What a load of tosh. The most innacurate one sided commercially skewed program I have seen.

I have first hand knowledge of this beast, and it is awful , but by no means as drastic as they make out. It took me 3 years to eradicate it but it was not hard, just need persistence with over the counter weedkiller. Stating treatments costing £25k made me laugh. Getting rid of it cost me £30, plus some syringes. It will not grow through concrete, it will however find and gaps in sub standard foundations.

Sensational crap journalism at is worst, or best if you are a tabloid editor.

Not seen the programme but have but i have first hand experience of working on sites contaminated with it. Its hard to get rid off and the cost is from the labour involved not the chemicals used especially in a commercial environment where waiting many years before a site is clear is not practical nor comercially viable. Also disposal of any JKW waste including soils is strictly controlled and expensive as its treatment and disposal is covered under at least 5 acts or regulations.

What a residential owner can get away with is not the same as what a commercial developer etc can get away with so are not comparible.

To add its something like 0.5g of rhizone from JKW which can lead to infestation or regrowth. Also rhizones can remain dormant for many years hence the issue with treatment and disposal at licenced specialist landfill sites.

There is no "getting away with" going on here. The fact is on a residential site it take 2-3years to get rid of but it is not difficult or costly. Every time you cut the grass also inject and spray the Glyco Phosphate. Now if you want to pay someone to do that it would cost a bit and therein lies the problem. People fear the stuff, then call in so called professionals that spray concentrated phosphate and the sod off, the it takes hold again and the cycle continues.

Just treat the stuff weekly during the growing season and it will go. The last vestiges of it are quite odd as it come up as a tiny bonsai of itself. Miss this growth and it can take hold again. Also never move the stuff or try to dig it up.

Exactly my point Bockers if you are treating your own garden and can invest the time then great, but this is not an option or appropriate for all situations. If a developer wants to build on a site with JKW on it they will HAVE to dig hence the high costs. They don't have the luxury of time either, they need to turn a profit on their investment.

Your tying to equate 2 different scenarios with different drivers. They are not the same and neither are works involved.

Having done design work and supervised construction on sites with JKW I know the issues all to well and its not as simple as it seems when in a commercial environment.

Sorry Hyper, did not mean to mix the two scenarios. The trouble was the programme had a couple who owned bought a house that had knotweed and the reporter kept going on about the cost of removal from the site from a developers perspective. However the development was complete and the couple could easily get rid of the issue, it would take time and persistence but that is a luxury they have. Not ideal but better than bleating on and doing nothing.

The key with knotweed is to kill it to its roots in the growing season. Many people attack it in late autumn and think it has gone when in reality it is just dormant for the winter and will pop up again in the spring.

The biologist (bloke trying to sell the aphid solution) was scaremnongerimg when he said it could lie dormant for 20 years. That is true in certain climates but in the UK it is way too temperate for it to resist popping up in the spring

I can see the nightmare for a developer finding it on their land and the costs of immediate removal are silly. We got our infestation from fly tipping on the land behind our house and in the spring after developers had remove the rubbish and finished the development so up sprung the knotweed. Back then I did not know what it was but have since got to know the enemy very well.

Interestingly tarpaulin is a great way to kill it. Let it grow a bit then cover it with weighed down tarp and do a bit of walking on the area. The plants will then exhaust themselves repairing and trying to reach the light. You have to make sure the whole infestation is covered but it is a great no chemical solution to small areas.

All I know is that, it's near impossible to get a mortgage on a property if the surveyor spots this little gem!!!

No worries bockers like I said I didnt see the programme but I do know its an issue. I dont doubt they over egged the commentry to make it seem worse.

I wasn't sure if was an issue for mortgages but it does make sense. My work was for maintenance/repair/improvement of existing assets with zero chance of resale so it was not a concern.

No different from ground elder. Persistance and glyphosate works, but only after a couple of years. Trying to remove from the roots is not possible unless you are a brain surgeon with suitable tools and patience - the slightest scrap of root left behind will create another network

As my dear friend Alan Titchmarsh said... "The best way of removing ground elder from your garden is to move your garden"!

Or Celandine. Worse than ground elder in our garden.

Just watched the show, i've seen less shocking horrors! That knotweed is one hard barsteward!

Is there anything similar to Japanese Knotweed?

There's a plant/weed that comes through from my neighbours front garden (I think) that has similar leaves to the Knotweed, but has different white flowers (just Googled images of the Knotweed to try and find out).

It grows rapidly and wraps itself around all my plants, etc and I think it's this that's blocking my gutter drain too.

When I try and pull it free, there's loads of it wrapped around anything it can get its suckers on

It's probably Convolvulus. Convolvulus Arvensis


Lovely looking flower, but just looks sinister to me and I hate it. Spray the Barsteward with a contact weedkiller. It is very persistent and you can't let up on removing it or treating it, or it will strangle you in bed one night.

Thanks Lego, that's the one.

When I first saw it appear, I left it, thinking it looked nice when flowering and not knowing much about weeds and flowers, thought I'd let it grow a bit more, but am regretting it now.

The rate it grows, I'm pretty sure it will strangle me in bed one night

God help it if it targets your Fosters

Wot no patch...

You gotta be careful with the stuff... full guidance here:

Environment Agency