Water Chestnuts as we all know is one aquatic vegetable that grows in marshes under the mud. This edible vegetable has many benefits to its credit. However, while we enjoy eating water chestnut, there is another community of people for whom it becomes an obstacle. For boaters and swimmers, it largely becomes a hurdle as it prevents them from swimming along local rivers.
Now the question is like many aquatic plants that can be treated via herbicides, can water chestnut also be treated through herbicides.
Methods of controlling the growth of water chestnut
There are primarily two ways by which you can curb the growth of water chestnut
1 Manual extraction- Extracting it or pulling it out manually from the roots, before the drop of their seeds is one method that can be used to get rid of these.
2. Applying an effective herbicide such as Aquacide Pellets with 2, 4-D – Application of an effective aquatic herbicide can kill the plant and even prevent its re-growth.
Before application of the herbicide it’s important that you carefully read the instructions at the back of the label and then apply it cautiously. Usually, no side-effects have been witnessed so far; however it’s important that you understand the reservations that come along with the chemical. The choice of herbicides is also important as a right kind of herbicide can give you early results. Use of spray based herbicides has an instant reaction on the water chestnut and the results can be seen within a week of the treatment. This type of herbicide is also safe and causes no harm to fishes as well.
If you are mixing the chemical with the herbicide, it’s advised that the treated water should not be used in the following:
• Don’t use this water to irrigate nurseries, garden or greenhouses for 21 days.
• Treated water should not be used if the concentration is greater than 50pbb for irrigation till the residue level is less than 50ppb.
• It’s advised not to plant sugar beets, potatoes, onions in soils that have been irrigated with treated water previously. You must know if the soil bioassay validates adequate levels of crop tolerance.
With the above two easy methods, you can kill water chestnuts. If you think you are incapable of performing the herbicidal treatment, it’s advised to call a practitioner. A professional with hands-on experience can bring in efficacy and do justice to the entire job. He will tell you when to perform the repeat treatment, if at all it needs to be performed. What all signals to watch out for and how you can monitor the process of killing.