Creeping Buttercup

[Stephen]

On Butts Meadow, here in Berkhamsted, this is one of the most persistent and prolific weeds.
We are all fighting it in our own way but my qiuestion is:-
Is it OK to compost them or should I burn the stuff I pull out?

I know I will never "win" but I just want to make a decent impression on the things. Some I dig out, some gets glyphosate. One thing is for sure, I'm not going to just leave the stuff!

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Stephen, unless your compost heap really heats up, i would burn the stuff, or you could put it into black bin liners for a year.

No weeds are impossible to beat, i took on the worst half plot on our allotments, just for a challenge, it was full of Couch, both types of bindweed, thistles, docks and buttercups.
I'm now glad to say it's weed free, apart from the normal annuals that pop up.

You will get there if you persist.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I compost mine and they die off completely, just don't put any in if they have flowers on or you could be spreading the seeds.

I very successfully cleared a banking that was covered in creeping buttercups by putting a sheet of black polythene over them for a few months. I just weeded out any that managed to sneak out from underneath. Those daisy grubber weeding tools are ideal as they very easily get the top and roots out with just a little levering movement.

Good luck.

[Johnboy]

Hi Stephen,
When I lived in Hertfordshire I was confronted with a very large area of Creeping Buttercup. I found that the best way to combat it was to turf the surface and build a wall with the turf. I then left it for a couple of years and any regrowth from the wall was treated with Paraquat, now not on the market, so would treat the wall with glyphosate. This means only using a fraction of the Glyphosate as if you treated them on the plot. It worked very well for me.
JB.

[Stephen]

Thanks for the responses.
It's reassuring that they will compost down satisfactorily. I'll just have to ensure that the daleks do their work well.

Flowers? Never had any of those on the butercup on the allotment!

I have sprayed glyphosate onto the stuff composting a couple of times when I saw continued growth despite the dark!

[Stephen]

Sorry for the abreviated respones.
I have been dumping them in the compost to date but some neighbouring plotholders (long-standing allotmenteers) who suggested that they were not good for the compost. I thought that this was odd, after all most beg matter just rots as well as any other.

So I'll keep going, just making sure that the compost I dig out is looking great.

[FelixLeiter]

I have always, always composted buttercups and I have never had any regrowth from the resulting compost. What you have to remember about buttercups is that they do not actually have a persistent rootstock from which they can regenerate. They spread overground by runners, and they are perennial by dint of simply remaining green throughout the winter — they have no tuber, rhizome, bulb or what have you from which they can regenerate. In practical terms, this means that to kill a buttercup, you have to do no more than separate it from its roots; you don't even need to dig it up. I have in the past completely eliminated buttercups from an infested herbaceous border using a pen knife. Simply sever each plant just below where the leaves join the roots (the hypocotyl, if you insist) and it's dead. This way, it is also possible to get them out from amongst congested roots and rhizomes of plants in the border without disturbing them. The whole lot goes on the compost to give lovely black humus.

In my view, if you start digging around buttercups and burying some of them, a whole world of woe awaits.

[Johnboy]

Hi Stephen,
As Felix says they make good compost and the turf wall the I suggested is to keep it separated from other compost because it can regrow on the compost heap if not separated from it's roots. By placing it upside down it doesn't really matter but they do put out the odd runner or two whilst in the wall. When all is dead then it is simple task to thrown the soil back where it came from.
JB.

[Stephen]

Thanks all.
It is good news that I have been doing the right thing, I thought it was OK, but always reassuring to get some information from those better informed than I.