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Creeping buttercup

Ok, so a year on and I've managed to almost totally get rid of the wild garlic in the border at the back of our garden which backs on to a wood.  Just the odd shoot or two which I can easily dig out.  

But, the same can't be said about the creeping buttercup.  The sections where I could spray with resolva have largely been cleaned up but what is the best way to get rid of the stuff that is around the bottom of my new hornbeam hedge?  I obviously can't spray it.  Do you think if I continually hoe it, I will get rid of it this year?  Anyone had any success with getting rid of it?

 

Posts

  • Spray resolva into something like a plastic cup and brush it on to the creeping buttercup

  • Mulching helps a lot

    The RHS says:

    Creeping buttercup spreads by means of long runners; strong white, deeply penetrating roots that branch from each leaf node. Sub-lateral runners develop to form a vigorous, firmly anchored network of stems.

    'Reproduction is usually from seeds but in moist conditions small nodal sections of stems may become established if severed and scattered when roots are beginning to form.'


    Now that contradicts itself somewhat! Hunting around in the more formal literature I think I am happy to say that Creeping Buttercup can't regenerate from true roots, but can from a bit of the 'runner' [technically a stolon and for the RHS apparently a 'root' in the first paragraph and a 'stem' in the second!].

    The stolon [another example is a strawberry runner] is green if it is growing in the light, but if it has pushed under the soil or is otherwise in the dark then it goes white.

    True 'roots' are white and smooth; the stolon is hairy. True roots [of this species] lack the ability to make a new vegetative growth shoot, but the stolon has occasional leaf scales under which is a bud that can regenerate.

    image

  • Dig it out, its the only way.

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    glyphosate, simple

    Devon.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    even in a lawn,the gel form is useful

     

    Devon.
  • Spray it, just avoid the foliage on the hedge

  • CharleyDCharleyD Posts: 440

    Thanks everyone.  So, am I right in thinking that providing the resolva doesn't touch the foliage on the hedging plants (there isn't a lot there anyway at the moment) it won't affect them?  It doesn't matter if the resolva is sprayed around the roots of the hornbeam?

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