Japanese Knotweed

keithf

is blighting the sale of my house. Its on Network rail's land but

apparently the letter I have off them, stating its their issue

isn't good enough for the buyer's mortgage company.

revsorg

Sounds like a nightmare.  Have you considered legal action to force Network Rail to do something about it? I'm not qualified to give legal advice but it sounds as though their inaction is blighting your property value.

 Looking at the Wikipedia page its up to 3 metre deep invasive roots under a train track could make it virtually impossible to fix without spending millions.  There is a section on that page about some lenders in the UK  slackening their lending ban under certain circumstances.  Maybe your buyer could enquire at Woolwich or Santander?

TimmyO

'Sorting' it isn't easy.

It can pop up 100 feet/a few houses away easily.

A friend of my mum's had trouble with it - started in a garden a few houses away then sprung up from underground in their garden - not sure if they ever got shot of it :-/ 

ICBM

If I remember rightly the only sure way to get rid of it is to identify the stems, cut them off above ground level and soak the right type of weedkiller into them, so that it's drawn down into the plant's sap system. Laborious and difficult, especially if the main infestation isn't on your land.

Evilmags

Get a syringe and inject amy of it that is visible with concentrated glycophosphate 

ICBM

Evilmags said:

Get a syringe and inject amy of it that is visible with concentrated glycophosphate 

That's it - I couldn't remember what type of weed killer it was.

keithf

I cant get at it, its on railway property,doing my head in to be honest.

boogieman

ICBM said:

Evilmags said:

Get a syringe and inject amy of it that is visible with concentrated glycophosphate 

That's it - I couldn't remember what type of weed killer it was.

Which is going to be banned imminently. Good old health and safety. 

PolarityMan

Can the buyers convince their lender by getting an idemnity policy. We got one for a covenant on the land for our house and the policy was only about £150 to cover 25 years. Maybe theres is a similar solution here....follow up question would you be willing to sweeten the deal by meeting them on the cost if so? 

keithf

id happily pay for it

Dominic

Killing knotweed is very hard ....even Glysophate is not particularly effective.
The issue with Knotweed is that it disperses it's rhizomes over a wide area of soil and these remain unaffected by weedkillers until active.
True remediation involves hauling away huge quantities of contaminated soil.

WezV

My in laws neighbours had it and they got in a real panic.  In the end I think they agreed to go halves with the neighbours to ensure it was treated properly.    Previously the neighbours had just cut it back and claimed it was sorted.

IIRC  It was a few thousand for a few treatments over a couple of years... and no guarantees it wouldn't return.

57Deluxe

Used to have it in a corner of my garden at previous house... Setting fire to it actually keeps it in check!

axisus

"it's knotweed"

"Oh yes it is"

Jalapeno

You have my sympathies - Convulvulous (neightbours either side aren't keen gardeners and its rampant in both) is bad enough to try and keep on top of (glyphosate only kills back to first rhizome in the root system) - you only need half an inch of root to survive for it to quickly re-stablish. Lord know what you can do with knotweed.

crunchman

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/05/03/national/science-health/time-needed-japanese-insects-tackle-britains-knotweed-problem/#.WWTDkHr-nQQ

Won't help @keithf with his immediate problem but may help long term.

axisus

crunchman said:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/05/03/national/science-health/time-needed-japanese-insects-tackle-britains-knotweed-problem/#.WWTDkHr-nQQ

In 10 years time "super genetic siamese cats brought in to tackle UK insect problem"

In 20 years time "Monster dogs released to fight cat epidemic"