Re: WEEDS Perennial & Annual
Robert Anspach wrote:
>
> E.Pizzi@agora.stm.it wrote:
>
> >
> > We have eliminated all poisons in our garden; I resort to several safe
> > things such as cloth mulch, black smothering plastic and yanking...but...
> >
> > Does anyone have miracle weed advice up their sleeves?
> >
> >
>
> One way to reduce weeds is to stop watering them but that is hard on other
> plants....
Just one thing to add to Robert's great list of weedfighting ideas.
As far as annual weeds are concerned, these plants can obviously only
get going if they can manage to germinate. Nature has arranged it so
that normally their seeds will not all germinate simultaneously anyhow,
so the species increases its survival chances by holding some in
reserve. Another way of spreading out germination in most common annual
seeds is to ensure that they need a flash of light of a certain
intensity to stimulate them into action. This means that any seeds on or
near the surface down to about an inch (say around 2cm) below will
normally get their stimulus and proceed to grow, but those deeper in
will remain dormant until nature or some kind gardener stirs the soil
and brings them up near the surface..
They do however need no more than a flash of the stimulating light, so
seeds which are brought only momentarily up to the surface will get it,
even if subsequently re-buried.
This is why a no-till approach with regular application of
light-suppressing mulches and minimum soil disturbance is so useful at
cutting down weed germination. Furthermore any annuals which do for some
reason maange to germinate are very vulnerable when still small and can
easily be smothered by putting a pad of grassclippings or aimilar mulch
right on top of them.
Perennial weeds are more difficuklt to deal with as they do not entirely
depend on regular seed germination for survival, but once they get
established often survive cultivation and even quite thick mulching.
However I have found that the regular application of mulch so softens
the soil that in many cases even dandelions can eventually be simply
pulled straight out with minimal soil disturbance>.In one of my beds a
few months ago I actually pulled out with just my hands an entire
dandelion root which was growing straight down and which measure a full
12" (30cm approx) from crown to tip.
In my veg gardens and flower borders using regular grassclipping mulches
would be about my favourite weed-fighting technique. in shrub borders I
find a mix of fallen leaves and woodchippings does an equally good job.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
