It was standing room only for Environet MD Nic Seal’s recent talk at the Guildford Book Festival at Hatchlands Park.

The talk was following the publication of his book ‘Japanese Knotweed: Unearthing the Truth’, the success just goes to show how much interest there is around Japanese knotweed among the general public, who asked lots of interesting questions and enjoyed getting up close to the large cane of knotweed in flower, which Nic had brought along.

If you missed the talk and would like some help identifying Japanese knotweed, we have created a three-minute video about how to identify the plant, or you can send a photo to [email protected] and we’ll quickly let you know if it’s the real thing.

The book explores the human side of the knotweed story and the impact it can have on people’s lives. We weren’t surprised to learn that a large proportion of the audience had personal experience in dealing with knotweed, which shows just how prolific the plant now is in Surrey.

Interestingly, several questions focused on what to do if you want to develop an affected site. If you’re planning to build on a plot where knotweed is present, our patented Xtract™ Solution is the way forward as it physically removes the knotweed from the earth and cleans the soil so it can be returned to the ground, rather than being consigned to landfill. Alternative treatments such as herbicide aren’t suitable for development sites, as the disturbance of ground during the construction process can trigger new knotweed growth.