Flowering knotweed

Does pre or post flowering matter?   This stuff flowers pretty late in the season, so it's possible any differences might be attributable to the weather or daylight loss...

September Spraying

I've gone out twice recently to spray more roundup.  Not a fun activity in my opinion.

I'm curious about how this is going to impact the knotweed next season.  Will the stuff just grow right back up and continue to spread, or will the spraying at least slow it down?  I can't imagine it's dead from one spraying, but we'll see.  Within a week or so of spraying some of the plants look quite dead!  Even without leaves though, many stalks still seem more alive than dead. 

So I've hit all of the regrowth in the slash and stack sections.  I know some of these sections weren't cut until late August, but still I was surprised there wasn't more regrowth already.  I think the very first section we cut back in late July showed quick regrowth, but the later stuff less.  Makes sense.  Early August weather was pretty prime for plant growth.

I've now treated the entire perimeter zone of the property, and along the road.  It's quite a jungle in some of the spots along the brook!  The slash and stack sections had the benefit of a more open area to spray.  Thicker sections were often impenetrable and could only be sprayed on the edge.  As I sprayed the second and third times more and more on the outside was dead with no leaves, making it possible to spray deeper.

Pictured is a cluster, just off the road, that has been blooming all summer.  I had sprayed it once, about a week before the picture, and was curious to see how it was responding.

September 2: Flowering

The knotweed is in it's flowering phase, which might scare me except that the stuff apparently does not spread by seed here.  Quite pretty to look at.  I can see why the British wanted it in their gardens...

Impact of the Roundup

August 31: The leaves showed some burning after 24 hours.  Maybe a bit more after 48.  It appears that the impact from the roundup was minimal.  I will up the concentration next time…

Aug 25: Glyphosate

August 25:  fall weather/ 80’s and sunny but chilly morning/ a bit breezy

First-ever use of the new Chapin backpack sprayer.  It came in the mail last week and I’d assembled it and tested it using water before, but today was the first time it had roundup in it.  

    I sprayed two full 4-gallon pack fulls.  I mixed 8 ounces of roundup Quickpro.  I covered much of the Left Bank, especially in the areas surrounding the slash and stacks we had completed.  For the most part I did not spray any regrowth in these areas, since I’d like to wait til it gets a bit bigger and then spray.  I sprayed along the sand bed and down past the big fallen log.  Trying to keep it from spreading up the slope!  

I went through 8 gallons spraying in a couple hours.  This included prep and cleanup I believe.   i hit some poison ivy along the perimeter path as well, and I hit the fenced-in part of the field, where the PI is going crazy.  I’d love to get the path clear enough that I can walk it without having to worry about PI...

I wore khakis and long-sleeve shirt and baseball cap and mask.  Full face mask might be better.  ditto for covering full head and neck.  

Questions:

Was the concentration strong enough?

Did I clean the tank well enough?  I rinsed it out, then refilled and sprayed it for 30 pumps, drained it, refilled a gallon or so and sprayed for another 30 pumps.

How much overspray was there?  We’ll see, but I know there will be some other dead plantlife out there.  

How long should we keep Stanley away from the stuff?  Is 24 hours enough?

Would an injector be more effective?  How much slower though?

Next target:  along road and Right Bank (upper brook section). Also:  hitting the newgrowth on those sections we cut last month.

August 24: Prime time

August 24:  So after tons of reading, I think the most straight-forward strategy will be:  cut a couple times during the summer.  Second cutting should be in August.  About a month after cutting, spray new growth.

Along the brook it almost seems like a farm combine tractor could be used to harvest the stuff in one smooth swoop!  How awesome would that be?  Could it then be chipped and let to dry for fuel?

Other possible strategies to compare could come from the following variables:

slash and stack 1x

slash and stack 2x

slash and stack /spray

slash and stack 2x/ spray

slash and don’t remove

knock over

injector vs.

spray vs. paint

date / time between treatments

glyphosate concentration

temperature and weather during treatment

pre-flowering vs post flowering

August 16: getting others involved

August 15: Spoke with our neighbor about the Knotweed running along the road.  He had no idea.  I suggested he do whatever it takes to eliminate it on his side, whether it’s on his property or not.

July 30: establishing limits

July 30:  I began scouting where to run a perimeter path down the wooded strip between field and brook.  One idea is to use this path as the border zone that we have to enforce:  knotweed can stay on the brook side, but can’t be allowed across.  (This doesn’t mean we can’t cut knotweed on the brook side, but just that the path is the absolute barrier.  We’ll see.  I would love to eliminate those little ones spreading into the woods.  They’re popping up closer and closer to the field.

There is so much!

July 17- August 17: (we were gone for 2 weeks in this period)

Slashed and stacked 4 more piles.  I bought a 100’ roll of 20’ wide black 6 mil construction plastic.  We have been cutting it into 20’ sections, meaning when it’s folded over to cover the stack its about 20’x10’ for a pretty big stack.

We experimented with using the garden way cart for transporting it.

We have been carrying a bucket for little ones we accidently pull (rather than break off/cut) to keep the roots out of the slash stacks.

July 23: Can you pull it up by the roots?

July 23: I tried to pull some young fledgling knotweeds out along the path to the brook.  I flagged the ones I pulled with one of three color flags depending on how well I thought I had pulled it out.  yellow for ones I thought I had gotten nearly all of.  red for ones that I knew had broken off.  orange for questionable ones.  Update:  a month later they are almost all growing back.  yikes.

Our property

We've lived here since August, 2012.  In this first year, we've come to know our 7-acre property better and understand things we need to do to maintain it.  

Two years earlier Tropical Storm Irene did some serious damage to Gilead Brook and the road and properties along it.  As you can see in this picture, the brook is a huge gravelly area.  One thing you can't see is the amount of Japanese Knotweed that was introduced to the brook edges.  It's moving closer to our field, and we'd like to keep it under control.  

Two main problems that we can't really control:  the invasive plants brought to our land by the brook, and those spread along the road.  As you can see, our land is bordered by the road on one side and the brook on the other...  In some ways it feels like we're an island being invaded.... A rough map of where the knotweed is established is in red.

July 20: Our first slash and stack

July 20-ish: So, after months of learning about Japanese Knotweed, we finally took the first step towards taking ownership of the land.  We did our first slash and stack. The section by the brook just to the right of the trail. It was eye-opening to see how quickly you can fill up a tarp!