Is THIS the key to wiping out ? Removal of moisture has a 100% success rate at killing the invasive plant – and is much more effective than herbicide, study finds
- Scientists said removing moisture from Japanese knotweed kills invasive plant
- They had a ‘100 per cent success rate’ after drying out plants in lab conditions
- Their discovery shows that the plant it ‘not as indestructible’, researchers said
- Japanese knotweed is a plant found in many areas of Europe and North America
PUBLISHED: 07:06 EDT, 19 August 2021 | UPDATED: 07:39 EDT, 19 August 2021
Japanese knotweed is a devastatingly invasive plant that can leave homeowners and gardeners in a bind.
But scientists might just have a new solution on how to kill it that they say is much more effective than herbicide.
It involves removing moisture from the plants by drying them out in a lab, although researchers said more tests in the field are needed to see how this would work in the real world before any advice or commercial product is made available to the public.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.476.0_en.html#goog_1797203280PauseNext video0:24Full-screenRead More
The study by the National University of Ireland Galway and University of Leeds found that removing moisture had a ‘100 per cent success rate’ in killing Japanese knotweed, which can break through bricks, concrete and mortar.
Their discovery shows that the plant is ‘not as indestructible’ as thought, according to the study’s co-author Dr Mark Fennell.
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Scientists might just have a new solution on how to kill Japanese knotweed that they say is much more effective than herbicide. Pictured are some of the samples they experimented with
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Japanese knotweed (pictured) is a problematic plant found in many areas of Europe and North America. Notably, in the UK, the species can cause issues with mortgage acquisition
Japanese knotweed
Japanese Knotweed is a species of plant that has bamboo-like stems and small white flowers.
Native to Japan, the plant is considered an invasive species.
The plant, scientific name Fallopia japonica, was brought to Britain by the Victorians as an ornamental garden plant and to line railway tracks to stabilise the soil.
It has no natural enemies in the UK, whereas in Asia it is controlled by fungus and insects.
In the US it is scheduled as an invasive weed in 12 states, and can be found in a further 29.
It is incredibly durable and fast-growing, and can seriously damage buildings and construction sites if left unchecked.
The notorious plant strangles other plants and can kill entire gardens.
Capable of growing eight inches in one day it deprives other plants of their key nutrients and water.https://5772890968515b3f00a684ae0e95aa20.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
The research found that incorrect herbicide treatment cannot control the growth and regeneration of Japanese knotweed, but that fully drying the plant material in a lab environment allowed it to be returned to the soil without risk of regrowth.
It also showed that if there are no nodes attached to the rhizomes (root-like underground shoots) there is no regeneration. Nodes are the points on a plant’s stem where buds and leaves originate.
Senior author of the study, Dr Karen Bacon, from NUI Galway, said: ‘Our finding that the removal of moisture has a 100 per cent success rate on killing Japanese knotweed plants and preventing regrowth after they were replanted also raises an important potential means of management for smaller infestations that are common in urban environments.’
She said it ‘requires additional field trials’ that her university hopes to carry out soon.
Japanese knotweed is a problematic plant found in many areas of Europe and North America. Notably, in the UK, the species can cause issues with mortgage acquisition.
It can grow up to 10ft in height and can dominate an area to the exclusion of most other plants.
Controlling Japanese knotweed is complicated by its ability to regenerate from small fragments of plant material; however, there remains uncertainty about how much rhizome is required and how likely successful regeneration is under different scenarios.
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