Japanese Hops Control Options?

I work at a small (420 acre) river front park in Virginia and have been dealing with invasive plants of all sorts for a long time. As if dealing with Multiflora Rose, Wineberry, Ailanthus, Paulownia, Microstegium, Wisteria, Euonymus, Japanese Knotweed, Autumn Olive, English Ivy, and Garlic Mustard were not enough along comes Japanese Hops (Humulus japonicus).

Last summer the park had about 300 square feet of this vine near one of our pick nick areas. I cut it down, bagged and removed the plants (not hand pulled). This summer the park has about 1 acre of river front covered by the plant. I have read in the last few days that it can sprout from the root base and it should really be hand pulled to get best results. However, I am looking for any information on what else can be done. Will continued mowings (before the plants go to seed) over the course of a couple years control it, or are herbicides best? Because this is a public park that has about 2.5 miles of river front property I would consider herbicide to be a last resort, even though it has done wonders for the parks Euonymus and Ailanthus problems.

Thank in advance.

Continued mowings won't work to the best of my knowledge.

Your proximity to water concerns me. You might want to research surfactants before you select a product. Products purchased off the shelf might not be the greatest for this particular situation although they are readily available and moderately priced. Please seriously consider investing in Rodeo or AquaMaster. Expensive products but in the long run they will be safer for the critters occupying that area and that is a park. The EPA classifies both of those as class III. Those are the only products I would feel comfortable using in the area you described.

I believe ConServ in Illinois sells both products but you might need an applicators license in your State to be able to purchase them. Chances are pretty good you will probably need the approval of the park to do anything else other than hand pulling. Around here, permission would not be granted to any volunteer for County or State land unless he/she had all three of the following pesticide applicator licenses: General Standards, Rights-of-Way, and Aquatics. Please don't take it personally if you are told that all you are allowed to do is hand pulling.

You can pull it out by hand for the most part. The plant will truly go bye bye over time if you keep up with hand pulling it before it sets seed or hit it with a product that contains glyphosate BEFORE it flowers. If it flowers, you might as well keep up with hand pulling or wait until next year. We're loaded with this plant around these parts. Don't ask me why we have been instructed to treat it with glyphosate before it flowers because I never bothered to ask. I also never bothered to research that protocol. Perhaps someone knows the answer off hand.

Best wishes to you. You are a kind hearted soul to care enough to want to do something for the picnic area of the park. My guess is that it would have tripled most its advance by next year if it hadn't been for someone like you. Don't give up hope.