From: Fred and Aleta
> Does any one have any suggestions for getting rid of quack grass? >
I'm not sure about getting 'rid' of quack grass, just keeping it out of
where I don't want it. I've edged the beds with 12 inch flashing that
apparently is keeping the rhizomes at bay. That's flashing put down to the
12 inch depth, straight down, and is really hard work, but worth it if I
don't have to try to dig out those roots. Two of the beds have been edged a
few years now and only on rare occasion do I find any quack grass in them
and since these are no till beds rooting out the root is easy.
Kimm
Hi everyone and Margaret L in particular.
This is my first OGL post.
Please can someone tell me what quack grass is, as if I have it at all (in
Crete) I would love to try it as a moluscicide.
regards to all Janet B
Richard & Janet Blenkinship
Crete
Zone 10/11
Margaret L wrote
> Do you dry the quackgrass and hold it for summer use? lay it in a swath
> around garden beds to kill any slugs or snails that decide to dine there.
> The dried stuff is a molluscicide. Margaret L
janetble@otenet.gr
Try spring, autumn, summer, winter. Where DO your snails go in the summer
and winter? ;-D
Janet B wrote:
Hi Janet
It is also known as twitch or couch grass (and even scutch according to
my British Flora) and if you are scientifically inclined as Agropyron
repens.
It is only native in the Northern Hemisphere, but being one of those
pests which hitch hikes around the world with crop plants it is also
very much at home in New Zealand.
Nice to see you on this list
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata, New Zealand. (on the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
Lat. 41:16S Long. 174:58E. Climate: Mediterranean/Temperate
They hibernate in winter, in the ground? In summer, they estivate (summer
version of hibernate), taking a lengthy nap somewhere where a gullywasher
won't drown them. On the house, on the fence, on any place they can climb
up and be sure it won't topple over with them. Margaret L
Moira wrote
> It is also known as twitch or couch grass (and even scutch according to
> my British Flora) and if you are scientifically inclined as Agropyron
> repens.
Hi Moira
Oh 'couch grass'. That well known and loved weed in England. We do have some
here, but more prolific is a creeping form which I am sure is the same type.
anyway its worth drying and spreading about next year, because snails are a
horrendous problem here in spring and autumn.
Thanks Janet
Quack grass is the #1 reason I won't use landscape cloth or anything
like it. The rhizomes creep under the fabric and flourish under there.
It becomes almost impossible to pull up, takes about two inches of
precious top soil with it. Grrrrrrr....
John, are you saying you and your goats eat the rhizomes??? If so, I'll
have to try it. I let purslane grow in my raised beds because it's nice
in salads.
Heaven, for me, would be a garden without Japanese beetles, red lily
beetles, quack grass, creeping Charlie and hornworms. Well, that would
be the outside part. The indoors would look quite like a library, as
that famous quote goes.
Sherry
What famous quote?
Pat
Same here. If John's munching on quack grass rhizomes, I'm gonna give
bermuda rhizomes a try.
Pat
Sherry wrote:
Pat said:
> Same here. If John's munching on quack grass rhizomes, I'm gonna give
> bermuda rhizomes a try.
There is a school of homeopathic medicine that believes that quack grass has
many curative properties, and probably something as evil as that stuff
should have.
Kimm
bille said.
Kimm
I read somewhere many years ago that a paste made of quack grass
roots/rhizomes made a great slug repellent. IIRC you dig up some
rhizomes, clean off the soil and put them through a meat grinder and
than use the results in the garden. It attract the slugs, they eat it
and die.
I have not tried this.
Lucy
Kimm Miller wrote:
> John, are you saying you and your goats eat the rhizomes??? If so, I'll
> have to try it. I let purslane grow in my raised beds because it's nice
> in salads.
> Sherry
It disappears into my goats faster than you can say "what was that?".
I spit the fibery/woody leftovers back out. It is not salad material but
while working in the garden I masticate away. Extract the sweet juices and
then return the leftover. It certainly does not recover from that :))
john
--EXCITEBOUNDARY_000__9fb452fc04807f0b78b461736c125f43
Ha ha, here to the wheat grass is popular. But how am I to know if I'm munching on Couch grass or some other? I looked for pictures of couch grass and all they showed was the seed heads. :-(Amy of Marvelous Gardenshttp://home.earthlink.net/~marvelousgardens/--- On Thu 01/19, John D'hondt < dhondt@EIRCOM.NET > wrote:
Wheat grass juice is extremely popular here at the momentand one has to go trough a lot of trouble to grow and harvest thisfirst...We might just start a new health fad.john
--EXCITEBOUNDARY_000__9fb452fc04807f0b78b461736c125f43
| Ha ha, here to the wheat grass is popular. But how am I to know if I'm munching on Couch grass or some other? I looked for pictures of couch grass and all they showed was the seed heads. :-( Amy of Marvelous Gardens http://home.earthlink.net/~marvelousgardens/ --- On Thu 01/19, John D'hondt < dhondt@EIRCOM.NET > wrote: Wheat grass juice is extremely popular here at the moment |
> Same here. If John's munching on quack grass rhizomes, I'm gonna give
> bermuda rhizomes a try.
> Pat
Seems even juicier than our quack. I wonder what would result if one put
this in a juicer. Wheat grass juice is extremely popular here at the moment
and one has to go trough a lot of trouble to grow and harvest this
first...We might just start a new health fad.
john
> There is a school of homeopathic medicine that believes that quack grass
has
> many curative properties, and probably something as evil as that stuff
> should have.
> Kimm
See, it only takes an enterpreneur amongst us to turn this to gold!
john
Yes, make big bucks! Didn't we have another astonishingly clever idea along
these lines a while back? And we're still not rolling in dough...
Pat
20 plus years ago, when I had bladder infections quite regularly, I ran across an
herbal that suggested decoction of quack grass roots for such troubles. I had no
difficulty digging up buckets of the roots, cleaned and boiled them, drinking
quantities of the result, with no apparent effect. Maybe I did something wrong -
but have since found that straight cranberry works like magic!
Nancy
Federal Way, WA USA
--- John D'hondt
> Yes, make big bucks! Didn't we have another astonishingly clever idea
along
> these lines a while back? And we're still not rolling in dough...
> Pat
Having good ideas is one thing, turning it into a business requires other
muscles and more plain human greed too.
Some years ago I told a farm official, family member of the then minister of
ag even about my way of treating "scour" in calves.
The classical product given for this are antibiotics together with a salt
solution to counter dehydration. Commercial product is called "lectade" and
is in fact helping to starve the calf.
What we developed was to give the calf sour milk or Kefir even instead of
fresh milk to clear up the affliction in a jiffy. I learned later that a
group of people had tried to commercialize the idea but I do not think it
has taken off hugely. Adding a bit of water to a powder is still easier.
Of course calves only have this trouble if they can't suck from their
mothers.
john
