[APWG] Microstegium control in West Virginia.

[Ellen Jacquart]

I had to respond with one more thought on stilt grass control - we have
lots, and the best control method we've found is grass-specific herbicides.
Because it is an annual grass it is much more vulnerable to these herbicides
than our mostly perennial native grasses.  We have found zero non-target
damage to surrounding plants using a dilute grass-specific herbicide and
quick recolonization by natives.  The attached pictures show the typical
thigh-high stilt grass in the before shot, and one year later after one
treatment with 1% Envoy + 0.25% NuFilm IR surfactant.  Over 95% kill, and
that's all native vegetation that has moved back in.  We've found similar
results with Fusilade and Poast, other grass-specific herbicides.  Seed bank
generally doesn't seem to be much of an issue for us, but our populations
may be younger than other states (we're at the north edge of its expansion).
It seems much easier to get rid of than garlic mustard or other invasive
annual/biennials we've dealt with.  The big problem is that uncontrolled
populations spread faster than anything I've seen so it's hard to stay on
top of it.


<><><><><><><><>><><><><><><<>
Ellen M. Jacquart
Director of Stewardship
Indiana Chapter of The Nature Conservancy
1505 N. Delaware, Suite 200
Indianapolis, IN  46202
317-951-8818
fax - 317-917-2478
ejacquart at tnc.org
  -----Original Message-----
  From: apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org]On Behalf Of Marc Imlay
  Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 11:38 AM
  To: ForestRuss at aol.com; APWG at lists.plantconservation.org
  Cc: 'ficmnew'; ma-eppc at onelist.com
  Subject: [APWG] Microstegium control in West Virginia.


  "Herbicides that contain glyphosate, the active ingredient found in Round
Up have been proven to be extremely effective against Japanese stiltgrass.
One major disadvantage to using glyphosate based herbicides is that those
types of chemicals are non specific, meaning that they pretty much kill
every plant they touch."

  Excellent report. I have a comment on the paragraph above. We have found
it extremely easy to hand pull Japanese Stiltgrass where it is mixed with
native species (about 5% of the population). The individual stiltgrass
plants are large and can be pulled faster than they can be sprayed, weed
wacked, or mowed. In contrast, we spray where the more established
populations typically consist of many small stiltgrass plants per square
foot. We easily avoid the very few natives (about one per 10 square feet) by
spraying very carefully. Ten days later the natives are seen to suffer no
damage! Cheers

  Marc Imlay, PhD
  Conservation biologist, Anacostia Watershed Society
  (301-699-6204, 301-283-0808 301-442-5657 cell)
  Board member of the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council,
  Hui o Laka at Kokee State Park, Hawaii
  Vice president of the Maryland Native Plant Society,
  Chair of the Biodiversity and Habitat Stewardship Committee
  for the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club.






----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

  From: apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of
ForestRuss at aol.com
  Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 6:14 PM
  To: APWG at lists.plantconservation.org
  Subject: [APWG] (no subject)



  APWG:



  Please check out the following link to an article on Microstegium control
in West Virginia.



  http://www.hurherald.com/cgi-sys/db_scripts/articles/articles?Action=user_
view&db=articles_hurherald&id=19872



  Russ Richardson, Certified Forester

  Arnoldsburg, WV 25234
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