Composting Marestail / horsetail

[Mike DiggleParticipant]

I’ve just taken on an allotment infested with bindweed, dock, couch grass and of course horsetail. I’ve seen in Charles’ YouTube videos that you can compost the above with no problem, providing your compost pile is actively managed, but no mention of whether marestail is killed by the composting process.

On other forums / Facebook pages, gardeners recommend drowning horsetail or storing in bin bags until it dies before adding to compost, but is this absolutely necessary? The allotment association recommend removing from site and putting in the council green bins

Any advice would be appreciated as my ideal way forward would be to strim the patch and compost the lot without having to pick through it

Thanks, Mike

[StringfellowParticipant]

Hi Mike. I had a lawn of Horsetail covering my plot. Being a total beginner back then, and paranoid about horsetail growing through concrete bunkers etc. we mowed the top growth and skipped the lot. Now wish I’d composted it all. Just keep an eye on the heap, you’ll get little if any regrowth – I’ve found they quickly wither and die. It all ends up back on your plot to help grow veg. Good luck.

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