Killing Horsetail or Marestail

Horestail or Marestail

There’s still some of the dreaded Horse or Mares Tail, Equisetum Arvense popping up in places on plot 29 so I sprayed the fronds with Amicide (Ammonium Sulphamate) is very effective as a herbicide and after about 8 weeks converts to Sulphate of Ammonia, which is a high nitrogen fertiliser. The plant thinks it is taking in nitrogen and sucks the crooked molecules down to the roots.

It’s the only thing that really seems to work well on Horsetail although pulling out as much root as possible eventually works when you don’t have too much.

My neighbour’s plot has a lot growing onto the path and around his compost bin so I used the remaining spray on the Horsetail there. Not totally altruistic, it stops it spreading onto my plot. The neighbour on the other side is attempting organic control so I didn’t think it right to spray his.

Green Manure

Cut down with shears the rest of the agricultural mustard growing on plot 5. This went onto the compost bin with the last of the comfrey leaves. The ground below is very wet so I’m hoping that, without its cover, it will dry off a bit so I can dig the remaining mustard.

Warm weather

Weirdly warm for the time of year. No frost yet either and, despite predictions of a very cold winter, no frost in sight this month. I found I was taking my gilet off in the sunshine, last year at this time I was in a fleece and a thermal vest!

Web site

I’ve been playing with the photo galleries and there’s a new look coming in. If you look at October you’ll see the photo gallery has changed. It was quite a lot of work, although it does not look it. Basically, I now just upload the photo and the server does the rest.