Solarisation of weeds.

Have you ever had a patch of weeds and wanted to get rid of them without chemicals?

Have you ever had so many weeds your green waste bin was full?

There’s a solution to both these problems that is being successfully utilised around our local reserves…solarisation of weeds.

The Weekend Gardener says it succinctly “Solarisation is a simple nonchemical technique that captures the radiant heat and energy from the sun and causes physical, chemical, and biological changes in the soil. These changes lead to control, or suppression, of soilborne plant pathogens such as fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and pests along with weed seeds and seedlings”.

Local landcarers will be using this technique to prepare the planting site for National Tree day at Gurranba reserve. It will involve laying and securing black plastic over the area to be treated for 4-6 weeks, heating up the soil and killing off a range of weed seeds and pathogens prior to planting.

The technique has also been used to compost weed material on landcare sites saving both time and resources in trying to remove a lot of weed material. You may have noticed the black solar sausage rolls in some of our reserves. The rolls heat up and compost the contents allowing the nutrients and organic matter that was incorporated into the weed material to be returned to the reserve in a non-invasive form.