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Re: Oxalis pes-caprae

> Sean's mail on his garden throws up the problem of Oxalis pes-caprae. I
> would be interested to know if anyone has managed to defeat this
> beautiful but obnoxious weed. My garden is becoming a monoculture!! I am
> thinking of a systemic herbicide to be applied very carefully so as not
> to throw the baby out with the bathwater...

A systemic herbicide such as 'Roundup' should work, but if the oxalis is
all mixed up with the plants you don't want to kill, then I don't fancy
your chances of selectively killing it. Instead, I would dig up the
herbaceous plants you want to move, carefully remove all the oxalis you
can from them (including the tubers, obviously), then put them in
containers (or an oxalis-free part of the garden) in quarantine. Keep a
watch on them and carefully  remove any further oxalis that tries to
grow. Start this in the fall, when the oxalis begins growing, so you have
plenty of time to catch the re-growths. Meanwhile, you can spray the
infested plant beds with herbicide, or alternatively cover them with
heavy duty black polythene for an entire growing season -- that should do
it. In Britain I had similar problems with beds infested with couch grass, 
or 'twitch' (Elymus repens), and bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis and 
Calystegia sepium). At least the former can be wiped out with a 
grass-specific herbicide.

Nick Turland
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