Do You Battle a Invasive Plant ? NY Ban Sale of Certain Plants

[Pulsegleaner]

I don't think we have any specific weeds that stand out (we have a lot of weeds, but it's sort of an amalgamated mass of all sorts of things) at least not in the planted garden (among the trees there is of course the Chinese wisteria, but that is an issue in and of itself) unless you count the volunteer beans and corn plants, which I don't (it's hard to think of something as an invasive weed if it can't survive mowing, or the coming of winter, and only tends to come back because you keep dumping excess seed on the ground for the critters to eat.) But there were some notables in the past. For a while, the stump was infested with Chinese Lanterns and Peruvian Four o' Clocks. We had a bit of a problem in the back with money plant for a while (it kept re-seeding itself and coming back in bigger and bigger bunches) And one year the little strip garden behind our patio was overrun by star cucumber (and technically that area is still full of star of Bethlehem, it's just that, as we don't have anything else to put there that would come up that early, we're content to leave that there for the flowers.

I also put my bindweed like things in a pot to keep them under control (for me this is extra important, since what I am planting are seeds I found in my searches so they are actually BINDWEEDS and relatives, not morning glories) as I look for ones pretty enough and tame enough to make decent general garden plants (so far, only one has passed that test). Being tropical in origin most of them won't flower for me here (and then there's grasp vine, which now has a sort of duality For a long time I pulled it automatically because it was so aggressive, but now I actually want a little there, since I am trying to get it to mature seed so I can work out what the seed looks like and remove it from future tests.)

Finally in a sort of twist from the above, as I do my searches, I often run into seeds that are weeds where the package was grown (which is how they got in in the first place) but are considered flowers up here. Love in a Puff (Cardiospermum halicacabum) is a common find (in both rice beans and a lot of the Indian stuff, and Sensitive Plant (Mimosa Pudica) shows up from time to time*. Some of the senna has seed for Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) mixed in (technically that is a fiber crop, but given its large flowers, I've seen people plant it as an ornamental as well) And while spurred butterfly pea(Centrosema virginianum ) is a pretty common rice bean find, on rare occasions, seed for the true butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea) shows up too.
The senna often also has a fair amount of Muskmint (Hyptis suaveolens) mixed in which I suppose is really more of an herb than a flower but at least smells nice.

*there used to be a LOT of giant sensitive plant (Mimosa invisia) seed that showed up (and a bit that shows up now) however with it's massive size hyper aggressiveness and large thorns, I don't really count THAT one as a "flower"

 

[so lucky]

Surely there is something that will work! Lets see...dump about 12" of rotting sawdust/woodchips all over the garden-to-be area, and leave it sit for a couple of years? Meanwhile, make a couple of raised beds to tide you over? I know you have visions of a big garden right away, but you may have to be more patient than you want to be.
I like the goat idea. I got one years ago to clear an abandoned RR right of way. Had lots of brambles, PI and honeysuckle. The goat did a pretty good job, but he had health problems and had to be put down way before he got old.
I don't think even round-up will kill poison ivy. You will need a brush killer, like triclopyr. And then no telling how long it would be before it is safe to plant crops. triclopyr is systemic, but still....

 

[seedcorn]

Round up will kill it. It's just that there are SO MANY roots where you don't see PI. Using Roundup, crossbow, 2-4D, I am starting to win the war. Where I garden, I'd use roundup, everywhere else, cross bow. This isn't just a pesky weed like crab grass, this is a weed that can cause serious damage. I chose not to play around with it.

 

[Jeni Ann]

I battle Poison Ivy, too
I use Round Up. It is the ONLY chemical poison I will use, and Poison Ivy is the only thing I use it on.
I pull up the bind weed. I never (ever!) will get ahead of that one!

 

[so lucky]

@seedcorn, what's the active chemical in Crossbow?

 

[seedcorn]

I can look it up. Cross bow doesn't harm grasses but kills broadleafs and woody plants. I'm sure there is some residual unlike round up.

http://www.ruralking.com/media/blfa_files/Crossbow_lable.pdf

 

[so lucky]

Ah, looks like it is a combination of 2,4-D and triclopyr.
Honestly, I don't know if there would be a residual effect or not. Thinking out loud, here. You have to put it on the plant for it to work, like round-up or straight 2,4-D. And it goes into the plant down to the roots, and takes a long time to kill out the roots. But whether it would leach out into the soil and kill the roots of neighboring or new broadleaf plants, I do not know.
Either way, I wouldn't want to use it on edible crops. For a field that you want your livestock grazing on? Questionable, as are lots of things.

 

[seedcorn]

As best as I can tell, half life of up to 10 days in soil. If fed to animals (why would anyone do that?), in 3 days 80-90% excreted through urine-great job, getting to collect and analysis urine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

For animals I'm sure dosage is important. A rain will wash the vegetation off and get it into the ground so they don't eat that part, but how much is absorbed and how much is in the leaves as well as the roots and for how long? I'm sure the liver and kidneys are involved in excreting it. What kind of effects might it have on those? Probably depend a lot on dosage.

To me it is questionable around livestock, poultry as well as four legged critters. I will use Round Up in specific areas, but I don't use any of the others anywhere around my edible food or anything my chickens can get to. I don't use Round Up directly on my food areas either, but I will use it to establish a no Bermuda grass boundary and to keep the grass and weeds from grounding out my electric netting. One grass killer I've used (Poast) in ornamental beds has a withdrawal time of 1 year for nut trees. That is a serious residual effect. When I use that grass killer I'm careful about what goes in my compost.

 

[seedcorn]

Curious, in approved organic chemicals what are their half lives? If you use vinegar, how long till it is no longer detectable?