Kikuyu - Root barrier

18 years ago

Hey all new to the forum and fairly new to this gardening caper (3-4yrs), and I've got a question about Kikuyu.

I moved into a property about three years ago now and moved into a place with an almost carpet of (what i thought at the time) beautiful green grass with a few metres worth garden beds pretty much around the edges of the garden.

I'm a big fan of Pete Cundall dead easy gardeing videos and have learnt from him to plant in soil that has lots of compost, manure, and so forth. So when I planted some new plants in existing garden beds i have Cundalled them up and the plants are great when i can see them ! The plants have loved my treatment but so has the Kikuyu ! Its gone crazy ! it grows better in the beds than in the lawn.

So far I am experimenting in one section on how to get rid of it. I have layed lots of old newspaper down like a newspaper at a go and all overlapping, then manure, then i think a red gum mulch about 1o cms thick.

Those of you with Kikuyu will know what Im going thro cause despite all this it has come back just as strong, one good thing it has taken two months to come back instead of one but thats the only plus after spending about $150 on one garden bed.

Anyway it was suggested that I use a product which is 30 cm deep and you place it into the soil and its called root barrier, my concern is , is that deep enough and is there anything else I can do? ie organic remdies other than round up or such, cause the kikuyu infests itself into the plants roots and all ?

So I would love any advice any one had on the matter?

Has anyone had success with this product before ?

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Comments (5)

Jamus_S
18 years ago
Yes root barriers will work for Kikuyu, 30 cm into the ground would be a minimum, but here's the important part. You must angle the barrier in the ground so that the top slopes out and away from the kikuyu side of the barrier. That way when the runners hit the barrier they don't dive down and under it, but climb up and over the top, you can see them and snip them off regularly. Another option is to chop the edge of the lawn sharply with good sharp spade, and dig a bit of a trench around your garden beds, about 20cm deep. Build up the garden beds inside this trench so they are mounded, raised up, and that way when the Kikuyu invades you'll be able to see it easily and chop off the runners as they appear. Both stratagies take regular maintenance, there is no easy solution where Kikuyu is concerned. If it was me I'd consider ripping the whole lot out and having a different kind of lawn. Hope this helps.
dead_easy
Original Author
18 years ago
Wow thanks a lot, it obviously sounds like you have tackled this problem before! The angle of the root barrier is something I would never had thought of but as soon as I read it made a lot sense! I have though about ripping it all out but I have had so much hassle just trying to keep it out of the garden beds let alone trying to get rid of it all ! Thanks for the advice and I am glad to hear there is a solution at least !
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sterculias
18 years ago
I have kikuyu in the paddocks and to keep it under control it regularly gets a ground zero cut, it doesn't like that at all. It is very suseptible to roundup in fact even a about 15:1 is enough to kill it providing it is in the active growing stage. For an even better kill mix a small amount of Urea in the sprayer.
Mulching over kikuyu will not stop it it will send runners under the mulch only to surface somewhere else.
Kikuyu will climb over root barriers and you will still have the problem. You are better off getting rid of it the first place.

Doug.
shelleyvw
18 years ago
Hi Dead Easy

I have the same probelm as you but it would be a mammoth task for me to remove my whole grassed areas and start again and I think it would still come back as it got into my garden from a neighnouring reserve. It is lush greeen and springy and survived the hot dry climate of SA really well with little water. But the invasion into garden beds is a real pain. I tend to regularly go our there nad pull the stuff up out of the beds. I tried weed control mat and that made things worse as the runners were going crazy underneath and poked up through any hole in it I cut out ot plant a plant in. Now without the mat at least I can see it more easily and pull it out. At the moment I am fit enough to do that but I do wonder how I will control it when I and not as able to get on my knees and tug out the runners.

Shelley
shelleyvw
18 years ago
If the kikuyu roots are tangled up with plant roots and we use roundup carfeully on the leaves of the grass would this affect the plant Doug?

Shelley

Kikuyu - Root barrier

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Jamus_S

dead_easy
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Kikuyu - Root barrier

Comments (5)

Jamus_S

dead_easyOriginal Author

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shelleyvw

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dead_easy
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