Off With It's Head

[canesisters]

Nothing special. 2 qts of HOT water with as much salt in it as will dissolve - couple of cups +/-, 2 qts vinegar, 2oz glycophosphate (sp?). Put in sprayer - aim and shoot. It's probably more the glycophosphate than anything else since that's a generic round-up. But I feel like the vinegar & salt help it along. I've used it on blackberry canes that were smothering my fence line and had brittle, bare canes within a week. MUCH easier to hack down.

 

[seedcorn]

To kill woodie type of pests, use crossbow or generic version. Won't hurt grasses. Your mix kills all but dandelions, marestail, water hemp and some pig weeds.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Our back is DROWNED by some huge ineradicable wisterias. They're big enough to raise concerns about taking down the trees they have grown over (especially since a lot of those trees are hemlocks that have long since died and are not staying up all that well anyway.)* There used to be an even BIGGER one down a few blocks, but I think they finally had to take care of it (probably by digging twenty or so feet into the ground to track the root ball) before it yanked down its support (a major neighborhood power pole).

As far as I am concerned Wisteria chinensis/japonica are the North's answer to kudzu (at least, they would be if we didn't now actually have THAT too)

I have HEARD that the native wisteria species are somewhat more well behaved, but never having seen them (at least, not confirmed**) I have no idea if this is true.

*If you want to know why we don't just take the dead trees down (thereby removing the wisteria's support system) it's because our local Tree Comission is a complicated mixture of lazy, bureaucratic, and anal. You aren't allowed to take down a tree (even a dead one) without their approval which they will only grant after an inspection (which they often will take several years to get around to, if ever and will not grand unless the tree is basically already a dead rotted out mess) and paying a hefty fee to them. Don't do that, and you will be slapped with a massive fine (of course if the dead tree falls and damages something, you are still fully legally liable, so it often turns into a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation)

** Back in college I DID bump into a wisteria vine that I was told was a native type (looked the same EXCEPT for the pods (which were smaller and not pubescent (i.e. not furry) and the seeds (which looked more like over-sized brown beans that the normal mottled discs of the regular kind) But I misplaced any seed I had so I have no follow-up there (a neighbor brought me an immature pod of the same plant that she said she picked up while jogging in the senior living community by the hospital, but I have no idea where she was)

 

[Nyboy]

I have never asked permission to cut down a tree on my property

 

[Kassaundra]

My wisteria just finished blooming so I gave it a major trim for shape. I have mine shaped like a very large bonsi. I also cut off all the seed pod drupes. It is a pain in the butt to trim so much. But even if I took it out I would still be dealing w/ it so I might as well enjoy it's beauty and keep trimming.

 

[valley ranch]

Wife, just bought a Wisteria, some plants had flowers the one we brought had none, do you think?

 

[Nyboy]

Return for one with flowers trust me

 

[thistlebloom]

Yep. What Nyboy said.