The way to destroy Japanese knotweed.

Japanese knotweed is a very durable plant, and many people have tried and failed to kill it effectively, in fact in a lot of cases they have only prompted it to spread, which is something you really should be mindful of as being classified under the Part II of Schedule 9 in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as stated in Section 14(2) it's an offense to plant or otherwise cause Knotweed to grow in the wild. This is probably most often seen in incidents of improper disposal.

While only the female plant has been discovered in the UK, meaning its seeds are infertile, it has bred with some other plants and introduced hybrids, although in most cases these don’t survive very long.

Primarily, the way knotweed is spread is by fragments of the weed being carried, since very small volumes of it can potentially grow back, it only takes a few centimetres of the rhizome (root) system to start up multiplying once again. Hence, dumping old dirt from a area that might have been infected, chucking away garden waste incorrectly or picking up contaminated dirt up on your shoe and walking it to other locations. These all are possible methods for knotweed to propagate, but how should you combat it?

Well there are numerous tactics for Japanese knotweed's suppression and they range tremendously. The most common practice for Japanese knotweed is to fight it with weed killers, occasionally squirting the foliage, and also injecting the herbicide directly into the stem, which can also stop herbicides from killing nearby plants. This technique is typically quite slow though, it’s very difficult to eradicate knotweed in a single season and you may need to keep treating the Japanese knotweed for several years consecutively.

Other options include excavation of the site; this is probably the priciest method for Japanese knotweed, but tends to produce final results in the shortest timeframe, in particular where the site is sufficient so that you can bury all of the afflicted earth over 5m down.

A technique which is less commonly seen, is a agricultural technique called top soil steam sterilization. Doing just what its name suggests, it involves injecting the soil with steam jets to kill the rhizomes (and everything else for that matter). However this is still being subjected to testing.

Also, the best approach is to deal with it speedily, the more time the problem is left unchecked, the more costly and time consuming it's going to be to solve. Weed killers are usually the commonest approach for people having a go on their own, and it is certainly the most risk free when in contrast to excavation and (god forbid) trimming it back, which without exceptional care and attention could make matters worse, but remember whenever using weed killers, to verify with the council in advance.

Using a Japanese knotweed removal firm however can be expensive, nevertheless approaches provided by organizations for instance excavation can produce better results and reduced timeframes, which can be required for developers and those with property or homes on the line.