Port Coquitlam with horsetails out of control problem. Does anyone know where to buy horticultural vinegar (20%)?
The usual formulations round here are the 10% cleaning or 7% pickling vinegar. I used to buy 4 litre containers of 10% vinegar in the supermarket. Now they have tripled the price and you can only get it in some garden centres. If anyone can tell me where to get it at a reasonable price, I would be grateful. Just using vinegar on your Equisetum will probably not be an effective method of control. Vinegar is a contact herbicide & will just burn the parts to which it is applied. The persistent, deep underground rhizomes will be unaffected and just push-up new shoots to bug you. Is this a new house, or has there been soil disturbance recently? Repeated control of the tops plus soil cultivation, improvement of drainage, generally raising the fertility of the area (compost/mulch/manure) and adding more plants of your choice will get rid of the stuff over the the period of a few years.
The horsetails are taking over a wood-chipped riding ring. Amazing how many different brands of vinegar there are! Below are some I have come across ... Distilled White Vinegar 1L (made from grain & water) White wine vinegar Pickling vinegar Rice vinegar Balsamic vinegar Pure white vinegar (obtained from the acetous fermentation of distilled grain-derived ethanol and diluted with spring natural water.) Apple cider vinegar The question, which one is best for the farewell to horsetails? Which brands are 10% vinegar & where to buy in the lower mainland? Also, what's the best way to apply and when? Thanks for any help with this ....
Saraheco, As Lysichiton said vinegar probably won't work. Years ago when I lived on Lopez Island the birds (@#$%^&) decided I needed horse tail. It showed up in an open area near my pond. I had ducks, they loved eating the new sprouts as soon as the showed. No more horse tail! You probably don't have ducks but a weed eater used very frequently during the early part of their growth and all yr. will probably do about the same thing. This is nothing scientific just my experience. barb
Thank you Barbara ... there are ducks that land on the acreage in winter when the land floods but move on during the summer (when the horsetails visit ) If anyone has a few ducks that I could borrow for a week to indulge in horsetails pls let me know. Personally, I like the idea of 'natural preditors' best but don't know that the horsetails have one ... any other animal/bird enjoy a meal of horsetails that anyone knows of? Horses don't particularly care for eating them. Maybe goats? Slugs?
