Thursday 13 May 2010

Couch Grass - an Organic Nightmare


The dreaded couch grass has appeared on the perimeter of the vineyard. Couch grass is a noxious weed whose spiked flowers somewhat resemble an ear of wheat in structure. It is a perennial grass and the rhizome spreads rapidly in all directions in light soil, sending up leafy stems from the nodes.

Couch can be a nightmare for organic growers as we can't use herbicides and the only real way of removing it is a lot of hard work on your hands and knees pulling out the roots.

Fortunately it's not too bad at the moment and Alex has been able to pull out most of it. Fingers crossed it won't spread into the vineyard.

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