Masses of weed

[thy]

Help please

In my new garden I have weed like i have never seen before, it look harmless at first glanse, but it have a massive rootball of fine roots, you need a spade and digging it out ...The weed is very tender and easy to pull, but the roots is a massiv blanket.

How to get rid of it... i know you have something called Pren or something like that.. what is it? and how do it work ?... I have hostas and bulbs in the area with some other plants

I can't get Pren in Denmark, but maybe in Germany, they are not as strict as we are

Pia

[eastwood2007]

Hi, Pia -

Bummer! Weeds are such a pain!

Preen is a pre-emergent to prevent weed seeds from germinating, but won't do anything to help once they've germinated. There's always Round Up, but of course, you must be very careful not to get it on any desirable plants.

We have a pre-emergent product called Treflan here that is better than Preen. Preen can be a little pricey and sometimes not very effective. Some say Treflan can affect plant growth, but I've used it for years and never had a problem.

Good luck!

[party_music50]

Pia, can you identify the weed or show a picture of it?

[thy]

What i want to do, is preventing it from setting viable seeds.. it is everywhere and a very common weed here. I have had it before, but like one here and one there, here it is a 4 inch high carpet with a rootmass you have to dig..each plant can do 15.000 seeds

Do not know the latin name.. buty here is a Danish link http://pvo.planteinfo.dk/cp/graphics/Na ... &NameID=27

It is for farmers and I cant get the stuff they can use and have hostas and other plants to care for

Do Pren and the other make a sort of film covering the soil... meaning everytime you mess with the soil you make an opening for the weeds ?

Thank you for replying

[party_music50]

Hi Pia. I think we'd call that "chickweed" here, or something very similar to it. I have the equivalent in my gardens occasionally and it pulls up easily when it's small. I guess I keep on top of it (it and other weeds get into the veggie garden).

However, if it IS chickweed, then it is an annual. All you'd need to do is smother it. I'd use several layers of wetted newspaper spread over it, then weight that down with several inches of mulch or compost and water it. If it's the same chickweed that I get, that would be the end of it (unless the seeds were in the compost, of course. lol!)

[thy]

Could easyli be the name..we call it bird grass , so it fit fine ...

last year I pulled it of, but may have been a bit late some plases and spreaded a 10 to 15 cm layer of mushroom compost ( very fine structure) on top of the beds, then I thought everything would be fine .. heck.... The compost was sterile.
Normally a layer of 7 to 8 cm is preventing the anuals to get the needed light, but not with this one I put down some black gardening textile..and it grow 50 cm to the sides for some light, even the textile has a lot of stones to keep it down

I have tried a small gas burner..even vited to the color to change... curled a few of the leaves, nothing else

I pulled some of it today..too... and could hear the seeds dropping

1 inch is 2½ cm

Pia