Another stupid herbaceous weed

[WDH]

Since it is an invasive scourge, maybe it is branching out (pardon the pun...no, after second thought, don't pardon it ).

[SwampDonkey]

It sure is branching, no doubt about it.

[WDH]

Dodgy,

When you come down again, bring that weed manual if you can.  I would like to see it.

[SwampDonkey]

Well I told him to look at the weed book. 

[Tom]

Does it say what it tastes like?

[WDH]

Books tend to have a musty taste, kinda papery in the mouth, if you know what I mean ,

[Tom]

Yeah, but the best way to get rid of an animal or plant scourge is declare it good to eat and charge big bucks for it in a restaurant.

Not that I ever looked upon them as being a scourge but, look what happened to chicken wings, pork neckbones and various and asundry other "looked-down-upon" cuts.  Used to be the butcher gave that stuff away to get rid of it. 

Alligator weed soup?

[SwampDonkey]

I hear ya Tom. Used to be, you could go to he butcher and get that suet fat to hang for birds in the winter. Then they all got smart and decided it was as expensive as the cuts of meat they were selling. 

[Dodgy Loner]

Tom, it appears your solution may be the best one out there.  Before long, alligatorweed may be the only thing growing in the farmer's fields.  Here's what our weed specialist had to say about it (italics added for emphasis):

Justin,

Your guy is in trouble bigtime.  The only herbicide options that i am aware of that will provide good to excellent control of alligatorweed include sequential dicamba applications, Roundup + dicamba, Sceptor + Blazer, Pursuit + Blazer....dicamba is king.  Roundup would provide fair control if you hold your mouth correctly.

With that said, I do not know how you will grow these veggie crops without taking the land out of veggie production and working on the population with these options.  Of course with veggies both Sceptor and Pursuit would be a no-no because of carryover issues to vegtables planted the following year.  We also need to be careful with dicamba and not use it to close to planting these crops (tolerance depends on crop).

Tillage may help some but you need to be careful about dragging it all over the entire field!!!!!!!

Thats all I know,
Stanley

Danny, the encyclopedia I mention is not actually a book, it's an interactive DVD.  The title is "Interactive Encyclopedia of North American Weeds".  The great thing is that it allows you to check off traits that the unidentified weed displays, and it then searches for plants that match the description.  My only issue with it is that the pictures are pretty subpar.

[WDH]

I will be interested to see how you solve this problem .

[Dodgy Loner]

I will be interested to see how the farmer solves this problem.  I'm merely an educator .  Seriously, though, he's the biggest farmer in the county and it looks like he may take a severe hit because of this weed .  At least he's not organic, or he could kiss his profession goodbye.

[SwampDonkey]

As a side note to spraying of weeds, I've seen hawthorn sprayed with round-up or Vision on old fields and it wouldn't even touch it. It seemed to get greener. 

[Tom]

There is a lot to be said for a hoe and a wheelbarrow.   Maybe some dedicated highschool kids could make some summer money. 

[WildDog]

Mongrel stuff, roundup only knocks the top, there is a biological control method involving a flea beatle that has shown good results but only in warm temperate to sub tropical areas. We got it in Australia in the 40's from the balast of a ship travelling from South America.

[estiers]

there is a biological control method involving a flea beatle that has shown good results but only in warm temperate to sub tropical areas.

There is also a Thrip and a stem borer that have been used.  Looks like the stem borer can survive a bit colder temps.

[Dodgy Loner]

I know the flea beetles won't survive up here, but the stem borer may be worth looking into.

[SwampDonkey]

There is a lot to be said for a hoe and a wheelbarrow.   Maybe some dedicated highschool kids could make some summer money. 

Yup, and in the case of mountain maple that likes to invade around tomb stones  a good bush whacker and a carting off by hand to the edge of the lot works to. As you can tell, that was a task I took on today along with the weekly mower ritual.