Help identifying these plants, Please?

mfordbnw

Hello,

These plants have appeared almost overnight. I have been doing up my garden and noticed these sprouting up in between the patio slabs. I have tried Google but cannot seem to identify them. I have been told they are everything from dandelion to knotweed. 

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance. 

Dovefromabove

Afraid it's horsetail ... you're not the only one with it popping up just now.  Those are the reproductive parts of the plant and they will spread their spores around so the best thing to do is to pull them up and bag and bin them (not in the council compost bin ... just in the household waste).

Lots more info here https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=257 

and on this thread https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1011733/whats-growing-in-between-my-paving-and-how-to-i-get-rid-of-it#latest 

wild edges

My plot was covered with this when we built the house. To get weed killer to work you have to stamp on it and grind your feet a bit to break the skin then spray. I gave ours several good treatments but in the end I wish I hadn't as I'm sure the weed killer effected plant growth in the new plants we put in afterwards. 10 years later and we still have it as it creeps back in from neighbours' gardens. I weed it out whenever I see it though and it does very little harm to the garden as long as you don't let it establish. 

Paul B3

There is a UK based company called Progreen ; they can supply a product called 'Kurtail' . Check their website for more info.
I've never used it so cannot vouch for it , but reviews sounded fairly positive .
As with all substances like this , prepare to be 'stung' ! Prices can be prohibitive .
Maybe as the above poster states , resort to manual removal .
A painstaking process , good luck !

Fire

@wild edges - was your neighbour on the case too? Doesn't sound like it.

Purplerain

I have successfully used Kurtail. It will quickly turn the horsetail brown and dry on the top. The trick is to leave it and don't be tempted to lift it, as it then works its way through the roots. It looks unsightly, but it definitely kills it.

I still have this weedkiller, but I was under the impression that we shouldn't use it now. I don't need it anyway as the problem was eradicated.  I think the company sell something similar that complies with EU regulations.

It is expensive, but it was very bad in my garden front and back, and spoiling my enjoyment in the garden, so well worth it.

wild edges

Fire said:

@wild edges - was your neighbour on the case too? Doesn't sound like it.

Not really. There's still an empty building plot to one side so I laid old carpet over the ground there within 3 metres of my fence which stopped it creeping back that side. The neighbours at the back do a pretty good job with it but the house on the other side is rented and they don't garden beyond mowing the lawn so it lives happily in the borders there and creeps under the fence. By 'creep' I mean it can come several metres under ground before popping up. I dug out for a pond and found the roots at the bottom of the 4' deep hole in hard clay that I could barely dig into with a pick.

Fire

I can't even imagine the frustration. Trying to trace back miles of bindweed used to have me in a state of apoplexy. It sounds like Kurtail might be worth trying.

Dovefromabove

If you're going to use Kurtail, you need to treat the green leaves, not the reproductive growth which is what you're seeing at the moment ... they need to be removed (bagged and binned) asap or their spores will spread and add to the amount of Horsetail in your garden.