GROUND ELDER- best method to get rid of?
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Don't use a spade to dig it out as you will chop off little bits which will fall deeper into the earth and sprout at both ends later. The situation will soon be worse than before, as the root structure will lie deeper.
Try to work with your fingers. This is possible in light soils, esp. sandy ones. Start at the edge of the patch, and cautiously remove the earth around the base of a plant. Each plant will produce about 1-4 white new suckers per year, the length of which depends on the time they have been growing since spring. You have to follow the suckers along with your fingers underground until you have found the pointed tip. It is a slow, gentle process, because the tips break off easily and a new plant can grow next year from a forgotten tip. Once the suckers have gone, dig a bit further with your fingers and find the old thicker roots that attach the plant in a network to other plants. Once you have followed a horizontal root for a couple of inches, cut it from the base of the plant and then keep following the root with your fingers. Roots can sometimes be up to a couple of feet long before they reach another plant. I follow the root about 4-5 inches at a time moving my fingers gently along the root but never pulling it or it will break. One tries to create a tunnel along it. Then push up your finger to the surface and lift the root up through the hole. If too many other plants are in the way, just leave about 5 inches of root above the surface and break off the first bit up to there. This will show you where you have to start again later. Then work on the plant or roots next to the first, using the same technique. Try to work on a front about a yard/metre wide, slowly advancing forward. Once you have separated a plant from its horizontal roots, dig with your finger beneath it to loosen the roots that draw in water. At the bottom there will be one very long tap root descending vertically. Dig down around the root with your finger as deep as you can go and pull up from down there. You will seldom get all the tap root out, but try to get most. The plant can regrow from the horizontal network thicker roots, but not from such deep water roots.
If you systematically clear out the root structure in this way as well as the plants, you will not get regrowth there. Over some seven years I have gradually cleared about a hundred m2 of our garden. There is about 10 m2 left to do under lilac bushes, but the rest of the garden is now ground elder free. But I check all the areas done first thing in spring for signs of regrowth. Very occasionally a plant may grow from seed, and one has to remove it at once before it spreads its tentacles.
I hope the garden will be totally clear in two years time.
Leaves can be composted, but no part of the root or base of the plant should be allowed near the compost.
Weedkillers to use:-
Glyphosate, systemic action, taken down into underground parts, spray or paint on depending on the situation. Use when the plants are growing well and are moving their sap at a higher rate. The greater the area of leaf that can be treated the better and resist the temptation to remove any topgrowth for at least two weeks after application - do remove flower spikes.
Dichlobenil applied in early spring, kills emerging shoots for up to a year among established woody plants or at the base of a mature hedge.
Put chemicals on in cool weather rather than hot.
If all else fails call a specialist.
Round up . It kills the roots as well as the top growth but takes some days before you have visible proof of the weed dying.
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