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Can't get rid of green manure!

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  • Can't get rid of green manure!

    I manage an allotment site which involves me clearing and preparing plots for new tenants.
    I've been battling with one plot for over two years as the previous tenant sowed a vast amount of green manure in a relatively small area.
    I've dug up small mountains of roots from the stuff but still it continues to grow.
    I haven't been able to establish what it is but it's creeping under paths now. Online plant identifiers show this to be ground elder but I suspect this is incorrect as this is not used as green manure (or is it?).
    The photo shows growth by the edge of paving and new growth which has been covered for 10 months.
    How can I deal with this horrible stuff?

  • #2
    That looks like Ground Elder to me and I have a patch of it mixed into a Rose.
    I've given up trying to get rid of it and just keep nipping off new growth as it appears.

    Nestled somewhere in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Good soil, strong winds and 4 Giant Puffballs! https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lies/smile.gif
    Always aim for the best result possible not the best possible result
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    Forever indebted to Potstubsdustbins https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lies/smile.gif

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    • #3
      It does look very much like ground elder.
      I looked it up on I-spot.
      I would have dug it all over several times in the hot dry weather to allow the sun to bake the roots.
      Couch grass responded to this after I took on a plot where the previous tenant had been putting grass greening fluid on it.
      Bind weed roots also respond to sunlight treatment.
      Near Worksop on heavy clay soil

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      • #4
        Sorry to say but it is Ground Elder. The only answer if you don’t want to use weed killer is to dig it up and then do it again and again! It will eventually weaken but you will never be rid of it.
        Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

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        • #5
          Definitely ground elder.
          I highly doubt that was sown as a green manure. No where would ever sell it as one, and it actually doesn't germinate that easily from seed (it usually spreads by root sections), so would even give you good cover in the first season.
          It was likely either always there, or else came in on some other plants transplanted from elsewhere and then spread.

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          • #6
            Yes thanks I too realised later that it was ground elder from a plant search.
            It would appear that whoever sowed it did so deliberately.
            It has also appeared on two other areas at the allotments and would appear to be sabotage.

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            • #7
              Oh dear-that's a concern that someone would be so nasty.

              It's not been brought in with an under composted greenwaste/manure has it? (Thinking maybe from council collected greenbins?)
              Last edited by Nicos; 27-08-2020, 08:26 AM.
              "Nicos, Queen of Gooooogle" and... GYO's own Miss Marple

              Location....Normandy France

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              • #8
                I don't believe it has. We don't have such deliveries and people are, how can I put it, a bit lazy when it comes to compost. They would rather extract every last ounce of minerals and nutrients from the soil rather than add anything to it.
                BTW we don't allow (horse) manure due to the possibility of amino pyralids.
                Thanks for all your replies.

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