Re: Japanese Knotweed

We have to be very careful about introducing "foreign" plants and animals into environments into which they didn't originate.

This morning as I was walking my dogs, I was "bombed" by a pigeon. Fortunately I was wearing a baseball hat, and it's soaking.  But our windows and public benches are covered with these droppings. Now, the pigeons that are all over this country are really German Rock Doves which were brought to to NYC by an immigrant in the 19th century to make the new country more like his native Rhineland.  But without predators, the pigeons took over. We now have some Red Hawks in the city which are doing some work, but mostly they go after rats and rodents. And then there's the story of Mr. Starling and his birds, and the Alianthus - aka,"the tree that grows in Brooklyn" brought to this country from China and grows anywhere it can, and the list goes on.

So be careful when ya plant stuff, guys! The road to invasive foreign plants is paved with "it seemed like a good idea at the time."

Everbest,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,
Clinton Community Garden

Subj: Re: [cg] Japanese Knotweed
Date: 5/12/04 10:42:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: u*@yahoo.com
To: A*@aol.com
Sent from the Internet



Thanks Adam,

I found some more sites using google. It seems we don't have too many
choices. One site suggested a three-fold approach: 1)cover the invested
area with (plastic)tarps (for young growth); 2) cut to 2" length and
treat with "roundup" or similar herbicide; 3) just keep cutting it
back, and manually dig out roots and runners, treating new shoots with
roundup.

One of our gardeners immediately protested, saying that she's adamantly
opposed to using roundup as it stays in the ground a long time. (maybe
we'll elect her to wield the sickle every 2 weeks!)

If you hear of any other ideas, please pass them along. Thanks,

jp duncan


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