Citizen complaint of the day: East Boston weeds need whacking, just not at 6:45 a.m.

By adamg on Wed, 06/15/2022 - 9:49am

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Are those weeds or natives?

By Lee on Wed, 06/15/2022 - 11:47am.

The birds and pollinators probably need them. Let them grow.
Keep the neighborhood free from unnecessary noise.

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You can see the bittersweet (a noxious invasive) poking out of the top of the 2nd picture. Sadly, weed-whacking bittersweet is not going to kill it. It's harder to see what's going on in the other picture, though.

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But how to kill them?

By Waquiot on Wed, 06/15/2022 - 4:02pm.

I'm not even going to pretend I'm asking for a friend. Those things have been the bane of my gardening life. Pulling the root up doesn't even seem to help.

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Glyphosate

By Tim Mc. on Wed, 06/15/2022 - 5:14pm.

Weeding does work on the smaller ones, but above a certain size you can't pull it out by the root. What you'll want to do is cut it down and then paint some full-strength glyphosate on the stump (or really just along the outer circle of the cut surface, where the cut ends of the cambium are.) Best to not do this in spring, since the sap is still rising strongly. Spraying is dicey because you might hit other plants.

Glyphosate (main ingredient in RoundUp) is a systemic poison that will spread throughout the entire plant, and is absorbed on leaves and thin bark, but not generally through roots. It works on trees as well.

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Thank You

By cybah on Thu, 06/16/2022 - 5:06pm.

I've battled this stupid vine for years. It just keeps coming back every year.. and fast. Neighbor ripped up most of it when we had the backyard re-landscaped but I am seeing pockets of sprouts again.

It got so bad at one point it grew over 75ft .. across our fence (and keeping it propped up) and growing up the house.

Now I know how to battle the bigger parts to finally get rid of it.