Dealing with invasive plants

[TOMTE]

This is a list of invasive plants that I have identified so far on our property. I'm sure I'll be adding more as spring and summer roll around and I can identify more.

Does anybody have experience with eliminating these?

• Ornithogalum umbrellatum, Star of Bethlehem
• Elaeagnus umbellata, autumn olive (VERY VERY PRESENT ON THE PROPERTY, NEED GONE ASAP)
• Potentially invasive Rumex sp. (longifolius?), dockweed
• Convallaria majalis, European lily of the valley
• Alliaria petiolata, garlic mustard
• Ranunculus sp. (maybe acris or repens), buttercup
• Lonicera sp., honeysuckle

I'd love some tips and tricks for getting rid of these pesky invasives. The autumn olives are particularly terrible. I'd say 90% of the bushes growing in the woods are autumn olive and (invasive) honeysuckle.

 

[FowlProtector]

It appears that you're facing an obvious serious invasive plant problem! You may control these plants by:1. Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbrellatum)Manual Removal: Dig up the bulbs. They can multiply quickly if left unchecked, therefore, it is better to pull them out as many as possible. This is more effective if done before flowering.Smothering: Cover the area with mulch or cardboard to block the sunlight after the removal.2. Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata)Cutting and Herbicide: The bigger bushes can be successfully cut down and then a systemic herbicide (like glyphosate or triclopyr) must be applied to the cut surface. This will check regrowth. It should be repeated in the fall or spring when the plant is actively growing.Frequent Cutting: Frequent cutting once or twice a year would eventually weaken it and would prevent it from seeding. This is usually done combining cutting with herbicide for effective long-term control.3. Dockweed (Rumex sp.)Manual Removal: Dig up the whole taproot would be very effective-hence it is important to get all the taproot out to prevent regrowth.Herbicide: A broad-spectrum herbicide may help out with dockweed problem, but take care not to kill nearby desirable plants.4. European Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis)Digging: Since it spreads by rhizomes, you'll need to dig up the entire patch with all the rhizomes.Herbicide: Invasive lily of the valley can be persistent; after digging, it may be preferable to apply a selective herbicide.5. Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)Pulling: Pull or dig out garlic mustard before it sprouts.

 

[Sally PB]

The Autumn Olive is indeed invasive, but we let it grow out in the field, as it is excellent forage for our honey bees. We have removed it in a couple places, cutting it down. Yes, it will come back, and we'll be fighting it forever. I don't know of any way to get rid of it without a serious herbicide like glyphosate, which I refuse to use.

Good idea cutting it down, as one of its ways of spreading is via its fruit. Birds love it, poop out the seeds, and a new plant gets a start. It will regrow, but you can stop one vector of its spread.

It will regrow from roots, which are very difficult to eradicate. I think (not certain) that it can root from cuttings, so be sure to remove whatever you cut down.

As the president of our bee club said, "It's a perfect invasive."

 

[TOMTE]

The Autumn Olive is indeed invasive, but we let it grow out in the field, as it is excellent forage for our honey bees. We have removed it in a couple places, cutting it down. Yes, it will come back, and we'll be fighting it forever. I don't know of any way to get rid of it without a serious herbicide like glyphosate, which I refuse to use.

Good idea cutting it down, as one of its ways of spreading is via its fruit. Birds love it, poop out the seeds, and a new plant gets a start. It will regrow, but you can stop one vector of its spread.

It will regrow from roots, which are very difficult to eradicate. I think (not certain) that it can root from cuttings, so be sure to remove whatever you cut down.

As the president of our bee club said, "It's a perfect invasive."

The issue here is that it's smothering out native plants which native pollenators (and other animals, and the ecosystem in general) need to survive and be healthy and functioning smoothly. We don't keep honeybees so we have no reason to keep invasive plants around just for their sake.

The ultimate goal is to eradicate the invasive plants and replace them with native plants that fill the niches that we've lost due to the introduction of invasive species. The honeybees will still benefit but they'll no longer outcompete the native pollenators.

This post is basically just the very beginning of all that. Looooooong way to go...

 

[Sally PB]

We don't keep honeybees so we have no reason to keep invasive plants around just for their sake.

I didn't give a hoot about Autumn Olive until I learned that the honey bees like it. Eh, it's out there in the field... so what? The one that's crowding out the little cedar tree, however, we went at pruner and mattock.

I second getting rid of invasives! I read the word "invasive" more broadly than, "it's not native." (Tomatoes aren't native, after all.) If it chokes out other plants I want, it's invasive, to me.

Non-woody plants will often die if you smother them deeply enough and long enough. It helps to rip/dig them out as much as possible first. This has been our strategy with poison ivy.

I've had good luck keeping brome grass from taking over my garden with corrugated cardboard. 2-3 sheets of cardboard, covered with piles of leaves. I put it down in the fall, after the garden is done for the year. The leaves keep the cardboard from blowing around/away. However, the soil doesn't warm up very quickly under that in the spring. I usually move it in the spring in the spots where I need the soil to get warm.

 

[TOMTE]

second getting rid of invasives! I read the word "invasive" more broadly than, "it's not native." (Tomatoes aren't native, after all.) If it chokes out other plants I want, it's invasive, to me.

What you're describing is technically a weed. A weed is any plant, no matter the type, that you don't want growing somewhere.

An invasive species is one that is 1) not native, and 2) causes ecological damage to an environment that it's introduced to. So a non-native plant such as a tomato isn't necessarily invasive, but in the right conditions, it quickly can become invasive.

 

[Sally PB]

A weed is any plant, no matter the type, that you don't want growing somewhere.

Yes! That's a better word. I'd read that a weed is "a plant out of place." I have pulled up tomato seedlings in the potato bed, for instance. I plant and nurture tomatoes in the tomato bed.

 

[saysfaa]

Dock and autumn olive.

I'm not sure if my dock was curly or longifolius. About once a week, I walked through the field and cut every flowering or fruiting stalk I could find and inserted the cut end upside down into a paper leaf bag - being careful to not jar the ripe seeds off while cutting it or moving it until the seeds would fall into the bag. I also dug up and/or pulled a small percentage of the plants. I thought it would be hopeless because they are perennials and each plant produces so many seeds and the research I could find said it takes three years for 50% of the seeds to become nonviable and 17 years for a 90% reduction in viability. I saw a huge reduction in the number of plants even the next year.

Possibly, my soil is marginally hospitable for that plant so your results may not be similar. But it was very pleasant to be out in the sunshine tending the land.

The worst part of it was explaining what I was doing to the neighbors who stopped to say hello. Well, that and their reactions when I declined their offers of spraying it for me.

 

[saysfaa]

Autumn olive is entirely different.

I've been working at it for five full years. I made no progress at all for the first two years other than changing the shape of the plants. And, theoretically at least, I might have fewer seedlings than I otherwise would.

I cut back the same plants over and over and over and over.... Each place it is cut, it sends multiple new stems up. It didn't seem to weaken the plant much less kill it and it got increasingly harder to cut it because the stems got so thickly clustered (although, that might not matter it you have a chainsaw).

By the third year, I'd figured out to cut it leaving more stem - like six inches or so. Then I can cut just below the clump of new stems and get them all in one cut. I've cut a few of them enough times and often enough to have killed a few of them. It's taken two or more years. Painting BrushBGone on the fresh cuts and for an inch or so around the stem at the cut helps but it still takes cutting it enough times and often enough. Some of the successes were without the painting.

This winter, I found a different state's invasive species information than the several I'd read before. It said it is counter productive to cut Autumn Olive in the spring, even if you apply Round Up. Cutting it is so much of a stimulant in that season that it overcomes the treatment. Instead, only cut it back late in the year. I think this is true based the patterns of response I've begun to notice.

 

[TOMTE]

Autumn olive is entirely different.

I've been working at it for five full years. I made no progress at all for the first two years other than changing the shape of the plants. And, theoretically at least, I might have fewer seedlings than I otherwise would.

I cut back the same plants over and over and over and over.... Each place it is cut, it sends multiple new stems up. It didn't seem to weaken the plant much less kill it and it got increasingly harder to cut it because the stems got so thickly clustered (although, that might not matter it you have a chainsaw).

By the third year, I'd figured out to cut it leaving more stem - like six inches or so. Then I can cut just below the clump of new stems and get them all in one cut. I've cut a few of them enough times and often enough to have killed a few of them. It's taken two or more years. Painting BrushBGone on the fresh cuts and for an inch or so around the stem at the cut helps but it still takes cutting it enough times and often enough. Some of the successes were without the painting.

This winter, I found a different state's invasive species information than the several I'd read before. It said it is counter productive to cut Autumn Olive in the spring, even if you apply Round Up. Cutting it is so much of a stimulant in that season that it overcomes the treatment. Instead, only cut it back late in the year. I think this is true based the patterns of response I've begun to notice.

I hate these buggers because they're everywhere, they're thorny, they get huge, and they choke out everything else! The berries are delicious though

Dad and I have even discussed going over to the neighbor and asking to borrow his frontloader so we can just rip the bushes out of the ground LOL... But we have so many, it'd tear up the ground something awful.

We did cut some of the bushes back this last fall. We'll see about picking up some herbicide when we're able to. We've got a looooong way to go. Just chopping down the stuff growing at the edge of the driveway was a lot of work. And that wasn't even 10% of it.