Invasive Plant Removal

15 years ago

One thing leads to another, doesn't it?

I just found out that the nandina domestica is invasive in the southeastern US. The site online gives ways to eradicate it.

It brings me to ask if the same treatment can get rid of the

very invasive camphor tree?

You can cut these trees down, but unless you remove every little piece of the root, it will grow back. Each little seed begins a new plant. And the wisteria, oh wow, it is hard to control too.

The same is true of the yew trees, seedlings everywhere, cannot just cut them off with the lawn mower, you have to pull them up.

So how do you deal with controlling them, terminating them, or whatever?

And what invasive plants do you deal with in your property?

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Comments (6)

alabamanicole
15 years ago
There's invasive and then there's just annoying prolific. Of actual invasive species, just mimosas and english ivy.

Annoyingly prolific and hard to kill but native? Hackberries *everywhere*. Wild grapes and smilax vines, too. Although since all three are edible, perhaps I should consider them assets if I'm ever unemployed. :)
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
15 years ago
I've been periodically killing (removing all foliage) a mimosa tree for years, and almost daily this year. It won't die. I also have a nandina that I don't want and don't like. Going to try putting a trash bag over it. That method finally killed a crape myrtle that I've cut down many times before.

Oak tree sprouts, raspberry vines, and grass are actually the "weeds" on which I spend most of my weeding time. And privet at the base of fig and hydrangea. I just keep cutting them down/pulling them out.
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Original Author
15 years ago
Persistent growth requires too much persistent effort on my part, and I don't have as much to expend as I once did.

But it is interesting that the smilax is edible? Wow. It was massing at the base of a dead tree bole in my yard on MoccasinLanding many years ago, and I ran the lawn mower over it. Before I could get away from it, I was overwhelmed with fumes that seared into my lungs so I was gasping for breath. Has anyone else ever noticed such a reaction to smilax? It sure looks pretty when it blooms, but after my gasping experience, I don't let it get out of control.

And when we had the foundation of our derelict garage worked on, they dug out more than a foot of soil (mostly clay I think) and piles of it ringed the building. When I removed it more than 4 months later, the yew seedlings beneath it were still dark green and growing. What does it take, besides pulling them up, to stop these species from growing?

My DH, from Massachusetts, is amazed at how prolific our greenery grows year round. I suppose that is why Mobile municipal service of trash pickup every other week is such a treasured public service. Otherwise, we'd be covered up in .....compost? Something which looks like scenes from THE WORLD AFTER MAN, with vines growing through the skeletons of hi-rise buildings.
catbird
15 years ago
The most effective way I have found to get rid of a lot of these things is to cut them off as close to the ground as I can and cover the stump with undiluted Roundup. The DH got me a little glue dispenser with a drop top and a secure cover. I keep it filled with Roundup and use it to smear the tops of the stumps. Those stumps won't come back, it seems to take out most roots, and you don't have to spray a lot of Roundup around. It's especially handy when something pops up in the middle of a ground cover or shrub you don't want to kill.

Our back yard neighbor has a wild area with hackberry, Virginia creeper, English ivy, a privet TREE and other goodies on the other side of a chain link fence from us. I use a lot of Roundup!
jcalhoun
15 years ago
I've been batttling the Asian Invasion for several years. I have popcorn trees, chinese privets and japanese honeysuckles.

This year we sprayed all the ones that were on my property with Arsenal AC which killed the privets very well but the popcorn trees are still trying to come back from the roots. Then we cut everything down to the ground and will apply some Pathfinder II this fall to the new sprouts. The Pathfinder is applied to the bark just above the root flare.

It's common for something as stubborn as popcorn trees to need a follow-up treatment to kill the entire root system.

If you decide to use Arsenal take note that it will kill everything above the root system. It is not supposed to kill pine trees though.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any other way to get rid of these spawns of satan.

BTW;

If anyone would like to go in on an order of the Pathfinder II let me know. It's fairly expensive and I would like to share the cost.
alabamanicole
15 years ago
I forgot about the privet. I think everyone battles that anymore. :(

I've never heard of noxious fumes from smilax, but anyone can be sensitive to anything. You only eat the new tender shoots -- I always assumed the older parts of the plant were just too tough. But perhaps as they get older they develop or store up more of some unpleasant or inedible chemical? That's just speculation; I wouldn't mess with the stuff either if it bothered me like that.