Sorry was supposed to be Garlic Mustard Weed.

Oh, I hate that plant. Some people around here were encouraging people to eat the leaves after pulling it. I tried it....yuk! I'll stick with early pulling and a trip to the compost pile.

Were yours newly sprouted baby plants or basal leaves from last year's growth? Around here the plant grows near the ground for one year without flowering. It remains green through the winter. Winter thaws are a good time of year for us to get rid of GM. They are about the only green plant around then and are easy to spot. I try to check my favorite woodland trails during thaws and get rid of the aliens! If they aren't yanked before their second summer they send up flower stalks and produce a gazillion seeds. Argghhhh...

It's out there. Some people say there is a fair amount of winter kill and, thus, to only bother pulling up the second year plants but that means you have to deal with seed so do whatever works for you.

When the ground is cold but unfrozen, the plans tend to come out with less breakage. Grasp at the crown, and vibrate the plant as you are pulling. Mors root will come out. I think I am having some success.

I cut the same bunch of rosettes in one small area several times in late summer/early fall and they eventually gave up. That's too labor intensive for large areas but it was interesting to observe. I suggest that if you pull up rosettes that you pile them off of the ground.

Naturegirl
thats prob the case, it has probably been there all year. Hard to believe with the freeze and snow weve had.

Hey BOB hows it going? LOL same problem different year!Just cant wait to see the Stilt grass right?

V I guess I need to get out there and get at it while theres no gnats. LOL

Boy, do I agree with Bob. If you weed out rosettes, keep them out of contact with ground. At least some will manage to re-root. And when pulling the ones heading into flower, take that second to snap off the flower head from the rest of the plant. I had a small pile of pre-flowering weed-outs in a wheel barrow last year, and then got distracted for a week. Many of the flower stalks had grown upright, and continued to develop flowers, and a few were starting to set seeds...... They are talented and stubborn.
Linda S.

I have several old window screens that I toss hard to kill plants that I have pulled. The air allows the plant to dry completely. Once the stems are hard enough to crumble in your hand it is unlikely they will regrow if in contact to ground. You could if really seedy put a container under the screens to contain any dropage of seeds.

I also have a fire pot that I toss the stems into then burn them.

Cynandjon, nice to hear from you too. I pretty much retreated and surrendured to GM in many spots this last season which means I will have even more soon. The plus side is that in spite of my failure I have learned a few things.
The pulled rosettes will not go to seed if they don't get an opportunity to re-root. I pile them on top of rocks or whatever so they dry out and die. Any GM with a flower on it probably will or already has made seeds. The seeds are not in the little white flowers or the leaves but in the little green stick or spike-like things sticking off of the plant. I have opened them up to confirm this and sure enough found that is where the seeds are (and lots of them). I also lop the rosettes (not the mature or 2nd year plants) with a weed-whacker stick once in a while just to deprive them of some photosynthesis - I doubt this does much good but it's fun. The cut off leaves from the rosettes pose no threat of re-rooting. I noticed that the rosettes have a somewhat rubbery feel - this might mean they are harder to poison.

"The seeds are not in the little white flowers or the leaves but in the little green stick or spike-like things sticking off of the plant. I have opened them up to confirm this and sure enough found that is where the seeds are (and lots of them)."

BOB
thats very important info, thank you. I will pass that on to john. We usually pull them by the roots, but john has a habit of just throwing them on a pile. Its just a waste of time to do that, I know.Ill have to get him to carry a plastic bag to put them in and drop them into the incinerator.
thanks
cin

Thats a very good idea, since he likes to let them lay maybe he could throw them onto the screen until he burns them. The only problem is, if its windy the seeds could blow off. We will have to try to dispose of them before the seeds drop

The seed pods are also called "siliques". Look at the phot labelled "Garlic Mustard - Seed Pods Second Year Plant" in the attached link.

Here is a link that might be useful: GM Seed Pods (siliques)

Hi Bob
very interesting, thanks! Ill have to show that to hubby.

Thanks for the window screen idea, maifleur! This will be useful for more than garlic mustard.... I appreciate the great tip!

Bob said:
"Any GM with a flower on it probably will or already has made seeds. The seeds are not in the little white flowers or the leaves but in the little green stick or spike-like things sticking off of the plant."

Siliques are a kind of seed pod, and GM has this kind, but they still develop from the little white flowers. It's just that by the time you can see the silique forming, the flower petals have fallen off. If the seed pods are already forming/ripening, weed carefully, so you are 'planting GM' by shaking the weed. Perhaps weeding by flame-thrower :~\ ?

Linda S

When I saw the title of this thread, I feared that someone was asking for GM seed! Yikes.

We still have snow on the ground, so I haven't seen any yet. But as soon as the snow melts, I will be out picking GM...

Last year, I was overwhelmed by knee surgery and couldn't pick as much GM as I usually do, so I had the neighbor boy mow it off a couple times, to keep it from flowering.

And of course the darned things started flowering shorter, like a dandlion, grrrrrr....

The garlic mustard is a worthy adversary JoePye but you are doing what you can. None of my local wildlife eat it at all. I even thought of renting some goats but there is no guarantee that the goats would only eat the garlic mustard (and I don't even know if goats eat garlic mustard). From what little I have seen and understand of goats, they will eat too large a variety of things to let go in my woods. I also have no clue as to where I would rent goats around here.

Folks, go to your local Girl Scouts and ask for help from Brownies (gr 1-3) & Daisies (kindergarteners). We live near Bowman's Hill Wildlife Preserve in Bucks Co, PA and a fave service project of local GS troops is to go there & pull the flowering garlic mustard in May.

Bowman's Hill has volunteers come in & pull the GM every year -- but they always have trouble getting enough people. 10 Brownies x one hour pulling = 10 hours pulling by one adult. And the plants are unmistakable when they are blooming, and very shallow rooted so easy for a child to get. The girls pile them at the sides of the trail for later collection.

Obviously this is done with tight supervision & in selected areas, when done by kids in a wildflower preserve.

I dig it up in my yard & frankly I have little trouble pulling. A stubborn one might need a bit of help from a trowel.

If I had larger property & as much GM as you seem to have, I would find a local GS troop & offer pulling it as a service project -- and also include juice & snack after the pulling & a little "presentation" about native plants or butterflies or whatever, etc. I would approach the troop leader talking about various nature badges & the plants being non native invasives. The badges all have service components to them & pulling non native invasives is a great way to get that part done. You don't want to sound like you are trying to get free yard work; you want to sound like you are offering a badge opportunity & helping to eradicate invasives.

If knee surgery or arthritis are part of what's keeping you from getting the weeds, you mention that, too.

One of these days and years from now when I retire from my attempts to make real money I will start a company that gets hired out to battle invasives and start giving those Girl Scouts some competition (except I can't compete with free work). Somehow I think there is a business opportunity in this idea if one can find enough landowners that care.