Japanese knotweed (reynoutria japonica) refers to a large species of herbaceous perennial plant of the family of buckwheat and knotweed. You can already tell where this plant is native to, based on the name like Japan!, China, Korea, some places in North America and some places in Europe. Sure its a weed, but there are things that it's good for. For example, beekeepers love them because it's an important nectar source. Its stems can pass as a vegetable during spring and can be eaten, its also used in Asian medicine to treat various types of conditions.
In other things, it's treated as a weed. But not just any other weed, but a very aggressive weed which grows 10 cm a day on average and even a bit faster than that. That might not look much but if you give it a month then you got some serious problems. There are some horror stories about the weed breaking through cement and so on, and the facts it, it can either be yes or no. Yes, in a sense that it can go through existing cracks and find its way to the sun and water source. If you let it grow, it might just break through especially if the foundation is not that good anymore. No, in a sense that it only finds an opening, if your structure doesn't have an opening for it to pass or slip in then there’s no worry.
Why should it be maintained? The thing is, weeds are weeds, it doesn't need extra care and it can grow fast and anywhere. If it's around your property then it's not a good sight. You should take it out not just because of the looks and cleanliness of your property but also because of safety. As mentioned its a weed and it can go through cracks. It can affect the rigidity of the structure and over time might even contribute to it being brittle, The best way to handle this is by keeping it at bay.
Tackling the knotweed is not that easy: You might think that taking on the knotweed is easy. For the most part its actually not especially if you are taking them out at the wrong time, where they aren't vulnerable. You might just end up pulling it along with your wall. Aside from that since the knotweed is a very aggressive weed (they even called it the GT-R of the weed), you will be frustrated that it grows fast. Its tasking and it can be frustrating. How about you save yourself that trouble and just hire professionals to do it for you?
The Japanese knotweed is a force to be reckoned with. That is because the web is so aggressive that it can be hard maintaining your surroundings. If this is the type of weed that you have. If you’re in a family where you see this as a medicinal plant you might be able to put it to good use, but for the most part you don't. If maintaining your surroundings from the knotweed is frustrating, you might want to hire the professionals to do that for you. The main concern is not just about ridding your surrounding with the knotweed, but also saving you the time and effort as well.
