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(31 posts)

shot weed, where have you been all my life?

Started 2 years ago by gracefredeen
Latest reply from Hammertree

gracefredeen
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Thanks to the WS Blog I now have a name for this otherworldly invader in my yard. It is everywhere this year and last. I saw a post mentioning "shot weed" and I thought...THAT must be it! This critter throws it's seeds at you when you brush it...it's the craziest thing. Very clever of a plant, but wacky. The first time it happened I thought I was the crazy one. Plants don't KNOW you are about to remove them and attack, right?
I'm perplexed though. I grew up gardening in WS and have mostly lived here for the last 40 years. I thought I knew all the weeds. Where did this one come from? Has it been here all along? I find it hard to believe I missed it given it's violent nature :)

Posted 2 years ago #
Irukandji
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Those little poppers have nothing on the 'La Cholla' cacti we were told about and avoided down in Arizona.
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These bastards have needles, yes, but the needles are wrapped in paper-like sheaths. the sheaths sense movement and, when they do, trigger the needles to shoot out. One goes and others are triggered. I've heard from victims of the La Cholla that this can happen even from what you think is a safe distance, and the needles are excruciatingly painful to remove.
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Pity those poor little popper weeds and their attempt at assault and spawn. They're kind of cute!

Posted 2 years ago #
WSB
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So that's what they're called? When I had time to pay attention to the yard in our early days here, those were the bane of my existence (along with the unwanted St. John's Wort and of course dandelions, dandelions, dandelions) ...

As for the needle cacti - only one possibility. They're related to the triffids.

Posted 2 years ago #
westseattledood
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Speaking of violent weeds :)....anybody know what the tiny white ones are. My back yard is currently thick with them. I've been busy elsewhere. I think I have a weed book somewhere, but can't locate it. I just have always called them artillery weeds. You know - they have multiple tiny white heads on frail little stems. Sinister, proliferating buggers, they are.

Posted 2 years ago #
Kevin
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The man to ask would be Stewart Wechsler, who besides being a great guy, is also a local resident who is a naturalist with a very intimate knowledge of West Seattle plants and animals.
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I think you can find his contact info by searching for his name in the WSB archives.
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I went on one of his owl spotting walks at Lincoln Park a few months back. If you ever get the chance - make time to go on one of his walks.
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The reason I know he knows his weeds is that he promotes good park stewardship by picking and destroying at least one NON native weed every time you visit the park, and advocates that we should all do that as part of our "admission" price to use the park.
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Posted 2 years ago #
MousePotato
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I'm 43. I've never seen this damn thing before and suddenly it's kicking the crap out of dandelions for space in our yard. You call it shot weed but my wife and her father call it seed spitters. They are tiny little b**tards that are easy to remove but multiply by the millions so it takes forever to get rid if them. This year is an invasion of no equal proportions. Is it because of the mild winter?

Great. Dandelions.... Horse tail.... Freakin Morning glory.... Now these little &^*(!@$%&^ers....

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
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perhaps we should all plant meadows..

Posted 2 years ago #
JayDee
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Mousepotato:

Alas, it is bittercress, aka shot weed:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamine_hirsuta>

I've taken to burning the flowers and weeds with a propane torch. I try and burn them before the seeds dry and shoot. I will see how successful I am by next spring.

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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One nice thing about shotweed (bittercress) and dandelion, is they ARE edible. the bittercress, which isn't all that bitter, is a nice addition to Winter salads. Dandelion greens are great with a warm vinaigrette, you can make wine from the flowers and buds, and the roots can be roasted, ground, and made into a coffee-like beverage. Personally, I've only eaten the leaves (YUM!) but have had an interest in trying the wine since I read Ray Bradbury's book.
Horsetail is high in silica and can be used as an abrasive. I don't know anyone who has.
Don't Call Them Morning Glory (which are a nice, non-invasive annual flower) are actually Field Bind Weed, or Convolvulus arvensis. It is a nasty, nasty weed, and my neighbors haven't taken care of their yard in years, so I am constantly fighting off the invasion. Either I cover my yard with plastic for the next few years, or I pull constantly. I spend so much of my garden time trying to stay ahead of that stuff, it kind of tempers the joy of planting and cultivating worthwhile plants.

http://www.pesticide.org/bindweed.html

Manual eradication seems to work as good, or better than pesticides. Get pulling.

Posted 2 years ago #
anonyme
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I accidentally found a good way to deal with "morning glory" and similar invasives. I tried pulling, cutting, and spraying vinegar to no avail. When I bought my house there was a serious infestation, so bad that the walls were filled with morning glory vines all the way up into the attic. Then a few years ago I had way too many wood chips, and dumped a good six inches onto the side yard where, coincidentally, the morning glory was most established. I discovered that MG, like bamboo, is lazy. Instead of tunneling down into hard soil where it is difficult to dig or pull, the 'vines' snake through the soft, decomposing wood chips. It is then very easy work to pull 8-10 foot lengths all the way to the source and remove them completely. It's actually kind of satisfying work, and there has been a dramatic decline in the number of new shoots.

Posted 2 years ago #
KatherineL
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I had a plant ID booklet that called this stuff peppergrass. Same idea.I fight it all the time. It only popped up here in recent years. I don't know where it came from.

Posted 2 years ago #
funkietoo
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One way to reduce the number of any weeds is to spread corn gluten right after weeding your garden and then reapply every 4ish - 6ish weeks. The gluten dries out seed so it doesn't germinate.

When we weed, the soil is disturbed, bringing seeds to the surface that were previously buried. Now that the sun is warming them up, walla--they start to grow. This is why, a couple, three weeks after weeding, we see lots of NEW weeds.

Be sure to get the powdery texture gluten...not the pellets. You can purchase it at McLendon's and True Value...or a Feed Store. It's pricey, but worth it. A side benefit is that the corn gluten breaks down and provides nutrition to the soil.

Posted 2 years ago #
karen
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The area around my chicken coop was covered in bindweed and ivy. It had been there for years. Now it's completely gone! The chickens don't eat it but they scratch so much that the roots have all been torn up.
It took a while and I wouldn't get chickens just for that purpose, but if you already have them, put 'em to work!

Posted 2 years ago #
MousePotato
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I might just put up chicken wire around my entire property and buy about 500 chickens if that's what it will take to get rid of the bindweed. That stuff is the worst of all the weeds that I've seen. I'm not a gardener but my wife is. She can walk through the yard and tell you all the correct Latin names for all the variety of plants in our yard. I don't know any of them except for one; my precious rosemary bush. I discovered this in our side yard with my wife's help after years of trying to kill it myself (not knowing what it was). Yeah, I'm that plant illiterate. After about a year or so of picking and drying the rosemary and adding it to every dish we cooked the flippin bindweed got into that flower bed and choked it out. All gone. No more rosemary bush.... :-(

If you REALLY dislike someone, throw a little bindweed root into their yard....

Posted 2 years ago #
gracefredeen
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I spent yesterday pulling weeds. We have them ALL. Morning Glory and dandelions are my nemesis. Evil EVIL stuff! But this shot weed thing is relatively new in our yard. So is it cheaper to buy corn Gluten or Preen do you suppose?
I too find pulling up morning glory roots somewhat satisfying when they come up in large chunks. One year my dear dad was kind enough to rototill a patch of ground where I was going to plant veggies. He did not first clear away the morning Glory, but tilled it into the soil...nicely diced into 1/2" pieces. Ahh, what a year of weeding THAT was!
I used to have a neighbor whose yard bordered mine. They were very "organic" and let their yard be "wild". I finally had to get some bionic weedcloth and run it up my fence a bit to keep out the morning glory vines. They eventually found their way through the cloth. These weeds are surviors! I guess I have to admire their talent as I curse them!

Posted 2 years ago #
homedk
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One of my weeding techniques is to use boiling water! I think it works the same way as using a propane torch, without the risk of setting the wooden fence or house on fire.
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It works especially well if there are no other plants around. It is an awesome method of removing weeds in sidewalk cracks!
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Downside to this method is that it only gets existing weeds; it doesn't prevent seeds from sprouting.

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
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now why didn't i think of that...

gracefreeden..
how long did the weed barrier on the fence work? i have a "natural" gardener on the other side of the fence and had been contemplating hanging weedcloth on the chain link fence to slow things down.

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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"natural," or too damned lazy to pull invasive weeds?!!! I don't use chemicals in my yard, but I also won't allow non-native invasive plants to flourish. Anyone who claims they are a "natural" gardener but allows these horrible plants to get out of hand in their yard is just, plain and simple, LAZY!
Natural does not equal "gone to hell."

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
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dawsonct..

i resent being called lazy because i need help with the weeds.

i moved into a rental that had more weeds than lawn and have slowly begun to move that ratio towards 50/50. totally eradicating weeds by pulling them would not leave me energy to grow food.. and i really really like growing food.

right now i am expanding some flower beds and using a bulb digger to dig plugs of unwanted grass to replace the plugs of weed i remove from the desired (by the landlord)lawn... exceedingly slow process and the neighbors weed nursery keeps sending replacements nearly as fast as i can get rid of their previous offspring.

At this point, i will take all the help i can get.

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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No offense intended to those who do the best they can and do care. My barbs are directed at those who would just rather let their yard go to hell, though they are physically capable and have the time, such as the person who was in my house before me, and my former neighbors.
I once even offered to split the cost of a couple of day-laborers for a few hours of work (using the shared fence-line as an excuse), "nah. Good idea, but we'll get to it."
Still waiting. Hope the next people have a bit more interest.

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
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my weedy neighbor knows i am sicker than he.. so when i work in the yard and he sees it guilts him into an hour's worth of work..

that's the good news.
the bad news is that an hour's work at his speed doesn't even make a dent.

i am thinking i will go get some workers one day this week.

Posted 2 years ago #
linasenzerrose
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i really like this resource through the King County Noxious Weed Program for identifying random weeds:http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsandplants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification.aspx

If you can post pictures on the forum too, I really love geeking out on plant ID and will try to chime in if I know the offending species. I know there are also others in the community that have great plant knowledge too.

thanks for motivating me to get out in my yard... maybe even today! it is not too bad at the moment but that is all the more reason to get out there before the little buggers take hold! good luck everyone in your weedy battles!

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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Cool link, linas. Interesting they didn't have pictures of fieldcress/shotweed OR dandelion. Wonder if they've given up on the hope of eradication for those two.

Posted 2 years ago #
westseattledood
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So, I see it IS shotweed I have, after checking jaydee's link.
I've never seen them explode, but given the insta-colony I have, I believe it.

I think I will have to start pricing propane torches. Picked up some landscape fabric yesterday. Good times. Bleh.

Posted 2 years ago #
digidoll
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Growing up, my grandmother and mother called shot weed "Shepherd's Purse" - because the seeds scatter like coins from a shepherd's purse, I guess. They are English, though, so I think the weed is a different variety from what I have now - same annoying scattering of seeds, though! I am constantly pulling them before they can go to seed, and if I miss one, I've just ensured the next generation's success.

Posted 2 years ago #
gracefredeen
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Shot weed looks much different when it goes to seed than when it just flowers. I did not realize at first from the photos that it was the same weed. I did not used to have it in this yard. Obviously it could have flown in from anywhere, but I am now suspicious of the compost/soil enhancers I have put down. Bummer!

On the "neighors with weeds" front, I put down some landscape fabric and kind of curved it up onto my fence. It helped to control the morning glory vines that were coming under the fence. It still required my pulling up the vines to some degree, but it atleast helped contain them (they would still run under the weedcloth). I considered putting in some sort of rigid metal or plastic "plate" vertically to stop them....but I never did! The landscape fabric lasted pretty well. we moved from that house after 4 years and it was still in place...although not 100% intact.

Posted 2 years ago #
jwws
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Shot weed can come from plants bought at nurseries (as can snail eggs..)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamine_hirsuta

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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Yeah, the snails are definitely fairly new; they don't survive once I spot them. I DO remember seeing bittercress/shotweed around here in my youth, but don't remember it being so widespread.

Posted 2 years ago #
Hammertree
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I've heard that the seeds make it through the filters at Cedar Grove and it ends up in the mulch we buy. Not sure about the compost. The root system is so shallow that weed fabric won't prevent it- it grows on top of it.

Posted 2 years ago #
Wolfie
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Hammertree you said what I have been thinking for a few years. I (and my Mom who lives in another area of WS) both got mulch from Ceder Grove and we have had real problems with shotweed. Plus I had weed fabric installed prior to the mulch being spread and sadly the weed fabric seems to have been a bust due to all kinds of stuff growing right on top of it. Note the one thing that really kept the shotweed down was pouring a ton of Preen all over the yard in very heavy doses.

Posted 2 years ago #
Hammertree
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I must add that the benefit the mulch provides far outweighs the shot weed problem. The weed is easy to pull (easier to pull after rainfall).

Posted 2 years ago #