anecdote says it is less of a problem than the "war on knotweed" might suggest, perhaps the WOK has developed its own agenda and hungry horse to feed
i can think of stands that were quite easy to kill and others that have been stable and small for decades in places they seem to cause no harm, which seems to be similar to the japanese view of the stuff
as for the decrease in floral diversity, it seems unlikely knotweed has had much influence on places that it isnt but they have decreased diversity
it does not eat houses, it does eat house prices, but so does cladding or a bad choice of "style makeover"
poplar willow ash buddleia and many others have assorted attack methods and are well bad for buildings(good for blokes who mend buildings )
out of all the "invasive" species*, near the house and via the ground willow or poplar, in the walls above ground buddleia is the best
hidden behind a chimney for a few years' buddleia is a nice little earner or nightmare depending which side of the contract you are on
*or species as i prefer to call them considering there was mile deep ice here not that long ago and more recently little but lichen on ice scrubbed rock and im not even sure lichen is a "plant"
We have Japanese knotweed in our garden and we have taken it back from a dense plantation to a few odd bits that come up now and again. Had to use glyphosate, but it seems easier to eradicate than buddleia, which is another problem round here. Our next door neighbours got a bit unnecessary about the knotweed to commissioned a report which said it wouldn't spread from our side, and we know that plot had a lot of it before the houses were built. They did take all the topsoil and go down to bare chalk, but not sure if that was for gain or for knotweed removal.
poison helps, bash and shade with broad canopy trees from the perimeter is quite effective but takes a few years, lorry tarp and raised beds on legs with a little snipping if any shows
most places it is not a problem, if it is a problem it is not a triffid and even triffids can be dispatched
for house breakers, i would be far more concerned about a big willow 30m away than knotweed by the doorstep
There are a lot of things worse. As you say, willow is one. I am glad to say the beech tree in next door's garden has been pollarded again so less likely to drop a branch on our bedroom. I am glad to say they are having a couple of conifers, thought to be leylandii cut soon too, so hoping there will be more light in the vegetable garden. They are just having the sycamore pollarded, so sycamore seedlings will continue to be a problem.
sgt.colon
Joined: 27 Jul 2009 Posts: 7380 Location: Just south of north.
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 23 9:56 am Post subject:
I was at an allotment committee meeting last night and one of the people there said that you could eat every part of the knotweed plant, as well as the Himalayan balsam plant. Is this true, do you guys know?
On a side note, rhododendron is another one that they are saying is a hard plant to get rid of.
iirc knotweed has quite a bit of oxalic among the assorted nasty things in the root system, young stem buds are a bit like rhubarb but i would not over do them
the liquid in the lower stem sections can be drunk without ill effects if you must, i dought it would be a good thing to do long term
not toxic* as such but not food, a similar status to rhubarb, edible in parts
balsam seeds might be substituted for pepper, but are a bit toxic* the vegetative parts are not very nice to eat and may or may not be toxic
there are far better "weeds" to eat
* a bit toxic is not aconite or the less fun fungi, but it ain't food unless there is nothing else
Getting rid of rhododendron is a long term job. At least one project is going on to make charcoal of the stems and spread the biochar on the area the rhodi once was to try to improve the soil. Not sure how it is going. We are on chalk, so buddleia is the woody plant that loves us; and clematis of course.
Nicky cigreen
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9881 Location: Devon, uk
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 23 10:56 am Post subject:
rhododendron is an on going issue here - they regularly have rhode-bashing parties on parts of the moor.. but still it comes back
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 8918 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 23 2:31 pm Post subject:
They were getting on top of the Rhody eradication in Lewes Castle grounds, Stornoway, until lockdown arrived....
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