Japanese Knotweed rhizome just 6 cm long showing emerging shoot.
This image shows one of the problems with controlling and managing Japanese Knotweed (Reynooutria japonica). I found this piece of Japanese Knotweed rhizome today and at just 6cm long it is already sprouting a new shoot and it is only the end of March.
The issue being that a very small piece of rhizome is all it takes to start a new plant.
This means bio-security control has to be down to this level – pieces of rhizome just 6cm long.
Equally with excavation control programmes. It only takes a piece of rhizome of 6cm to be left behind in the ground to be able to generate a new Japanese Knotweed plant.
Japanese Knotweed is very invasive, it is on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and will very quickly colonise an area and so it is vital to get a control programme into place quickly.
