Weed control – current best practice – 2023
The March 2010 MYA Acquaint carried an article by Dr Jonathan Newman, then head of the Aquatic Plant Management Group, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. It gave an insight into the contemporary best practice for control of troublesome weed and algae.
Dr Newman has recently advised that since 2010 the article has become “seriously out of date and that some of the suggestions made are now either illegal or no longer available”.
Where the water is part of a watercourse he advises that the current best practice for dealing with these issues can be found at the following link:
Where the water is a lake or reservoir he advises the use of lake dyes (dyofix.co.uk) and cutting below 1 m depth during the growing season and harrowing the lake bed in February / March are the only practical measures for submerged weed control. The use of ultrasound and bacterial sachets work for blanket weed, as does barley straw extract and barley straw itself.
Dr Newman, who is now with The Environment Agency, is happy to receive specific weed control questions at the generic email WLBenquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk marked for the attention of Dr Jonathan Newman.
This helps The Environment Agency to gauge the scale and type of problems that most frequently occur, and they should be able to draft specific guidelines for us in future.
Graham Bantock
6th December 2023