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The alien shrub that can't be stopped
BBC ^ | 6 Oct 2022 | Zaria Gorvett

Posted on 10/08/2022 2:24:04 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

Japanese knotweed evolved in one of the harshest environments on Earth – now scientists are desperately trying to find a way to destroy it.

Where it does produce seeds, Japanese knotweed is prolific. At one research site in Philadelphia, the plants were found to produce up to 150,000 seeds each year per stem – most of which were found to be viable.

This two-part system, with above-ground and below-ground body parts, means it's extremely difficult to control Japanese knotweed with chemicals. The most effective is glyphosate, which works by inhibiting an enzyme plants need to produce amino acids, and the best way to use it is counterintuitive. As many homeowners have discovered in their zeal to eradicate the weed quickly, if you use too much, you might accidentally cause the plant to spread.

The part of Japanese knotweed that's visible above ground is the crown – this is the dominant part of the plant that's actively gathering energy. But it has backup. "Surrounding those crowns are dormant buds – so they could potentially lead to new growth, but they don't because they're being suppressed by the crown," says Eastwood. So, if you flood one of these tricky weeds with herbicide, you might kill off the crown completely – and suddenly, all its satellite buds will wake up.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; Chit/Chat; Gardening
KEYWORDS: alien; glyphosate; invasive; japaneseknotweed; knotweed
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To: Ann Archy

Yep, imported to reduce soil erosion, covers fields, telephone poles, and kills trees. I grew up in GA. As a kid I shot rats at night with a .22 and a flashlight as they came out of the Kudzu and headed for the trash cans. Learned to shoot well enough to score expert with a .45 and M16 at boot camp.


21 posted on 10/08/2022 4:23:09 AM PDT by dblshot
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To: campaignPete R-CT

glyphosphate shouldn’t be used for anything.


22 posted on 10/08/2022 4:23:13 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Soak it with roundup when it flowers. Do that for several years, you kill almost all of it.

You can’t pull it up, even a small piece of root left in the ground will sprout a new tree.


23 posted on 10/08/2022 4:58:02 AM PDT by Fido969 (45 is Superman! )
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To: Wuli

About two years ago I was determined to get rid of a section of kudzu along a fence row, about a hundred feet by ten feet. I dug it all up, kinda looked like sweet potatoes, three truck loads, but I got it all entirely.


24 posted on 10/08/2022 5:01:43 AM PDT by odawg
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To: rarestia

Kudzu is the plant that ate the south!


25 posted on 10/08/2022 5:02:52 AM PDT by Mouton (The enemy of the people is the media )
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To: Celtic Conservative

Yeah - or convince them one can smoke it and get high.


26 posted on 10/08/2022 5:17:01 AM PDT by week 71
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Try killing yucca plants. We have a small family cemetery that was overtaken by them. We’re now into year four of trying to eradicate them. We’ve chopped, dug and painted with poison but have yet to kill them off. Every spring new plants sprout to laugh at our efforts.


27 posted on 10/08/2022 5:17:51 AM PDT by Boomer One ( ToUsesn)
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To: DUMBGRUNT
Twenty six posts before a Python reference? We're slipping.


28 posted on 10/08/2022 5:18:11 AM PDT by DoodleBob ( Gravity’s waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: rarestia

My father took a couple of galvanized trash cans, cut the bottoms out, and buried them with the rims at ground level. The bamboo planted in these stayed contained.

The most obnoxious invasive weeds I’ve had to deal with in Arizona are Bermuda grass and paradise tree (an imported Asian sumac). Both will regrow from any bit of root left in the ground, and Roundup doesn’t seem all that effective against them.


29 posted on 10/08/2022 5:21:12 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: DUMBGRUNT

“The alien shrub that can’t be stopped”

I’ll raise with two rhizomes of Bermuda grass, and call with a stalk of kudzu.


30 posted on 10/08/2022 5:21:37 AM PDT by moovova
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Return of the Giant Hogweed (Genesis)

31 posted on 10/08/2022 5:26:32 AM PDT by P.O.E.
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

“...will regrow from any bit of root left in the ground...)

I’m convinced that aerating machines are just Bermuda grass pluggers. Whatever ungodly collection of weeds the equipment renter before you had in THEIR yard...is now plugged into YOUR yard. Usually, it’s Bermuda grass plugs.


32 posted on 10/08/2022 5:26:47 AM PDT by moovova
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To: Wuli

There are areas in Portland where ivy has completely taken over, covering the ground and entire trees. Himalaya blackberry thickets get really big in the Northwest too, but at least they produce tasty fruit. When I was a kid, I used to take two long boards and a five-gallon bucket and work my way across the tops of the thickets where nobody else could reach the berries, sometimes 8 or 10 feet above the ground and 100 feet or more in from the edge. Falling off the boards was not a good thing.


33 posted on 10/08/2022 5:31:22 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Had a small bit at one point. A herd of goats killed it. Took three years, but there were very well fed goats courtesy of this weed.


34 posted on 10/08/2022 5:40:11 AM PDT by Fury
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To: 9YearLurker

I think glyphosate is in our vegetables


35 posted on 10/08/2022 5:42:13 AM PDT by campaignPete R-CT (I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go ...)
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To: moovova

I believe it. A variety of grass I’ve always wondered about is zoysia. I’ve seen the ads claiming that it fills in from planted plugs and then is incredibly hardy, and my first thought was that I don’t want anything like that in my yard. Where we used to live, it was tough enough trying to keep the Bermuda grass under control in the garden and flowerbeds. That and morning glories — I curse the idiot who planted morning glories in that yard. Rip the vines up time after time, and they’re back in a few weeks.

Mint is another unkillable plant, but it doesn’t spread too badly.


36 posted on 10/08/2022 5:42:15 AM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: campaignPete R-CT

It’s also in our drinking water from what people use in their yards.


37 posted on 10/08/2022 5:50:05 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Celtic Conservative

https://www.phlorum.com/blog/2011/04/01/japanese-knotweed-biomass-energy-source-april-first-resveratrol/


38 posted on 10/08/2022 5:50:11 AM PDT by unread ("It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required." W. Churchill.)
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To: rarestia

Kudzu makes an excellent cow fodder...


39 posted on 10/08/2022 5:56:37 AM PDT by unread ("It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required." W. Churchill.)
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

That’s funny. Bermuda grass is a staple here in Florida. It coexists well with Bahia and provides good ground cover and soil stability. If you’re looking for a perfect turfgrass, I can see where you’d want to get rid of it, but for just keeping acreage looking green, it works well.


40 posted on 10/08/2022 6:04:02 AM PDT by rarestia (“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.” -Hamilton)
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