Recognize, combat and use

the essentials in brief

• Around Field horsetail to remove, the living conditions for the fern plant must be worsened. This includes loosening the soil so that no moisture accumulates. Chemical sprays only help in the short term.
• Horsetail is used for the production of Herbal manure. This serves as a plant-strengthening fertilizer. Broths are well suited for spraying when there is an infestation of plant pests or fungi.
• The most common way of using field horsetail is in the form of tea. The herb can also be used to make tinctures, oil extracts or ointments. They have numerous health benefits.
• If you want to collect the herb, you should know the characteristics. Field horsetail can be confused with the poisonous marsh horsetail. Both species are found in similar habitats.

What can be done against field horsetail?

Field horsetail has deep roots and is therefore difficult to control

If you have field horsetail (Equisetum arvense) in your garden, you won't get rid of it so quickly. The plant develops a large rootstock reaching up to 160 centimeters into the ground, from which new shoots continuously grow. If you Fight field horsetail a lot of patience is required. However, you should not use Roundup. The success of a chemical fight against field horsetail is short-lived and not only harms nature but also your health.

Field horsetail as a pointer plant for:

• Compaction of the soil
• accumulating moisture
• Moisture in clay or sub-floors

Soil improvement

Field horsetail is an important indicator of waterlogging, because it feels particularly comfortable in heavily compacted and waterlogged clay soils. In order to deprive the so-called horsetail of the living conditions, you should thoroughly loosen up and dig up existing gardens and new building plots.

Destroying field horsetail in the lawn:

1. mow the lawn in spring so that less than two inches remain
2. Test the pH of the soil
3. if necessary increase by liming to 7.0 to 8.0

Remove all parts of the root from the substrate. If the vegetation is less strong, one is recommended Green manures with lupins. These plants develop extensive roots, which loosen the soil down to the deeper layers. The emerging horsetail should be chopped off regularly. Within one season, the spore plants show signs of weakness until they have finally disappeared.

Do pesticides help against field horsetail?

Many of the remedies for field horsetail that are commercially available only destroy the weeds for a short time and above ground. The rootstock growing in the substrate is not negatively affected by the active ingredients. Therefore, the shoots often sprout again shortly after treatment. Since chemical agents can damage both the environment and health, you should avoid these control measures.

Use field horsetail in the garden.

Field horsetail manure is a great home remedy for pests and diseases

Because of its valuable ingredients, horsetail is considered a natural and environmentally friendly means of combating plant pests and fungi. Regular use strengthens ornamental and useful plants so that they are less susceptible to harmful pathogens.

This is how horsetail works:

• generally serves to strengthen plants
• Silicic acid dries out germinating fungal hyphae
• Growth regulating effect by strengthening the plant cells
• helps against mildew, Spider mites, Rust, scab and curl disease

Digression

Why the field horsetail is also called horsetail

Field horsetail against powdery mildew

In order to prevent mildew fungus infestation, it is advisable to water the plants regularly with a Field horsetail manure. If your ornamental and useful plants are acutely affected, you can spray the brew directly onto the flowers, leaves and stems every two days.

How to make horsetail brew:

1. Pour 500 grams of fresh shoots with five liters of water
2. let it steep for a day
3. Boil the broth for 30 minutes and strain
4. dilute before use (one part brew and five parts rainwater)

The advantage of the horsetail is its environmentally friendly effect. Since horsetail concentrate is harmless, it can also be used with vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes or zucchini as well for roses used, which are considered susceptible to fungi.

Making fertilizer

In manure made from field horsetail, valuable ingredients are dissolved in the water through fermentation, which takes place automatically after one or two days. If you want to make liquid manure, a large plastic container with a capacity of ten liters is recommended.

Collect about a kilogram of horsetail and pour lukewarm water over the shredded plant parts in the bucket. Place the container in a warm place so that fermentation starts quickly. After 14 days, the process is almost complete, which you can see from the decrease in the formation of bubbles.

Application tips:

• by adding Rock flour(€ 12.33 at Amazon *) the smell can be softened
• Dilute the broth with water (1:50) before spraying
• A 1:20 dilution is sufficient for pouring

Use as a medicinal plant - recipes.

Horsetail tea was anti-inflammatory

There is consolation for those who cannot completely banish horsetail despite all attempts at control. It can be used in a variety of ways in the household, for cosmetic purposes and in medicine. Horsetail extract is characterized by valuable ingredients that have positive properties on health. In naturopathy there are different ways to use these advantages of the plant:

Prepare tincture

Alcoholic extracts are easy to make. With this method, the valuable ingredients are extracted from the plant parts and at the same time preserved, so that a tincture can be kept for up to 24 months. Commercially available alcohol with 50 percent or 70 percent ethanol is suitable for this.

Method:

1. Cut the field horsetail into small pieces and place in a jar
2. Fill the vessel with a high percentage solvent until all parts of the plant are covered
3. Put the closed jar in a tempered and dark place
4. Shake daily to help dissolve the active ingredients
5. Strain and bottle after three to four weeks

Recipe for oil extracts

To get an oil extract, all you have to do is pour oil over the dried parts of the plant

In the spring, collect the fresh green field horsetail shoots and, after washing, chop them up with a sharp knife. Put the plant material in a screw gas so that about 80 ml of vegetable oil can be poured over it. Oils from rapeseed, sunflowers, coconuts, olives or sesame seeds are ideal.

It is important that the shredded parts of the plant are completely covered with oil. The closed jar is placed in a dark place for three to four weeks until the oil extract has matured. Shake the jar regularly to prevent mold from forming. Then the horsetail oil is filtered and filled into dark colored bottles.

Make an ointment from horsetail

To make an ointment, you need an oil extract and a few drops of tincture with field horsetail. Put the oil in a larger jar along with about ten grams of beeswax. Put this in a water bath and let the mass melt on the stove over low heat. Then stir in 20 grams of cocoa butter.

Rest of the procedure:

• Take the glass out of the water bath and let it cool down a little
• Add about 30 drops of tincture and stir well
• if the consistency is too runny, add more beeswax
• Ointments that are too firm can be liquefied with oil

If the mass is neither too firm nor too liquid, you can pour the finished ointment into a dark vessel and let it cool, stirring occasionally. For a longer shelf life, the horsetail cream should be stored in a cool place protected from light. Because of the high fat content, the homemade lotion is slowly absorbed into the skin. It is ideal for massage after showering.

Digression

Field horsetail in medicinal preparations

Field horsetail tea

Dried or fresh horsetail in tea blends is used to promote your health. Organic teas are available in health food stores or pharmacies. The material collected from the garden is also ideal. Drink a cup of freshly made tea two to four times a day between meals.

Tea preparation:

• Pour 150 ml of boiling water over one to two teaspoons of dried herb
• Simmer the infusion for about 20 minutes so that the silica dissolves in the tea
• Pour off the liquid through a sieve

Interesting facts about collecting and processing.

Field horsetail looks very similar to poisonous horsetail

Before you go out into the wild and collect field horsetail, it is a good idea to study some species that look similar. There is a risk of confusion with plants that are poisonous. The toxicity is mainly related to grazing livestock. There is no known poisoning by marsh horsetail in humans. Nevertheless, as a precaution, you should not consume the similar-looking horsetail in tea mixtures.

Field horsetail in profile

The fern plant develops sterile shoots that are between ten and 50 centimeters high. The entire plant is traversed by ventilation channels, which can be seen in a cross section through the stem. It is noticeable that the central tube takes up about a quarter of the total diameter. This fact is an important distinguishing feature of the field horsetail.

Field horsetail grows here:

• often on damp meadow edges
• also in trenches and Embankments with loamy soil
• less and less in fields

The stem has between six and 20 ribs. It reaches a diameter of three to five millimeters. The roots develop laterally branching earth sprouts, which mature into bulbous storage organs. These are high in starch and can be used as root vegetables in the kitchen.

With practice and an eye for detail, you can do that Recognize field horsetail with certainty and avoid confusion. Horsetail consist of many individual limbs, the ends of which appear to be plugged into one another. These sheaths can be recognized by the stem and the side branches. The teeth at the upper end are noticeable.

Advice on drying

If you Dry horsetail you should collect the fresh sterile shoots in the spring. The best harvest time is between May and July, as the young shoots have a multiple of the valuable ingredients compared to older herbs.

Field horsetail and its medicinal properties.

In addition to the positive effect in the garden as a pesticide, field horsetail has proven to be a health-promoting plant in naturopathy. The herb has been valued as a medicinal plant for centuries. To this day, the plant parts are used as single drugs in tablets, tinctures and powdered concentrates or as an admixture with tea. Its effect on the urinary tract has been proven.

Versatile uses:

• Inflammation: Tea to rinse through with bacterial diseases of the urinary tract and kidneys
• Chronic diseases: The infusion helps with chronic coughs or osteoarthritis
• Strengthening: supports metabolism and blood circulation
• Cosmetics: in ointments to reduce stretch marks and cellulite
• Animal treatment: against respiratory diseases in horses
• care: as a shampoo or conditioner for dull and flaky hair

ingredients

The green summer shoots, which do not reproduce generatively, are used for the use of horsetail against health problems. The plant parts contain around ten percent mineral components such as silica, the content of which fluctuates between five and eight percent. This means that the species has the highest proportion of silicon dioxide of all plants, ten percent of which is in water-soluble form.

Further components:

• Flavonoids: Kaempferol and Querectin
• Caffeic acid: Tartaric and shikimic acid
• Alkaloids: Nicotine and palustrine in traces

Side effect and caution

There are no known adverse side effects from taking field horsetail. However, people with water retention in their tissues caused by cardiac or renal insufficiency should refrain from using it internally. Since horsetail has a strong diuretic effect, consuming teas and tinctures can have negative consequences.

What Else You Should Know

You can also buy horsetail - but only rarely fresh

There are different ways to get the health-promoting field horsetail herb. If you do not want to observe the plant in the garden or collect it in nature, you can switch to ready-made products or fresh plants. For first attempts at application, it is advisable to use high-quality organic tea herbs.

Buy field horsetail

An alternative to collecting is to buy dried herbs. Teas and extracts in organic quality are available in pharmacies or drugstores such as dm. Before you decide on a product, you should take a closer look at the manufacturer. Important decision criteria are not only price but also origin and quality.

Buy tablets and tea - note the prices:

• Horsetail tea from online pharmacies: between two and four euros per 100 grams
• Vita Nova organic field horsetail tea from the health food store: 100 grams for 5.52 euros
• ultraPROTECT horsetail capsules by Dr. Feil: 100 grams for 39.80 euros

Can you make concentrate yourself?

A concentrate is a product in which the liquid disappears in part or almost completely through evaporation. In industrial production, this process takes place under vacuum and at low temperatures so that the valuable ingredients are not lost. What remains is a powder that is processed into tablets or capsules. Using common methods in the kitchen, you can make a maximum of extracts with a ratio of 1: 1 yourself. Drying processes in the oven are not gentle enough so that the valuable active ingredients are lost.

UltraPROTECT concentrate - experiences:

• liquid concentrate is sufficient for several weeks due to its high yield
• no clear experience reports regarding the effect
• Product contains additives such as potassium sorbate
• causes side effects such as nausea
• expensive compared to high-quality alternatives from health food stores and pharmacies

Grow field horsetail in the pot

If you want to process field horsetail into powder, but have no collection options, you can buy a plant and cultivate it in the tub. Since the herb reproduces independently in the planter, regular harvesting is possible without any problems. Make sure that the fern plant is sufficiently moist and partially shaded.

frequently asked Questions

The fern plant known as horsetail is not poisonous, but contains ingredients that are beneficial to health. Both the fertile shoots that sprout in spring and the sterile shoots that grow later are used in the kitchen. Inexperienced people can easily mistake this species for the marsh horsetail. This plant is considered to be poisonous for grazing cattle and should not be consumed by humans, although no cases of poisoning have been observed to date.

How can I grow horsetail in the garden?

If you want to grow field horsetail, you should contain it well

If you Plant horsetail you should either choose a secluded spot in the garden or switch to cultivation in the tub. The plant reproduces rapidly through underground runners and can quickly occupy large areas. Root barriers or planters allow controlled cultivation. The horsetail produces high yields even without regular care. Compacted soils with poor nutrient conditions are important. The plant grows in sunny to shady areas and is not impressed by waterlogging.

What helps against field horsetail?

So far, no herb has grown that completely eradicates the field horsetail. However, lupins can help, because they develop a deep root system and loosen the soil thoroughly. To worsen the living conditions for the weeds, you should eliminate soil compaction. Digging is not only useful if there is an existing field horsetail, but is also recommended as a preventive measure on undeveloped land.

Can you eat the brown shoots of the field horsetail?

the Field horsetail is in bloom extends from March to May, whereby the plant as a fern plant in the botanical sense does not bloom, but allows spores to ripen. These spore-forming parts of the plant appear in spring at the tip of brownish shoots that have no branches. They can be collected and, because of their mushroom aroma, processed into stir-fry vegetables or used as a filling. The shoots can be preserved by salting.

What are the options for making horsetail extract?

Since plant extracts in liquid form are sensitive to moisture, light and heat, dry extracts have proven themselves as a dosage form in medicine. In your own household it is difficult to remove the liquid from solutions by gentle evaporation.

Therefore, fluid extracts or tinctures are the better alternative for self-production. The water- and fat-loving plant substances dissolve best with an extract with 70 percent alcohol. A mixing ratio of five parts ethanol and one part fresh plant material is ideal. This is doused with the solvent so that the active ingredients can dissolve.