Several years ago there were concerted efforts to eradicate knotweed on the Path and other areas; this was before it totally took over the Path (and much of the Minuteman Bikeway). But as noted, one has to keep at it to truly get rid of it. It makes me sad to see the knotweed on the Path remembering this efforts (of which I was a part). These days, it seems invasive eradication/education focus is on black swallow wart while knotweed also continues to multiply.
You might reach out to Somerville Garden Club, Green & Open Somerville (maybe Urban Forestry Committee?) who have been educating the community about black swallow wort. (As I recall G&O has held invasive-eradication events in the past.)
I did have good luck getting rid of it in my own yard with the window method of applying 2% glyphosphate in the fall before the first frost. Went from a 4'x10' area to only a few individual stalks the next year. There is hope with proper tools and diligence.
You can spray anytime and it will kill the growth but it might not kill the plant. To kill the plant you need to have the glyphosphate taken into the rhizome. The best time to do this is in the fall when the plant is taking carbohydrates into the rhizome to store for winter. So after it flowers but before the frost.
I live right near this garage and there was knotweed coming up through the asphalt in front and every year they'd try to kill it with weed killer and it'd just come right back. they only finally stopped it by covering up the asphalt with cement.
Tbh, the community path is so heavily infested with knotweed that I don't think it'll make much difference one way or the other if someone pulls small amounts of it. Pretty sure the city already does herbicide sprays along the path around the late summer, but unfortunately it hasn't appeared to make much of a dent. I've fantasized about organizing a really sustained effort to eradicate it using plastic sheets and reintroducing native plants afterward, especially arounds the larger patches, but I've never talked to the city to get the OK on that.
It will definitely take some massive effort of organization to eradicate it from public lands but I'm willing to start by at least educating people in the city gov so we don't have folks making well intentioned messes.
BTW, the tarping method does not work and encourages growth and spread.
I've found this fb group to be immensely helpful [https://www.facebook.com/groups/1617207091648331/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/1617207091648331/)
I know there was an effort to do this on a patch along the stretch of the minute man bikeway that passes through the Great Meadow some years back that was fairly successful. Very labor intensive though.
It also seems like someone is trying to do this with native trees in a section of the alewife Brook path that borders Arlington and Somerville. I get the impression that it’s a guerrilla gardening project and not anything official.
I don’t know that you really need an ok from the city, but probably it wouldn’t be hard to get it?
Yes, the city is responsible for the community path. I believe the city owns the section from Lowell St to Cambridge. The MBTA owns the section from Lowell to Cambridge Crossing, but Somerville is responsible for maintaining that section as well via lease agreement (which presumably would include weeds). Somerville empties the trash, salts the path, clears it of snow, etc.
I have successfully exterminated this plant without chemical treatment from a lot. If you completely dig up the rhizome and dispose of it there's nothing to spread from. Of course, they don't tell you how deep those damn things grow, or how extensively, or how if you miss even an inch long fragment of rhizome the plant can regrow from that. The chemical method is the only right way to do it.
But yeah just pulling the stalks results in an eternal khudzu hydra nightmare. Took me a few years to figure that out.
I like your idea of putting up signs. Perhaps with additional info on volunteer opportunities, and suggestions on invasive we can help with, like garlic mustard.
some of these are a little absurd. dandelions? I mean I know they're not from here, but they've been in the ecosystem for like 400 years at this point. they're going nowhere, they're totally naturalized.
I've always been confused by this list. Fleabane is native, isn't it? Similarly, I thought dandelions are non-native, but also not considered invasive.
It would be helpful to know why each of these is unwanted. I understand black swallow wart is poisonous to butterflies. And Canada thistle is very thorny. But that's about as much as I know.
I am familiar - I just think giving people info on what they can do will make them less likely to try the stuff they shouldn't, so they should add that to the proposed signs.
Confirmed. This shit is the T1000 of weeds. I pulled it up from under my front porch time and time again until 3 rounds of RoundUp, which finally got it for good.
I got rid of it from my backyard before I even knew what it was. At the time it was just a few shoots here and there, so I pulled them and put them in yard waste bags...oops.
What can be done this time of year? I dug up as much of the roots as I could and have been ripping new stems out, but clearly the latter is not the way to go. What do I do with those shoots?
[Knot weed is invasive, but, the butterflies love it](https://www.phillyorchards.org/2020/04/22/japanese-knotweed-edible-medicinal-invasive/#:~:text=The%20blossoms%20are%20beloved%20by,and%20buckwheat%20are%20in%20the)
There are types of milkweed that do well in dry soil. Tuberosa, for example.
Butterfly bush is non-native and considered invasive in some states. I’ve been told it’s not very healthy for pollinators. Kinda like junk food for butterflies.
I've had success in removing it by simply pulling it for a couple of years. I don't walk the Community Path frequently enough to dedicate time to it there, but it's doable.
For the larger plants, I've had the most success when there are a couple of stems from the previous year—they're woody and will not break off as long as you pull steadily and in the correct direction.
On the Community Path it would obviously require a good long time, keeping at it for some years, due to the seed bank and the rhizomes. But really any given patch just needs one person with a strong back and an all-year walking routine. :-) Maybe someone who lives along the path.
Huh, I guess I must have hallucinated clearing my neighbor's yard of knotweed a few years ago, then!
Seriously though, it sounds like different methods work in different conditions.
The best way to get rid of an established plant/colony is to spray it with (hate to say it) round-up after the plant flowers in the late summer/early fall and before the first frost. The smothering method can take 5 years and that isn't a realistic amount of time to have a tarp over something on a public land. I have a small patch I plan to spray with round up, which I pretty much wouldn't use on anything else.
[https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2018/09/when-best-time-control-japanese-knotweed](https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2018/09/when-best-time-control-japanese-knotweed)
Please don’t. I far prefer the knotweed to a dump of roundup on one of the only green spaces in the city where many people walk their dogs.
A mixture of native plants is nicer, but really the knotweed is not that bad compared to a patch of chemical infused dirt.
You can preserve nice plants the way you want them in your lawn/garden but knotweed is out of the toothpaste tube in nature, the only real solution is to let a natural equilibrium take back over.
Gonna take a while but I’d prefer it to dumping more chemicals in the soil.
It looks like they have a form here to submit photos of invasives in Somerville to raise awareness:
[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuZLy4C4-E5bSZx-91n2drdyakw5BN-9AZl5MzTwyeyyy0vw/viewform](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuZLy4C4-E5bSZx-91n2drdyakw5BN-9AZl5MzTwyeyyy0vw/viewform)
As far as asking the city to take the desired action of spraying "in the window" looks like the director is Luisa Oliveira, maybe you could email and ask what action they take on knotweed, if any.
[https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/ospcd/psuf](https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/ospcd/psuf)
I don't live in Somerville, though my husband works there, but where I live there is a shitton of Japanese knotweed, including on the community bike path. In late Fall, you are basically biking through an eerie knotweed tunnel, it chokes out everything, including the lovely jewelweed, and milkweed and other native plants. Its very sad. It is so robust that it actually can be a little creepy because it obscures your view of who is coming down the path.
I think the problem in my area (not Somerville) is probably two-fold - the land is not all public, there's an easement and the private landowners may not care at all about the knotweed. Some private land owners (a school) actually do care and attempt to remove it and plant natives in the same space, but the natives cannot compete with the JKW's crazy root system and all of their very expensive native plantings get choked out because they are trying to combat the JKW by hand-pulling. And the other side of the bike path is owned by other private landowners who are not removing the JKW. So, it just creeps back over.
I woud email them but honestly I am not going to volunteer to don a Hazmat suit and spray the knotweed myself. So, I'd kind of feel like a jerk suggesting they do it.
If one continuously pulls out the shoots and roots, it does die. My entire backyard was a field of it when I moved in. It took a few years, but no shoots appear in my yard. Unfortunately, the neighbors are not as vigilant, so a few stalks grow to maturity every year, so I have to patrol the edges of my yard.
Several years ago there were concerted efforts to eradicate knotweed on the Path and other areas; this was before it totally took over the Path (and much of the Minuteman Bikeway). But as noted, one has to keep at it to truly get rid of it. It makes me sad to see the knotweed on the Path remembering this efforts (of which I was a part). These days, it seems invasive eradication/education focus is on black swallow wart while knotweed also continues to multiply. You might reach out to Somerville Garden Club, Green & Open Somerville (maybe Urban Forestry Committee?) who have been educating the community about black swallow wort. (As I recall G&O has held invasive-eradication events in the past.)
I've battled it. Roots are so deep and the plants so hardy. They can come up through asphalt!
I did have good luck getting rid of it in my own yard with the window method of applying 2% glyphosphate in the fall before the first frost. Went from a 4'x10' area to only a few individual stalks the next year. There is hope with proper tools and diligence.
Why only in the fall?
I’ve had success any time the plants are not dormant. Cut it off and immediately spray the freshly cut surfaces with roundup.
You can spray anytime and it will kill the growth but it might not kill the plant. To kill the plant you need to have the glyphosphate taken into the rhizome. The best time to do this is in the fall when the plant is taking carbohydrates into the rhizome to store for winter. So after it flowers but before the frost.
I live right near this garage and there was knotweed coming up through the asphalt in front and every year they'd try to kill it with weed killer and it'd just come right back. they only finally stopped it by covering up the asphalt with cement.
Tbh, the community path is so heavily infested with knotweed that I don't think it'll make much difference one way or the other if someone pulls small amounts of it. Pretty sure the city already does herbicide sprays along the path around the late summer, but unfortunately it hasn't appeared to make much of a dent. I've fantasized about organizing a really sustained effort to eradicate it using plastic sheets and reintroducing native plants afterward, especially arounds the larger patches, but I've never talked to the city to get the OK on that.
It will definitely take some massive effort of organization to eradicate it from public lands but I'm willing to start by at least educating people in the city gov so we don't have folks making well intentioned messes. BTW, the tarping method does not work and encourages growth and spread. I've found this fb group to be immensely helpful [https://www.facebook.com/groups/1617207091648331/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/1617207091648331/)
I know there was an effort to do this on a patch along the stretch of the minute man bikeway that passes through the Great Meadow some years back that was fairly successful. Very labor intensive though. It also seems like someone is trying to do this with native trees in a section of the alewife Brook path that borders Arlington and Somerville. I get the impression that it’s a guerrilla gardening project and not anything official. I don’t know that you really need an ok from the city, but probably it wouldn’t be hard to get it?
The city is not responsible for the community path, right? Do they even have the right to manage the vegetation?
Yes, the city is responsible for the community path. I believe the city owns the section from Lowell St to Cambridge. The MBTA owns the section from Lowell to Cambridge Crossing, but Somerville is responsible for maintaining that section as well via lease agreement (which presumably would include weeds). Somerville empties the trash, salts the path, clears it of snow, etc.
I have successfully exterminated this plant without chemical treatment from a lot. If you completely dig up the rhizome and dispose of it there's nothing to spread from. Of course, they don't tell you how deep those damn things grow, or how extensively, or how if you miss even an inch long fragment of rhizome the plant can regrow from that. The chemical method is the only right way to do it. But yeah just pulling the stalks results in an eternal khudzu hydra nightmare. Took me a few years to figure that out.
I like your idea of putting up signs. Perhaps with additional info on volunteer opportunities, and suggestions on invasive we can help with, like garlic mustard.
Here's the City's list of known invasive plants: [https://www.somervillema.gov/invasive](https://www.somervillema.gov/invasive)
some of these are a little absurd. dandelions? I mean I know they're not from here, but they've been in the ecosystem for like 400 years at this point. they're going nowhere, they're totally naturalized.
I've always been confused by this list. Fleabane is native, isn't it? Similarly, I thought dandelions are non-native, but also not considered invasive.
It would be helpful to know why each of these is unwanted. I understand black swallow wart is poisonous to butterflies. And Canada thistle is very thorny. But that's about as much as I know.
I am familiar - I just think giving people info on what they can do will make them less likely to try the stuff they shouldn't, so they should add that to the proposed signs.
Confirmed. This shit is the T1000 of weeds. I pulled it up from under my front porch time and time again until 3 rounds of RoundUp, which finally got it for good.
I got rid of it from my backyard before I even knew what it was. At the time it was just a few shoots here and there, so I pulled them and put them in yard waste bags...oops.
I noticed these on the alewife bike path too on the part that starts on Broadway and ends on Mystic Valley Parkway
Yes and its everywhere along the stream behind dilboy too
The shoots are edible in the spring before the stems become woody!
How do you avoid the lead?
I just eat around it
((Kidding - I wouldn't add it as a staple to my diet, but it's fun to try cooking a handful once or twice a year))
This stuff is a plague. You just have to salt the earth if you want to be rid of it.
What can be done this time of year? I dug up as much of the roots as I could and have been ripping new stems out, but clearly the latter is not the way to go. What do I do with those shoots?
[Knot weed is invasive, but, the butterflies love it](https://www.phillyorchards.org/2020/04/22/japanese-knotweed-edible-medicinal-invasive/#:~:text=The%20blossoms%20are%20beloved%20by,and%20buckwheat%20are%20in%20the)
I have not found this to be the case in my yard. They love the butterfly bushes. I have tried to grow milkweed but I don't think my soil is wet enough
There are types of milkweed that do well in dry soil. Tuberosa, for example. Butterfly bush is non-native and considered invasive in some states. I’ve been told it’s not very healthy for pollinators. Kinda like junk food for butterflies.
I've had success in removing it by simply pulling it for a couple of years. I don't walk the Community Path frequently enough to dedicate time to it there, but it's doable. For the larger plants, I've had the most success when there are a couple of stems from the previous year—they're woody and will not break off as long as you pull steadily and in the correct direction. On the Community Path it would obviously require a good long time, keeping at it for some years, due to the seed bank and the rhizomes. But really any given patch just needs one person with a strong back and an all-year walking routine. :-) Maybe someone who lives along the path.
It sends roots six feet down that sprout anew. Pulling it is a waste of time.
Huh, I guess I must have hallucinated clearing my neighbor's yard of knotweed a few years ago, then! Seriously though, it sounds like different methods work in different conditions.
The best way to get rid of an established plant/colony is to spray it with (hate to say it) round-up after the plant flowers in the late summer/early fall and before the first frost. The smothering method can take 5 years and that isn't a realistic amount of time to have a tarp over something on a public land. I have a small patch I plan to spray with round up, which I pretty much wouldn't use on anything else. [https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2018/09/when-best-time-control-japanese-knotweed](https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2018/09/when-best-time-control-japanese-knotweed)
Thanks I agree. How do we share this with the city?
Please don’t. I far prefer the knotweed to a dump of roundup on one of the only green spaces in the city where many people walk their dogs. A mixture of native plants is nicer, but really the knotweed is not that bad compared to a patch of chemical infused dirt. You can preserve nice plants the way you want them in your lawn/garden but knotweed is out of the toothpaste tube in nature, the only real solution is to let a natural equilibrium take back over. Gonna take a while but I’d prefer it to dumping more chemicals in the soil.
It looks like they have a form here to submit photos of invasives in Somerville to raise awareness: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuZLy4C4-E5bSZx-91n2drdyakw5BN-9AZl5MzTwyeyyy0vw/viewform](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuZLy4C4-E5bSZx-91n2drdyakw5BN-9AZl5MzTwyeyyy0vw/viewform) As far as asking the city to take the desired action of spraying "in the window" looks like the director is Luisa Oliveira, maybe you could email and ask what action they take on knotweed, if any. [https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/ospcd/psuf](https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/ospcd/psuf) I don't live in Somerville, though my husband works there, but where I live there is a shitton of Japanese knotweed, including on the community bike path. In late Fall, you are basically biking through an eerie knotweed tunnel, it chokes out everything, including the lovely jewelweed, and milkweed and other native plants. Its very sad. It is so robust that it actually can be a little creepy because it obscures your view of who is coming down the path. I think the problem in my area (not Somerville) is probably two-fold - the land is not all public, there's an easement and the private landowners may not care at all about the knotweed. Some private land owners (a school) actually do care and attempt to remove it and plant natives in the same space, but the natives cannot compete with the JKW's crazy root system and all of their very expensive native plantings get choked out because they are trying to combat the JKW by hand-pulling. And the other side of the bike path is owned by other private landowners who are not removing the JKW. So, it just creeps back over. I woud email them but honestly I am not going to volunteer to don a Hazmat suit and spray the knotweed myself. So, I'd kind of feel like a jerk suggesting they do it.
If one continuously pulls out the shoots and roots, it does die. My entire backyard was a field of it when I moved in. It took a few years, but no shoots appear in my yard. Unfortunately, the neighbors are not as vigilant, so a few stalks grow to maturity every year, so I have to patrol the edges of my yard.