Poppy problem on Veg plot
Jon T
Posts: 5
I am trying to recover an area of my garden to use for vegetables. It's about 50m2, and the previous owner covered it in poppies, which flower late in the spring and seem to dwarf over anything we plant and grow ferociously, sapping the life out of anything I plant. The bed was treated with roundup, and visible roots were lifted last year, but many still survived.
As I prepare the beds to try again this year - what can I do to try and rid them of the perennials?
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What sort of poppies are they Jon?
In the sticks near Peterborough
I'm happy to be wrong but they look very similar to the poppies which grow in my garden, I read somewhere, the seeds can lay dormant in the soil for 10yrs or more, waiting for the right conditions to grow again and I can believe that.
Don't want to be the bringer of bad news but if they are the one's in my garden I've been trying to get rid for over 20yrs. If you let the flowers go to seed they explode everywhere.
On a more positive note they reproduce by self seeding, so as long as you don't let the flowers go to seed eventually the numbers will reduce and emerging seedlings can either be hoed into your soil on the veg beds or pulled out.
is there any way you could clear the plot, bit by bit and burn the seeds by using a flame thrower or something similar? Seems the quickest way to get rid.
I should have thought a good dose of glyphosate applied to full leaves before the flowers start would knock them back
Have I missed a photo? Zoomer says they look similar to his/hers
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thanks - don't think I'd trust myself with a flame thrower
I was thinking of getting a rotavator, turing it over a good 12" after having pulled up as many roots again and glycophosphate the blighters. There wasn't a photo - guess you can find one on google.
If you're sure they're oriental poppies don't rotavate, oriental poppies grow from root cuttings, you'll be creating lots of root cuttings.
A flame thrower won't help, the roots are underground.
Zoomer's seed problems sound more like an annual poppy
In the sticks near Peterborough
Sorry for causing a panic, you will still have a good veg bed...where stuff grows but treat them like an annual weed and hoe regularly, the seedlings aren't deep rooting and if they appear elsewhere in the garden just pull them up.
Thanks nutcutlet - I hadn't thought about the root cuttings - that would have been a nightmare!
If they're so well established you'll probably need more than one go with the glyphosate. Try and get them in full leaf before the flowers buds come
In the sticks near Peterborough