It’s a systemic, so it’s actually best applied to cut roots, especially with rhizomous plants. Most people just want problem plants to disappear with little to no work, so glyphosate can be applied to the leaves, which then pull it down into the roots (which is why it’s a “systemic”). Of course, this requires much higher application rates, which means more biopersistent carcinogens in the environment. But hey, doesn’t your lawn look great?
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I realize you are likely being humorous, but at the risk of being even more of a pedant… I am pretty much always in favor of the low energy, low cost solution.
Come summer, mow the weeds down, water the ground very thoroughly or wait for a soaking rain, cover it with two layers of plastic (clear oops I think black plastic, heavy gauge like 5-7ml), seal all the edges with logs or bricks or what have you, and walk away. Come back in 2-3 months, take it all off.
Done.
And all this allows one more free time, more spare money, and zero exposure to glyphosate, which is AFAIK carcinogenic.
And be nice to bees.
Tbh I thought that Rob was smarter than all this, and am shocked to learn that he was using glyphosate at all. Stay healthy Rob!
ETA: which kind of plastic? I need to look up what the consensus is…
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See, that’s the problem! Cutting it at the root just leaves more viable plant matter to regenerate. Knot Weed is brilliant at letting go of material that can’t propagate. That’s why glyphosate isn’t terribly effective and also why when you pull it close to the ground you usually actually pull out a significant chunk of root. It readily gives up plant material in sacrifice of the mother. If you’re really persistent about pulling the aerials, the mother will eventually die off.
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A picture of the poster
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i was going to say burn it to the ground and then salt the earth, but i’m now guessing you want to put something else there eventually…
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I’ve often threatened to get a couple of goats for our library’s back yard. They could also take on trespassers, if they are some of the ornery billies I’ve met.
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Some goats might encourage trespassing…
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Even as somebody who eats Knotweed, I still would prefer it wasn’t around here in western Oregon. They simply monopolize any habitat, leaving the soil exposed after the tops die back in the autumn, ready for erosion, during our wet winters. Forget bringing in insects to eat it – find a virus for the stuff!
For patches that nobody is poisoning, the recipe for Knotweed Pie in Euell Gibbons’ “Stalking the Wild Asparagus” is a good one. The first time I tried that recipe, years ago, I didn’t feel so good afterwards, but that was only because I ate 3/4 of the pie, it tasted so good and I had a lesson to learn, lol.
I think my favorite way to eat Knotweed is to chop the stalks up, sweeten them up, and use them in a bread pudding. They are a lot like rhubarb. Although I’ve cooked them like a vegetable - steamed, grilled, roasted - I don’t care for them that way as much, unless they get topped with a creamy sauce. If you like a Greek Lemon Soup, you might like the Knotweed as a plain vegetable, though.
I’ll add a precaution. I do put my Knotweed scraps in my compost pile – after boiling them!
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If you are by the coast you can soak the ground in salt water and when it gets brown pull it up the iceplant by the roots. At least, that’s what they do on Kent Island by Bolinas. That takes a long time and lots of manual labor, however.
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My dad probably does. He knows all about noxious weeds and invasive species.
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Gotta be careful with baby goats…at least ones in Tex Avery cartoons
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i dont know what kind of blackberries ive got in my backyard. there’s just no stopping them.
this is what i do for the blackberries. i just have to make peace with the fact my “backyard gardening time” is really blackberry maintenance time. and… i’m not there yet.
to add insult to injury, i’ve never seen them bear fruit in my yard, or any of my neighbors’ yards where they have taken root.
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Blackberries! Oh yeah, I dealt with those too, up in Old St. Hillary’s in the middle of the Tiburon peninsula. Got to get a small pick and axe and hack at the base until you get the root ball. They shouldn’t come back from that. It’s a good way to get your arms and the back of your neck all scratched up.
Man, I have lots of weed stories from volunteering for the Marin County Parks department. There was that day spent chopping back a 10 meter tall wall of poison ivy by myself because I was the only one there immune to it. There was that 3 hours I spent picking the wrong (possibly endangered) plant because I couldn’t tell it from the one I was supposed to pick. And don’t get me started on broom.
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An injection of saltwater solves most invasive plant problems. I used that method to eliminate bindweed and wisteria gone wild. The best part of this option is that it only kills the invasive plant, without harsh chemicals.
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Does it represent a barrier that even a prisoner on death row would say, when faced with crawling through it, “Nah, nevermind, I’m good.?” Then it’s Himalayan blackberry.
My previous house had about 20’ of blackberry all the way behind our back fence. I had to do a lot of weeding to catch the runners and seedlings early, but there was no way anyone was going into our back yard through that. Might as well be a 50’ castle wall with a moat with bull sharks.
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Bamboo? Really?
At the house where we lived when I was a kid, the previous owner had planted a stand of bamboo. It held on for awhile, but never really grew or spread despite my longing for the vast bamboo forests National Geographic had promised.
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Don’t smoke it, please.
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You would expect that nothing but knotweed grows in Japan if it is so invasive but it is kept under control apparently by a native insect which feeds on the sap. Experiments are under way in the UK on trial releases of the bug in controlled areas. From the BBC…
"Scientists at the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International, a not-for-profit agricultural research organisation, have been licensed to test the insects, a psyllid or plant louse called Aphalara itadori, since 2010 in South Wales.
Dr Dan Jones uses a seven-and-a-half acre field at Taffs Well, near Cardiff, to evaluate control treatments for Japanese knotweed.
His PhD paper aims to show that there is no “one-hit wonder” for treating Japanese knotweed with herbicide and that persistence in the key."
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