Japanese Knotweed is a robust, winter-hardy, annual plant that is notorious for causing damage to land. Once it starts to flourish, over the span of a year, it will easily ravage stone and brickwork. It can destroy your undersurface pipes and lead to more problems due to the damage it causes, such as blocked drains where you might need a Drain Lining company such as https://www.wilkinson-env.co.uk/cctv-drain-surveys-gloucester/ to come in and repair your crack pipework. It spreads rapidly if not managed.
Knotweed is a dioecious plant, which means that the development of viable seeds involves both flowering females and fertilising males. But the UK does not have any male knotweed plants.
Specialists deal with knotweed emerging from fibrous rhizomes in 99 per cent of cases. Essentially, plants can either travel underground from neighbouring properties or be brought by polluted soil to a property.
You are much more likely to spread the plant than you are to kill it if you’re trying to eliminate knotweed yourself. What is more, it can be very difficult to dispose of. Burning it is the best way, but first it needs to be dry. It can re-root easily at this time, or pieces can blow away. To grow a new plant, less than a gramme of knotweed root is needed.
For this purpose, it is important that you only purchase or transfer soil from a known source into your garden. And if you believe that you have Japanese Knotweed, get advice from a professional as soon as possible.
