Name your poison

[Bluetongue]

It'd be interesting to me, as a conservation and land management student, to hear about the major weeds people are battling in their area(s) and whether they feel they're winning.

For instance, at the creek I'm doing a project on, the major weeds have been willows, tree tobacco, blackberries and honeysuckle. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, our worst weeds include the latter two plus holly, English ivy, agapanthus, angled onion, cotoneaster and sweet pittosporum. As I've mentioned before, our non-indigenous Australian weeds include Acacia decurrens - prolific and delicious

If you want to share your control methods, that'd be good too.

(Edited 22/2/06)

[clare_b74]

Hey BT,

Missed this when it was new... The biggies at our place are: blackberry (have had ++ success using "Brush Off"), agapanthus (physical removal to around house as fire-protection, removal of seed heads), broom (scotch or english I'm not sure, but it's a *nightmare*! cut & swab), erica and bamboo (hmm, cut and swab but we're still working on it), acacia decurrens, coota wattle and sweet pittosporum (cut and swab), onion grass (spray), honeysuckle (removal). And Black Locust (Robinia sp.) ARGH! It kills me to see this sold everywhere. It's a HORROR. Suckers like a bastard, prickles ahoy. Hopefully super-strength roundup will do the trick, but it'll be a biiiig job. There's also freesias, watsonia and belladonna, but they're kinda pretty so we'll leave that until we've dealt with the rest

C

[Bluetongue]

Thanks Clare! Yeah Robinia sure looks like an unattractive species to tackle. That's one of the species that used to be recommended willy nilly by permaculture people - I think we even planted some in the shelter belt at TAFE in NZ... don't know if the climate will render it a weed there or not.

Watsonia's another of my bugbears, but the council helped us here, by sending contractors to wipe roadside leaves with a mix of glyphosate and 'Pulse'. When dry and brown, I went through and chopped the leaves back, to make the frontage look less feral

[eataust]

Freesias are a weed? Didn't realise that ... as a small sappy plant, are they as feral a weed as, say, blackberry?

God, I have so much to learn ...

[clare_b74]

Hmm, is *anything* as big a bastard as blackberry?!!! As far as I understand it, freesias are a classic garden escape - creeping out rather than exploding. Maybe I'm wrong, but with the number of weeds I have to deal with, the pretty ones which seem to be staying kinda near the house are going to get a bit of a break (though my partner has a lot of fun running them over with the mower ). Even so, I'm *not* going to take my mother's advice and plant "lots of lovely gazanias" out the front....

Robinia is my #1 most hated at the moment because of it's popularity and wide availability. But that said, I saw the other day that someone's having good success at flogging robinia seed on ebay - if only I can work out how to have a morals-extraction, I'll make my fortune! They're selling coota seed too, oh man... Still, makes the point that a weed is only a weed in the context of place.

[eataust]

Hmm, is *anything* as big a bastard as blackberry?!!!

I'm starting to think that native raspberry could give it a run for its money ... *mutter*

[Bluetongue]

You and your raspberry, eataust! Starting to think the pair of you should be on telly Lots of muttering and gnashing of secateurs - would be a lot funnier than 'stupid aussies'.

We've got something similar to freesias - Ixias I think they're called. Along with angled onion they sort of slowly crowd other plants out rather than quickly create vast acres of shade and feral animal habitat like blackberries. And I'm like Clare's partner - nothing like mowing to feel like you've achieved something good (providing you do it at the right time of year, ie not when it's seeding!). You'll be right, eataust. Just join a Landcare group when you buy your patch of paradise and they'll fill you in on the gory details That reminds me, I've got to get onto deadheading the blasted aga-bloody-panthus.

[clare_b74]

Oh man, seems I've got freesias *and* ixias. Damn!

Deheading agapanthus BT - sounds like we had similar weekends

If only the chickens could be trained to destroy the things I actually *wanted* them to!

[eataust]

You and your raspberry, eataust! Starting to think the pair of you should be on telly :lol: Lots of muttering and gnashing of secateurs - would be a lot funnier than 'stupid aussies'.

*grin* I have to laugh at the damn thing, otherwise I'll growl. Too much growth, not enough flowering. In fact _nothing's_ flowering. How can they possibly think they're having too good a time to flower?? How do you force plants to flower and why might they not be??

[Bluetongue]

A week or two ago I obtained a copy of the Natural Heritage Trust's Introductory Weed Management Manual from my local council. It's being distributed to Landcare and 'Friends' groups (eg Friends of Brushy Park), was free and is fantastic!

The intro inside says that it's 'been prepared as a training aid for the use of private landholders; conservation groups; catchment management groups; local, state and territory governments; and industry. It is an introductory guide for those with little experience with weed management, particularly environmental weeds.'

The four modules are:
* Developing and implementing a weed management plan
* Weed control methods for community groups
* Collecting and preparing plant specimens for identification
* Presentation of information sessions for small groups

It covers safety issues like working safely with herbicides - something I've got to face now, as an organics fan who's come to appreciate that drastic situations call for pragmatism.

Incidentally, my favourite handbook for weed ID and control methods for this part of the world is Bush Invaders of South-East Australia, by Adam Muyt (2001).

[clare_b74]

Back to the Battle Of The Rubus (aka, EA and her raspberry). I was reading somewhere the other day that raspberry out-competes blackberry. Now *that* I'd like to see!

Though I think they were talking european raspberry, it could be an interesting weed experiment. Anyone tried it?!

[eataust]

The damn things would probably just interbreed!!!!

I received my first ASGAP Bushfoods newsletter a couple of weeks ago and there's a comment about Rubus in there - it mentions "needs a root guard". No bloody kidding!! I'll remember that in future :)

Rubus suckers are MUCH more amenable to being yoinked out by the roots, however, and they seem more shallow-rooted than damn tap-rooted blackberries.

Brambles DO serve a purpose in the general ecology; they're fringe plants, between the border of forest/bush and open lands. I've been reading Bill Mollison lately - permaculture guru (now late - he died last year), and he advocates using the brambles to protect new seedings against ravaging livestock and wildlife and planting in the middle of them. Most animals will avoid the new plants until they're big enough to look after themselves, at which point they'll start shading out the brambles and even out-competing them for nutrients. Further, if you've got a fruit-dropping sort of a tree, livestock will then start trampling the brambles down in order to get the fruit.

Mind you, this is a _very_ long-term sort of a weed management system, measured in decades rather than years ...

[Rimbaud]

Clare u meantioned agapanthus... i can't remember ever managing to KILL one!!! I can't do it... chopping them up just divides them (like some Walt Disney Fantasia movie), i tried putting one upside down in a pitch-black compost bin with no water in full sun, came back 6 months later and it had righted itself and was just about to flower! impossible!

i am guilty of selling Tree Tobacco BT, though no longer since the Law regards this poisonous plant as "tobacco"! Yum. Great smoke. But yeah i noticed that if i just left them in their tubes, every part would die but the tuber, which would just go into suspended animation and come back again at a few drops of rain....

and my rasberries, the main culprit being R. probus, just keeps layering itself right across the shadehouse, in every pot it hits! And spikey as hell.

But my main one is that bloody clover-weed thingie. It's everywhere, in every pot, propagtes by layering, cutting, seeds, ... ghosts? i wouldn't be surprised.

[eataust]

That clover stuff is _everywhere_. I just uproot it when I see the seedlings these days because like you, I haven't the foggiest how it actually get there, given that I never actually see it flower. It's probably a virus :)

The rubus is finally about to earn its keep - it's flowering! And I hauled up another six suckers ... :)

My next theory is that it's lonely for home and trying to creep back to Rimbaud :)

[prier]

At work we're doing restoration and the main weeds we've had to deal with are, blackberrie, spanish broome, english broome, gorse, hawthorn, willow, fog grass, holly.

the more minor ones include, plantain, buttercup, dock, cleavers, cocks foot, hemlock, barberrie, ivy, pinetrees, water couch, and heaps more...

The real pains would be blackberries, the broomes, gorse, and fog grass.

Fog grass seams to be overlooked by what I can gather, and for me it's one of the most bloody annoying weeds that exhists...