Therefore, one of the very effective ways The fight against horsetail is alkalization of the soil. To do this, in the fall, before digging the earth, it is necessary to add lime, dolomite flour or wood ash. Proportions: two to three kilograms of lime per square meter in the first year and five hundred grams in the second and third years. If the procedure for reducing acidity is combined with regular weeding, then after 2-3 years there will be no trace of horsetail in the garden.

In the fight against such a weed as horsetail, the main thing is to carry out work on an ongoing basis. In no case should you leave the garden unprepared after harvesting. The soil should be carefully dug up, and when the first shoots of horsetail appear, they should be destroyed immediately. Comprehensive measures will allow the gardener to forget about this weed for a long time!

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

Opponents chemicals getting rid of horsetail is quite difficult. 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 digging, slaked lime, dolomite flour, limestone, and ash are added. 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 for a simultaneous decrease in nutrients 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 much effort, the complete absence of light will help get rid of horsetail. If there are zones of a continuous grass carpet, then they are covered with a 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, rubber gloves, use . Work carefully, don't rush.

Horsetail spreads quickly, it is enough to get at least one spore into the garden and next year an unpleasant surprise will await you. Destroy new shoots immediately so that the grass does not have time to develop a defense mechanism against herbicides.