garlic mustard: Alliaria petiolata

I'm interested in successful management practices you have used. What has worked? I pull, use herbicides, mow, and this year I've started eating it. (If you can't beat it, eat it.)

Any suggestions on keeping this at bay?

I was just researching this for someone else, and stumbled across this article.

http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/alpe1.htm

You have probably done this already, but it suggested Roundup for heavy infestations if there is no concern about surrounding plants. Here is an excerpt:

For very heavy infestations, where the risk to desirable plant species is minimal, application of the systemic herbicide glyphosate (e.g., Roundup®) is also effective. Herbicide may be applied at any time of year, including winter (to kill overwintering rosettes), as long as the temperature is above 50 degrees F. and rain is not expected for about 8 hours. Extreme care must be taken not to get glyphosate on desirable plants as the product is non-selective and will kill almost any plant it contacts. Spray shields may be used to better direct herbicide and limit non-intentional drift.

There is a lot of info in the article. Good luck to you - it sounds awful.

Donna



This message was edited Apr 26, 2010 1:13 PM

LOL, "If you can't beat it, eat it." I like that!
It grows all over our woods, so if you have any recipes to share, please do.

I have a friend who has the same attitude toward dandelions - "they are good in salads" !!!!!

Yep, I do that, too! Kinda bitter, but very nutritious. Just a few leaves mixed in with the lettuce works.

Do you steam them, or stirfry them, or eat them raw? Really, I'm curious - just weeded some out today.

I just wash them and toss them in raw, with the other salad greens. Of course, we don't use herbicides, and I only pick the ones on our property.

I boil young greens in lots of water for about 10 minutes, then drain the water. After wringing the greens out I chop them and cook in olive oil and diced garlic. I usually add some crushed red pepper as well. (you could go wild and add cooked and crumbled Italian sausage, and top with buttered toasted bread crumbs and parm cheese.)

My grandson and I spent much of the last week pulling all we could find before it bloomed. We must have had six (large) wheelbarrows full. I plan to cover some of the areas with corrugated cardboard to smother the emerging plants, cut some with mower and use weed killer on some of it. For the rest of the summer we will pull plants as we notice them.

You know, it sounds good. Olive oil, garlic, maybe a little onion, sliced red and yellow pepper, a little red wine vinegar...

That stuff is the worst and really I think Round Up is the only way to keep the stuff at bay. I think my new neighbors think they're flowers and do nothing about it and of course it seeds prolificly and blows by me. I hand pull what I can and try to stay on top of it but sometimes you just have to spray the large patches. Whoever brought that stuff here?

We can't use Roundup here, it's all throughout our woods--would hate to kill the whole forest, lol. It's amazing how huge they get out here in this rich soil! I pull whatever I can but there is too much to eliminate by hand.
I agree, whoever brought it here needs a good horsewhipping, LOL.

I plan to go another round later today, hand pulling anything that has bloomed. It doesn't look like the seed capsules have opened yet.

I found garlic mustard mentioned in this thread so I thought I'd post this here. I am suddenly all jazzed up about this plant I've been cussing for almost a decade.

I heard on NPR recently that this is the MOST nutritious green ever tested. It is terribly INVASIVE here. I have hated it for years. I will continue to hate it where it doesn't belong. Yet since I have learned how nutritious it is, I plan to grow it in containers where it can't escape, keep it deadheaded, and chow down! I've been needing to find a food crop that would be prolific and strong here in zone 5.....

Beans and greens, baby. Beans and greens. FREE FOOD!

LOL, in that case, I will have a big enough harvest to feed all of Cincinnati!