VERY invasive weeds!

[LadyA]

I had a bit of a fright this week when someone suggested that the sapling like weeds sprouting up all over my place could be Japanese knotweed! :shock: There's tons of these little (and some not so little) tree like sprouts popping up in the last couple of years, and I've just been mowing them off. But when someone suggested knotweed to me at the weekend, I got worried. I've thought all along that they are sprouting from a particular tree that I have growing, as they look like miniatures of that. But there are so many! And some of the sprouts are a long way from that tree. I knew really it wasn't knotweed, because the leaves didn't look big enough, and the stems didn't look quite right (and the stems were woody, not hollow), but once the idea was planted in my mind, it wouldn't go away! So, yesterday, I pulled up a bit and took it to the Garden Centre and asked the horticulturalist. He said "Definitely not knotweed. You must have a poplar tree, do you?" Eh, yes. I do. "But" I said "There are literally hundreds of these things coming up". And he said that's what poplars do! :shock: Who knew?? He said the root system of poplars is very shallow, but can go out for around 90feet, and it puts out all these saplings anywhere along the root system. And the sprouts can burst up through three inches of concrete!!

So, that tree will have to come out. He's meanwhile given me a strong herbacide to spray on the sprouts. And he said for the big ones that have got away and turned into small trees, in the Autumn, cut a couple of branches and put the herbacide on with a brush, and it will then be taken down to the roots with the withdrawing sap.

When I think of how hard my poor late husband tried to get a poplar tree to establish here! I think the tree that's here was his third or fourth attempt! But once established it grew really fast, and I've had to have it topped a couple of times.

But at least my invading weeds are not knotweed!

 

[Hen-Gen]

Made me laugh though. Reminded me of some horror flick from years ago.
For years there was a clump of Japanese Knotweed at the end of my drive. It never got any bigger because the climate here limits it. Then some new folk moved in. You would think I was harbouring a pack of Pit Bull Terriers. It was not worth falling out about so sprayed it with Round-Up and that was that. But some people ............!

 

[bigyetiman]

My parents had a Poplar tree and the saplings would pop up everywhere. Funny how the word Knot weed strikes terror into people. As though you had a pack of Triffids on the loose. Round here it is Silver Birch that springs up all over the place if you are not careful.
Had a friend phone in hysterics as they had spotted a bat flying round the garden, convinced it was going to fly in and bite their grandchildren. I pointed out that the bat wasn't that stupid to risk catching anything from their grandchildren (they are feral). So now all the doors, windows are locked shut just in case

 

[Margaid]

You do have them BYM!
We realised we had Japanese Knot Weed in the garden and just kept a close watch on where it came up. As soon as the shoots were about 3" high we just pulled them out. After a couple of years there were no more shoots, and when 2 years later we re landscaped that part of the garden there was no sign on any root system.
The previous owner, having been thwarted in his attempt to have a fish (koi?) pond across the whole of the lower part of the garden, had installed three plastic preformed ponds. We discovered that we had been gaily mowing over three quarters of one of them which had what appeared to be a highly ornamental grass growing in part of it. I discovered it was "just" Common Reed, described as big, beautiful and highly invasive!.. We decided to investigate further and if we'd had enough bods with strong garden forks we could have lifted the whole mass out like a pot-bound plant. The roots had gone round and round within the confines of the pond - they can be 2 metres long! Thank heavens it was a rigid plastic pond not a Butyl liner. We ended up sawing into lumps, leaving it to drain at the edge so any wildlife could escape back into the pond, putting the dried out lumps into plastic sacks and leaving them for the dustmen!

 

[rick]

Most of the high concern over Japanese Knot Weed comes from the difficult and expensive task of clearing it from development sites and woodland. In a domestic setting it is much more manageable because you live there and can keep discouraging it until it gives up.
Just a thought with the systemic weed-killer and the poplar tree - If you use the weed-killer on the suckers then you will probably kill the whole root plate and have a dead tree which will start the clock on having to fell it as it becomes unsafe. It may start to drop large branches quite soon.
May be better to keep mowing them off until you are ready to fell then treat the stump.

 

[LadyA]

My SIL will take the tree out this Autumn, and I'll treat the stump then. The suckers are really becoming that much of a problem. Shame, because it's a lovely tree.

Day of the Triffids, HenGen! I remember that film! Everyone went blind, and the plants took over everything!

The knotweed is a huge problem in parts of Ireland. The mild, damp climate appears to suit it very well!

 

[bigyetiman]

A friend of ours son in law was project manager for the Olympic park site, and Japanese Knot weed was rife there, especially on the sites that had been cleared of buildings years ago and just left. The worry was that any shoots that got left would crack and raise paving.
We have the original day of the Triffids on DVD starring Howard Keel, the cover describes it as spine chilling terror. I liked the Midwich Cuckoos, and who remembers the Quatermass films

 

[dinosaw]

I never realised this about Day of the Triffids, but the entire sequence in the lighthouse with Jeanette Scott and Kieron Moore was added onto the rest of the film after shooting as the producers thought what they had with the Howard Keel story was a load of rubbish. Recently came up in an interview with Jeanette Scott.

 

[Margaid]

Midwich Cuckoos is really eerie and don't read Web if you're an arachnaphobe! Don't think I could cope with a film version of any of them, but did watch Quatermass and the Pit on TV some years ago.

 

[valeriebutterley]

I remember Quatermass - best ever!!

 

[Hen-Gen]

I remember it too, the original one when I was about ten. Watched it and was scared shitless. I can still remember a scene where this bloke runs out of the station and puts his hands on the counter of one of those movable snack bars. All the plates and salt and pepper pots start rattling and he has a look of pure terror on his face. Without doubt the most frightening thing I'd ever seen.
But as an adult the actor Christopher Walken scares me. I swear that either he's the best actor in the world or he really is a psychopath.

 

[rick]

Have trouble remembering what was in what. Remember the bit with the light from the sky in Wembly Stadium that beamed everyone up (or toasted them?) Similar thing happening in Avebury circle - that was scary.
And that bit in Doctor Who when the alien removes their parabola shaped helmet and their head is the same shape!!! (much better watched from behind the sofa.)
Oh, and the attack of the rice crispy virus in Space 1999.

 

[Minorcafan]

My parents had a Poplar tree and the saplings would pop up everywhere. Funny how the word Knot weed strikes terror into people. As though you had a pack of Triffids on the loose. Round here it is Silver Birch that springs up all over the place if you are not careful.
Had a friend phone in hysterics as they had spotted a bat flying round the garden, convinced it was going to fly in and bite their grandchildren. I pointed out that the bat wasn't that stupid to risk catching anything from their grandchildren (they are feral). So now all the doors, windows are locked shut just in case

Hahaha :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[bigyetiman]

I remember it too, the original one when I was about ten. Watched it and was scared shitless. I can still remember a scene where this bloke runs out of the station and puts his hands on the counter of one of those movable snack bars. All the plates and salt and pepper pots start rattling and he has a look of pure terror on his face. Without doubt the most frightening thing I'd ever seen.
But as an adult the actor Christopher Walken scares me. I swear that either he's the best actor in the world or he really is a psychopath.

I agree with you Hen-Gen, he is scary, a very cold,calculating look, knife you soon as look at you type. Makes a perfect villain. Had the good fortune to meet Christopher Lee and he was a wonderful charming gentleman, wonderful command of the English language to