How to Control Japanese Knotweed

With an academic background in biology, environmental forestry and eco-physiology, Dr Paul Beckett shares his expertise in Japanese Knotweed - its life-cycle, different methods of managing it, plus the legalities of it being a `controlled waste`. In collaboration with Professor Anthony Moore of the University of Sussex and Julia Shearman, a PhD student funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council, he is looking at new ways to inhibit the rapid growth of this invasive plant.
www.phlorum.com
www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/moore...
www.bbsrc.ac.uk
An Adliberate film www.adliberate.co.uk for WoodlandsTV www.woodlands.co.uk/tv

[@godswat-chn9331]

Content doesn't match the title. Video should be retitled, "How Japanese Knotweed is invasive."

[@The5upermann1]

This plant is very invasive. It is all over the town I live in. I had a lot of it in the corner of my yard next to a fence. I accidentally got rid of it about fifteen years ago. Here is what happened. I had been away for a couple weeks and the grass in my lawn had grown really tall. So I bought myself a brand new lawn mower with a bagger attachment to mow my lawn. I mowed with my new mower and I kept dumping the grass clipping in the corner of the lawn where the knotweed grew. I only put the grass clipping there because this area of my lawn was unusable with the knotweed. Anyway I ended up with this huge pile of grass clipping on top of the knotweed. After a few days I noticed the huge grass pile was starting to generate heat as it was turning into compost. So I removed the compost grass pile from my yard and the knotweed never grew back! I don't know if it was due to the heat or something about the compost pile. I just thought I would share this as I haven't seen anyone else do this. My yard is still mostly free of the knotweed, but unfortunately my neighbor still has it in their yard on the other side of the fence.

[@SpencerOilChangeLOL]

I might try it

[@The5upermann1]

@@SpencerOilChangeLOL It was a large pile of grass clippings about three feet tall. I left it there for a few days and then I noticed steam was coming off the top of the grass pile. The grass clipping was composting and heated up. That was why I moved the pile out of my yard. I think it heated up the ground and cooked the roots of the knotweed.

[@fuzzheadtf]

I've got a section of knotweed about 50mx100m, wish I had enough grass to smother it all

[@kipstrange1973]

Fire kills everything, but only if you go back every two weeks with the blowtorch. That's what i do on my vegetable patch..

[@DXCommanderHQ]

Very fine production. Thanks.

[@PatriciaFreemanNesberg]

Thanks for the informative video. I appreciate your work.

[@TimTea1]

I really enjoyed this, thank you.

[@mariellekaifer8589]

Thank you. It’s so invasive and any information about control is valuable.

[@PeterAgnieszkaNelson]

Thank you to these nice Intelligent People, I really enjoyed this

[@AB-tc9hh]

Great video, v informative.

[@CompetentSalesUSA]

Roundup injected into the hollow stem is effective in controlling Knotweed.

[@kipstrange1973]

Any updates on this, did they find anything to inhibit battery cell expansion?

[@mikede2331]

What about watering it with a super low or high Ph water. could that kill it?

[@devbruhlstone5585]

I got rid of most of mine by cutting it down to the soil, getting huge vinyl mesh tarps (my source was free, from riggers who remove giant building wrap billboard ads) then putting 2" of earth or mulch on top to smother it. Some people use old carpeting. The bigger the better, they find any seams.

[@wannabee8972]

Didn't it come back after that? Considering it spreads underground by those cursed roots, hasn't it managed to shoot out, beyond your cover? If you could add some details as to how much beyond the last plant you've covered and such, that'd help a lot of people, myself included. Also, how long ago did you do this? Thanks for your input, it gives some hope.

[@xphilli]

I still remember on a uni field trip near Juniper Hall fsc, my professor tried to pull out one of these large bushes by a small stream as an example and after about a minute, he realised all he had done was break off many tiny bits that floated away, thereby making it a lot worse! No one had the heart to tell him what was happening behind him as he furiously tore away at the plants stems and roots. Oops!

[@GreenShoots]

Thank you for the thoughtful video. In North America, we are way behind you in awareness of the problem with invasive knotweeds. Regrettably, we may be ahead of you in creating more virulent hybrid species of knotweed from the four widely recognized species over here. We have had the best luck with successive applications of herbicide in the fall. This first shot is very successful at killing most of the underground rhizome. Thereafter, we use targeted applications of a different herbicide and mechanical removal to deal with the stragglers. It seems after the first shock of herbicide, the colony goes into semi-dormancy. I wonder whether that can be attributed to the plant's origins in Japan where it had to survive periods of heightened volcanic activity.

[@cejanuary9378]

Do you have a link to the recommended treatment plan (with type of herbicides) that you mention?

[@bitTorrenter]

​​@@cejanuary9378 I've heard through another video on YT that herbicides such as Icade and Grazon Pro are used in treatment of JP Knotweed.

[@cejanuary9378]

@@bitTorrenter I ended up using 40% glysophate injected in the stems. After doing this for 3 years it is mostly gone.

[@riverhuntingdon6659]

Nasty stuff, I once discovered a whole load of household waste and garden rubbish dumped at a friend's wood. In all this was some of this Japanese Knotweed. I know what a problem it is from my days on the railway, it'd even try and undermine tracks, grow up through seemingly impermeable tarmac, etc ! The only thing I could think to do was to burn it. Completely. Thankfully, touch wood, thus far, no sign of any growth. Just as well as the immediate area contains SSSIs.

[@diggadee7889]

A thunder bolt usually kills any trees . Why not use electricity to kill this plant.

[@karunald]

I see no instruct on methods to get rid of it.

[@k-pax532]

same here, that's what I watched it for !

[@jeremymcadams7743]

Glyphosate foam has been effective but if you are against herbicides then there will be no easy control. Mechanical will be your only option. But you can eat the leaves and maybe grind the stalks and turn that into compost/burn it.

[@iliketoast3211]

put the playback speed on 1.25x if they are speaking a little bit too slow for you

[@Kirinketsu_]

I have heard people call this stuff milkweed for years and I always knew it wasn't but couldn't figure out what it was called until today. I hate this stuff every year it grows all down my creek bank I have tried everything to remove it and I think I am going to buy something like a Guandao and go to town on it.

[@bernardthompson1888]

Don'y do that, it will make it spread more. Either drill into the second section from the ground up and inject herbicide or spray. Do both in the autumn (Aug/Sep) when the plant is storing sugars into its roots. Of course be careful not to allow the herbicide to enter any water courses and wear the correct PPE as it is very dangerous stuff.

[@glennrice1595]

Litigation, enforcement action or prosecution? For something that you have no existing solution to? Classic. Aside from that, very informative about the problem and the method of propagation and spread. I wish you luck, but hope that your eventual cure won't be worse than the problem.

[@NonieDeLong]

My thoughts exactly.

[@doransignal]

how can i get rid of it?

[@marcbruton22]

Glyphosate, roundup

[@58DELLA]

I'm late with this info but maybe it will still help. I'm in massachusetts, and HAD a thick patch of knotweed 15 x 120 feet and at least 6 feet high. I sprayed it with Compare n Save 41% Glyphosate . 2 to 4 ounces mixed with 1 gallon warm water. spray in august when plants have flowers. the stem will take the poison down to the rhizome. spray again in the fall. 2nd year about 30% of the plants will grow back. spray again when they flower and again in the fall. I'm on my 3rd year now and 12 stunted plants are all that's left, will spray them this fall. let them die on their own, do not dig them up you'll spread them everywhere. this video is ridiculous, they're treating these plants as if they are radioactive. Compare n Save 41% Glyphosate in 2.5 gallon jug is around $100 on line. that's all you need.

[@TedKidd]

10:20 You can eat it, it tastes a little bit like rhubarb

[@Laura_B__]

Yes, and if you dig up the roots and make tea from them, it is very high in resveratrol, which is a powerful antioxidant.

[@FrankEdavidson]

5 years on any negative effects from eating it?

[@stumpy666davies]

I've been eating the stuff since I was about 4 or 5 year old, here in South Wales, I'm 32 now, tastes delicious, raw green and red fat stem, snap it off part way up, inside there is a refreshing liquid that I've both drunk and used as a cooling liquid on my brow, then munched on the stem only about a cm, or like rhubarb it'll give me a sore stomach, but gives me a great energy boost, just from that small amount, but no, no adverse effects from eating it, although I've never eaten in large quantities, I'm missing eating it, but we're now in the process of treating it, and I really don't wanna eat and be poisoned by Glyphosate, 2,4-D or Triclopyr 😊

[@alpachino468]

Yeah, eventually, it'll burst out of your gut and out of every orifice...

[@excluyousivite]

@@alpachino468 LOL. Poltergeist

[@gomey70]

@@alpachino468 lol he'll turn into a triffid.

[@rustyironworks]

Are you handled as an obstacle after all?

[@jazradcliffe2286]

Can I grow this in a pot on a slabbed patio? It looks very nice.

[@biklylongfelow75]

no

[@SEaudiofan]

Please don't, at some point the remnants are likely to be let loose

[@execrated-bythem1583]

I’m pulling this shit out ! Fuck pesticides ! And I’m burning the stuff.

[@voxdomesticus]

Any results??

[@SimonSverige]

Glyphosphate works just fine on knotweed. These guys are just sapping the taxpayer for more funding totally unnecessarily.

[@58DELLA]

you, are correct!

[@gomey70]

It's very effective at managing it, but it won't kill the rhizome which just stays dormant underground waiting to spring back to life when it gets the chance.

[@zzzzzzzzzzz3135]

Guess who didn't listen to the video. 😂 Glyphosate kills everything, including plants you want to keep. The scientists are looking for a specific targeted solution.

[@rubiccube8953]

Ammonium sulphamate works well on many weeds is it effective on the rhizomes.

[@bitTorrenter]

​@@rubiccube8953 Is that true also of Sodium Chlorate?

[@alpsala]

What about fabric? Will JK penetrate fabric I wonder?

[@GardenUPLandscape]

JK would decimate fabric. It would either come right through, or it would just lift the fabric and everything on top of it right off the ground.

[@alpsala]

@@GardenUPLandscape i have 4 acres and the fence line is full of polk weed. Is that similar to JK?

[@GardenUPLandscape]

@@alpsala No, Pokeweed and Japanese Knotweed are very different plants. I'm not familiar with Pokeweed, but a quick Google search tells me it's native to the Eastern and Central US down to the gulf coast. It looks like the plant is very poisonous, and a few berries are enough to kill a child, but it is an important food source for birds who seem to be immune to it's toxicity. It's an herbaceous perennial with a long horizontal taproot. It mainly reproduces by seeds though, so my first guess would be frequent mowing should keep it under control. I like Penn State's website, it's a very good resource for plant questions like this. Here's their page on Pokeweed, which confirmed my suspicion about mowing it down. extension.psu.edu/common-pokeweed-identification-and-management Hope this helps!! :)

[@alpsala]

@@GardenUPLandscape thank you.

[@queenofbeauty]

You all obviously got no where

[@murrayeaton3955]

So the answer to "How do you control Japanese knotweed" is you don't know?

[@jeremymcadams7743]

I mean they listed ways to control it. Burning and destroying the rhizomes. Just the financially feasible vs effective doesn't match up yet.

[@ivelinaminkova2646]

They graze it.

[@hakimvlogs6579]

Video starts at 7:25

[@dougelick8397]

But have you found a way to kill it yet??

[@SheSweetLikSugarNSavage]

Controlled fire

[@SteveStap1]

Being from the United States, I find it comical that I am about to send China money for a dried bag of this. it is considered an invasive species here in the US...even though it has highly profound medicinal properties. Sometimes nature screams in the face of our species, but to no avail. So, to China my money will go...Simply because it was cheaper, and in bulk, i suppose they don't have a problem with availability, or invasivity.

[@nzt29]

I used a database to find where some was and harvested it. Free is even better than paying. Resveratrol can be expensive!

[@217razor]

You can come have mine! I cut it done ans bag it for the trash every month. It just keeps coming back

[@debradaugherty8287]

Knotweed is commonplace in the States. Just go find some and pick it and dry it if you think it is so good for you. You're the one that is being dumb here.

[@SteveStap1]

@@debradaugherty8287 if I ever encounter it I would. Indeed. I often harvest and examine plants from where I am located. Where have you seen it? I have spent thousands of dollars even recently for this. The last batch was not very good for 30 dollars. Let me know where you have seen it, I dont mean to come off as rude or arrogant.

[@richardiredale5639]

Just trying to find knotweed it Lego Fortnite

[@SheSweetLikSugarNSavage]

Its crazy. Why are we trying to find a way to destroy it if it has extremely strong medicinal uses and can even be used as a tasty food source. Humans are so weird.

[@menschmitnamen]

How much of it did you eat already?

[@kevinabalo]

You eat it.

[@KadoTheNorm]

Because it spreads exponentially if left alone. I get that it’s not a garbage plant but that doesn’t mean I want it to out compete my grass and grow through my driveway.

[@gomey70]

Because when it grows in areas it's not native to, it destroys other plant life and take over. In its native japan, the ecosystem keeps it in check.

[@KadoTheNorm]

@@gomey70 seriously, knotweed is known for making monocultures.

[@redd605]

Worst plant, that should be extinct for the amount of damage it does

[@PlanetRockJesus]

Oh, girl, leave your eyebrows alone, and ditch the hardware!

[@riverhuntingdon6659]

+PlanetRockJesus When her time comes, they won't know whether to call the local undertaker, or the local junkyard !

[@PatriciaFreemanNesberg]

Your attempt to reduce this intelligent woman to your petty comments is merely a reflection of your issues.

[@a.m.242]

There's nothing wrong with the way she chooses to groom herself. Your comment on the other hand...

[@f.ence.]

I'm pretty sure she's allowed to do whatever the fuck she wants.

[@MoniDas-rz8do]

Thanks for the informative video. I appreciate your work.