Himalayan balsam

[fiskeking]

will be at hendy

Will be at Hendy Saturday morning for a few hours. Just trying to get as many tops knocked off as possible. It just keeps growing!!!!
This is an ongoing problem, chin up, strimmer out!!!

[johnsewin]

Well done to all involved. Even though I am just a visiting angler it is nice to see locals being so proactive with such things. I did contribute and pulled around 20 each day that I was visiting; that probably makes some 100+ for the week. Every little helps I guess.

Keep up the good work.

John.

[grey duster]

The weather forecast was talking about a chance of frost last night.Regrettably it did not quite happen.That would have shifted a lot of the dreaded weed.

[grey duster]

I think that this bloody stuff will be even worse next year.Now November and we have still not had a proper frost.Every plant must have set seed and fired them round the catchment.

[jones]

Native to the Himalayas, I doubt a bit of frost will bother the plant to much..

[grey duster]

As you say this plant is native to the Himalayas,not Britain.I presume it would have a lot shorter growing season at high altitude.Unlike the Teifi valley,i have never heard of the Himalayas being covered in balsam.

[grey duster]

Just had a quick look on Google.Plants are susceptible to frost.

[jones]

Just had a quick look on Google.Plants are susceptible to frost.

Yes in the early stages of growth which is quite common in May, June and even July at altitudes of 1,500 - 4000 meters in the Himalayas, unfortunately not as common here at that time in the U.K.. Once the seed has set at the end of September (here in Wales) frost is of little significance to the rest of the cycle, hence another reason it thrives outside its native environment.

[grey duster]

My thoughts were that I was seeing plants in flower in October.With the exceptionally mild weather we have had,all those plants will have been able to set seed.Whatever,it is still a damn pest.

[grey duster]

Let us take this a little bit further.The NRW have planted rust fungus in,i believe ,3 places on the Teifi (pathetic).When Cap asks for help next year,it needs every member to turn up and do their bit.There are huge patches of balsam towards Lampeter.Some parts of our waters are unfishable.

[twmtwm]

You should see it down Henllan to Llechryd! Every trib stream ditch has it and its even growing in people's gardens.Good luck with next year.

[teifi88]

Has the rust fungus done much?

[grey duster]

We have double bank fishing from Felynfach car park upwards.If you cross the river,it is impossible to fish.When we went to the meeting with NRW,was it June?The chap said some rust fungus had been planted at his families farm on the Towy and it had spread about 2 square yards!!.The estimate is 5/10 years to take effect and then it will not eradicate the problem,just control it.There was a time last year i thought i was fishing with pink flies.

[steelheadnut]

If anybody out there had any doubts about the so called impossible task of eradicating this beast then just have a read in the Cambrian news about the great work that's been done on the Ystwyth and Rheidol Rivers.
The hard work and dedication does have the desired impact on the balsam.
We in the Teify catchment only started this year and the work we managed to get done had very little impact on it, but over a period of time we can hopefully get to the day when we can also claim our watershed is clear of it, but we need bodies on the ground to help in this endeavour.
To those of you that contributed of your time and efforts this year I say thank you and hope we see a few more people helping next year, especially all you anglers out there that fish this watershed. We often get complaints of difficult access to the fishing but not many of you turn out for the odd day to help with this project, in fact it's usually non fishing and more often than not bodies from outside the catchment that offer their services.
I would like to see a fair representation from all the clubs/associations that have fishing on the Teify from Tregaron in the north to Teify Trout in the south.

Cap

[grey duster]

Hello Cap

As ever it is down to the few.This bloody stuff can be eradicated,but instead of the 8 that turned up at the NRW in Lampeter,it needs all members of every club to do something.If NRW are being cut by 30% where does balsam come in the scheme of things? I had a go this year along with Fiskeking at Hendy,but i do not think we even touched the sides.Impossible,without total support.