Technical


Japanese Knotweed


UK Under Attack from Aliens...


If you were to believe everything that you read then, currently, you may be under the impression that your property is under attack by an alien plant that can grow through anything and smashes concrete, brickwork and tarmac for fun; and you might be right!


Mike Clough of Japanese Knotweed Solutions Ltd explains all


104 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2015 T


here are many horror stories around but, should you be in a panic and be unable to sleep … or is this all down to ‘scaremongering’ by


unscrupulous contractors trying to make a quick buck? The first samples of Japanese Knotweed


were brought back from Japan by Phillipp F Von Siebold, a Dutch nurseryman, around 1845. He then sent samples to Kew Gardens where the Royal Horticultural Society sold it on to the general public. From 1850 onwards, Japanese Knotweed was planted in wetland margins and then used as a screening plant due to its rapid growth. It was then recommended for embankment stabilisation and planted as fodder for cattle.


Small fragments of the plant have the


ability to produce new growth which resulted in its rapid spread beyond areas where it was first planted. From its introduction to its rapid


accidental spread, Japanese Knotweed has gone from being a prized ornamental plant to an object of complete paranoia. Recent statements by mortgage lenders have fuelled this panic by stating that they … “will not provide a mortgage on a property with Japanese Knotweed within 30 metres of a boundary”. The situation has been further confused by a lender that would provide a mortgage on a property with Japanese Knotweed, but would not lend on a property with knotweed just outside of the ownership.


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