What will kill this plant?

May 15, 2011 10 Replies

I have lots of what we call elephants ears, but I think they are more likely some sort of alocasia and I want to control them. Glyphosate won't ( I've sprayed directly and have also cut the plant at ground level then painted on neat glyphosate), nor will tree and blackberry poison. To dig them out could wreck parts of the garden. Any suggestions please? TIZ


I would suggest that poison is going to do more damage than digging up the plant you don't like.

Dig & pull. They are persistent. Nice plant for xerogardening.

Occlusive mulch. Cut the plants down to the ground, cover with a light-occlusive mulch, Once a week, inspect and remove any new sprouts; add more mulch as needed. Depending on the biomass underground, it may take several years, but the plants will be dead, and you won't have to dig. Cheap, safe and easy, if tedious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago

"Light blue touch paper and stand well back"

David

Who needs eyebrows anyway.

OK _ I'll bite - are you kidding?

Yes, as was (I hope) EVP man.

D

OK - looks like I'm in for the hard slog. Arrrgh!

We had them all over our yard. I dug them up and planted asparagus in the midsts of where they had been. I just pull off the leaves when I see one and have the time. I don't use herbicides. They don't grow that fast. If you can get the whole root, that'll end of the problem. We're growing dwarf citrus where one stand of them used to be. It's all cleared out except one that has found a difficult place to get at between the slabs of concrete that make the stairs down to the house from the road. I transplanted a half dozen of them along the fence facing the street. They are very low maintenance, and they are slowly replacing the ivy that was there.

Why are you in such a rush to replace them? How many are there? They are basically a winter plant here. Soon they will bloom, and then they will die back.

Sounds like you are getting worked up over nothing, but then I don't know what your problem is.

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