[APWG] Successful tarweed plot pics & star thistle plot results

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Wayne, Tony and All,

Pictures of the Tiny Test plots, successfully converting the tarweeds in
Franklin Basin US Forest Service test plots, after 90 years of other
attempts, can be seen on pages 14 and 15 of the US Forest Service pdf
report at
http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/caribou-targhee/publications/monitoring/cariboumonitoring02_03.pdf

This was the fourth generation of tarweed researchers, since 1920, finally
able to successfully convert the solid tarweed patches that exist in the
high elevations of the Rockies, and you can see in the pictures, when
local native plants of the original tall forb ecosystem were sown in and
how well they grew.

You can see that these plots were sown on the same small scale, or Tiny
Test Plots,  as the plots that I show at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html

It does not matter what shape and size your test plots are, just that each
plot is relatively small, like 1-2 meters by 2 meters maximum.  What is of
the utmost importance, when you set up your plots, using as many different
species and as many different sowing rates and different treatments,  that
you possibly can for that season.

Thirty-six is the absolute minimum number of plots that I use for a
project, but normally I use 100-200 different Tiny Test plots, with as
many species of local natives I can get my hands on that year---and when
seeding, using perhaps a dozen different sowing rates, and a dozen
different treatments.

When you are planting 100-200 different plots in a day, that is where
using Tiny Test Plots becomes very important.

You never, ever want to use a single treatment over a whole site, and
instead would set up 100-200 tiny test plots each year, using 12-20
different local native species of seeds that are already found on site or
nearby.

That is where the Russian Ridge burns, that you can see at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/invent.html are constantly failing.  In the last
10 years, essentially only one treatment has been used---burning four
different years, and using the whole square mile of grassland habitat,  as
one big huge test plot.

What I am suggesting, is that you perfect your technique in the Tiny Test
plots first, with the goal of getting very high Performance Standards,
before you attempt the whole area.  Go for 95% native cover and zero weed
cover, within 90 days or less.

STAR THISTLE TINY TEST PLOTS as an example, and results.

I was doing yellow star thistle test plots winter 2006-April 2007, with a
total of 36 different plots, for example.

Eighteen of those plots were to test the theory that star thistle could be
completely and permanently eliminated within 90 days, and done so cheaply
with only a single treatment.  My goal was to end up with other
non-prickly exotics in the place of the star thistle, which is a very good
result in 100% weed-infested California.

For the other 18 plots, the goal was to achieve within 90 days or less,
zero yellow star thistle, and as close to zero other exotics, plus as
close to 100% native cover.

In the first set of 18 plots, I was able to get zero star thistle within
90 days.

In the second set of 18 plots, I measured zero star thistle, and from zero
to varying percentages of native cover within 90 days.

The spring 2007 percentages of native cover in the second set of 18 test
plots were as follows: Two were 95% native cover, three were 80% native
cover, two were 50% native cover, four were 10% native cover, three were
5% native cover and the remaining four, were zero percent native cover.

EVERY AUTUMN, set up some Tiny Test Plots?

That is why it is so important to set up as many Tiny Test Plots each
year, because only a few may succeed the first time around, but those
successes will give you clues on how to set up your next set of test
plots.

If you are managing non-riparian wildland weeds anywhere in North America,
perhaps if you put a date on your calendar every year in the fall, to set
up a number of Tiny Test Plots, to see if the local natives can give you a
hand in fighting the weeds, to make your work a whole lot easier?

And perhaps every Wildlands weed meeting around the country, could start
including a section on sowing local native plants for their allelopathic
effect, and how the natives can be used against weeds.  We really need to
include allelopathy as one of our leading tool for converting weeds areas
back to local native ecosystems.

I hope this information is useful, and encourages everyone to set up some
Tiny Test Plots this fall, including the two Ex-situ Test Pots for each
species.  I will look forward to hearing the reports, next year, of the
results.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333