The
Fastest-Moving
Invasive
Alien
Plant
in
this
area
Garlic Mustard is the fastest-moving
invasive alien plant affecting
this area. It threatens to wipe
out most of the native wildflowers
in our woods in areas where it
becomes established. Research
on biological control is proceeding
and should eventually bring us
some of the insects that control
garlic mustard in its native area
in Europe, but that will be some
years away, maybe.
Right
now is a really good time to look
around and pull the
second-year
flowering plants, especially where
there are just a few. You can
see it rapidly spreading along
the roadsides and with time it
moves into the adjacent woods.
Garlic
mustard is biennial, and it can
actually be controlled if you
pull every plant with flowers
before they can seed. It will
take a few years for existing
seeds in the soil to germinate
if they are going to. The
plants you pull with flowers should
be buried or burned, not left
on the ground, since the seeds
develop even after the plant is
uprooted and it takes more heat
to destroy them than ordinary
composting generates. My suggestion
would be to collect the plants
in a pile and cover it with grass
cuttings or anything else. I've
probably spent 20-25 hours on
it just around our house and the
road in front.
Click
here for more info : http://www.ipm.msu.edu/garlicMge.htm
Click
here for more photos:
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/garlicAbout.htm
Contributed
by
Ed
Hamerstrom
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