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Mimosa invasion: HELP!

Started by ljmathias, August 27, 2010, 04:54:28 AM

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SwampDonkey

We have a weed here that folks planted on old home sites years ago. SOmetimes the house is long gone and that stuff still comes up every spring and grows 10 feet. It usually stays in a confined clump though and doesn't seem to seed away from the clump. The clump just grows by rhizomes I guess. It is jointed with hollow stems and resembles bamboo. -30 F will put it in it's place. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

RynSmith

Randy88 - Japanese knotweed (or some other knotweed species)? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_knotweed


Randy88

I've been gone for a few days and just got home, I read over the discription and it sounds closer to what I saw and dug out but the picture didn't show much of the stems and I didn't see it in the blooming stage but I'm headed there this weekend to take another look, and try to upload some pictures which I"ve never done before so be patient with me and I'll see what I can do, thanks for the reply's.

StephenRice

Quote from: SwampDonkey on August 29, 2010, 07:39:50 AM
Well, pack your bags down there and move north. The cold of winter will kill anything of a nuisance. :D

Except zebra mussels, right?
"Pure gold fears no fire!" - (Ancient Chinese proverb)  What do you fear?

StephenRice

I would pull up the big mimosas by the roots (get them all, I think they propagate off of the roots as well, not just the seeds), then keep up with the mowing and spraying of the seedlings.  Like you said, they WILL take you over if you are not careful and watching them.
"Pure gold fears no fire!" - (Ancient Chinese proverb)  What do you fear?

ljmathias

County agent recommended trichlorpyr so I've started spraying with that.  Don't have but a couple big enough to pull up- the other million or so are just seedlings, small and easy to pull up.  Problem would be one of time- don't think I could even get a good start before the rest were 5' high.  So the spraying is going by hand, which means not too much is covered in a day, but the agent said to do it carefully or I'd loose most of my hardwoods.  Dang, nature can be a bear (and if the bear don't eat you first, maybe you can eat the bear).  Seems that the two types of mimosa I have are mostly the one called sensitivity plant, Mimosa pudica, with a few of the other just plain flowering mimosa thrown in for variety.  Seems a lot of people offer the seeds online as an interesting ornamental, which is probably how it invaded our land- someone got tired of their pet plant and threw it out in the wild (bunch of weird neighbors just up-hill of us).  This is going to be one long, tedious battle.

Strangely, the wife and I have been watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy again, and just finished the battle for Gondor in the final movie- I am reminded of true courage, when Theoden (sp?), king of Rohan, mustured his troops in the face of attacking elephants the size of the biggest dinosaur you can imagine, and then charged.  The good news is, they did win; the bad news, he died in the battle... so not to make any analogy out of this for my own trivial battle that seems large to me personally- in the grand scheme of things, Nature will win in the end, so enjoy the fight!

Lj
LT40, Long tractor with FEL and backhoe, lots of TF tools, beautiful wife of 50 years plus 4 kids, 5 grandsons AND TWO GRANDDAUGHTERS all healthy plus too many ideas and plans and not enough time and energy

Randy88

Rynsmith, I was at the pond today and took some pictures but my kids gave up on trying to help me load them on here claiming I'm of no hope to ever get "it" and left, but I read over your info on Japaneese Knotweed and I'd have to agree thats the stuff, I talked to the owner and he claims roundup is useless and has had sucess with milestone, I don't know what that is I haven't had the time to look it up yet.   The flowers are white and look like the pictures in your post and also the leaves are the same and the discription fits for almost a bamboo where the stems snap, I'd never seen anything like it but I guess its not that uncommon according to the article, the upside is its free to any home, he wanted me to know that so if your in the market for some I've got all you could ever need.   Thanks for the replies and the help, I really appreaciate it.   

StephenRice

Quote from: SwampDonkey on August 31, 2010, 03:37:41 AM
-30 F will put it in it's place. :D

-30 F puts me in my place, too... Inside the house in front of a fire if possible!
"Pure gold fears no fire!" - (Ancient Chinese proverb)  What do you fear?

StephenRice

Quote from: Randy88 on September 05, 2010, 09:13:57 PM
Rynsmith, I was at the pond today and took some pictures but my kids gave up on trying to help me load them on here claiming I'm of no hope to ever get "it" and left, but I read over your info on Japaneese Knotweed and I'd have to agree thats the stuff, I talked to the owner and he claims roundup is useless and has had sucess with milestone, I don't know what that is I haven't had the time to look it up yet.   The flowers are white and look like the pictures in your post and also the leaves are the same and the discription fits for almost a bamboo where the stems snap, I'd never seen anything like it but I guess its not that uncommon according to the article, the upside is its free to any home, he wanted me to know that so if your in the market for some I've got all you could ever need.   Thanks for the replies and the help, I really appreaciate it.   

Going by your earlier description, I was just going to suggest ginger.  Ginger does not look much like knotweed though.  That knotweed I saw has short fat leaves and is more of a bushy plant.  Ginger is much closer in appearance to bamboo or cane (but not so hard) with a lot more leaves going all of the way up the stalk.  The leaves on ginger are not short and broad like knotweed, but rather, are long and narrow much more like corn.  The singular stalks somewhat resemble corn as well.  It is a classic rhizome, and new plants shoot up off of the roots.  They often love to grow around water but can grow in other areas as well.  However, if the leaves are short and broad like the knotweed, then it definitely is not ginger.
"Pure gold fears no fire!" - (Ancient Chinese proverb)  What do you fear?

SwampDonkey

Quote from: ljmathias on September 05, 2010, 09:02:09 PM
if the bear don't eat you first, maybe you can eat the bear

But trouble with them bear, is they are smart. They don't dare come 'round with a saw running, they come at night and make their dental impressions on your saw handle grips and throttle cable. :D :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Randy88

StephenRice, no the leaves are not slender like corn at all they are more broad and fat like on the knotweed, and the flowers look just like that on the picture in the post of Rynsmith's, I'm pretty sure that knotweeds the stuff we're dealing with, has anyone else had an experience trying to kill it though, in the description roundup is supposed to do the job but the guy claims its useless, but that could be from resistance though, he has been making a lot of progress with it though, he had most all of it mowed and said he's been spraying it with milestone and that seems to help, his whole pond was surrounded with the stuff and this weekend when I was there it was all mowed and looking pretty good compared to when I was there this spring, he said it won't do any good to try and seed it yet because of all the chemicals he's been using but maybe next year he'd give seeding a try, I asked him if the knotweed killed the trees or all the different chemicals he's been trying did them in and he thought they were dead before he ever used chemicals and still doesn't have them taken down.   He said all the different chemicals he's tried all the trees would have been dead anyhow so he's waiting to do something with those after he's got it contained a little more.   

The knotweed jumped the road and is now on the other side and his sprayer could only reach so far and theres a few live bushy patches and thats where I could see the flowers, he said he's after the county to do the spraying on that side of the road and they have been using a tankmix of everything to contain the stuff but he had no idea what the tankmix was other than they needed to use a lot more of it.   

RynSmith

Quote from: Randy88 on September 05, 2010, 09:13:57 PM
the upside is its free to any home, he wanted me to know that so if your in the market for some I've got all you could ever need.   

Thanks, Randy, but I'll pass - we've got enough of it here.  Unfortunately, it likes streambanks and is travelling along many of our rivers.         >:(  >:(  >:(


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