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Vegetable Gardening

Creeping Charlie invading Strawberry Patch! Help!

13 years ago

How can I get rid of creeping charlie that has invaded our wonderful strawberry patch!! I don't use chemicals. I'm not sure if Borax(great for killing creeping charlie) would be safe either as it would be inadvertantly ingested-- HeLP!!! Please don't suggest mulch, it won't smother creeping charlie.

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curt_grow

13 years ago

I have charlie and quack grass. I now buy my strawberries from others. It is not hard to control by hand in my square foot gardens. I weed the edge and cut the soil to 4 inches deep on the outside of the bed with a flat spade to kill the creep roots going into the garden. That's harder to type than to do. As for the strawberries I have a few in a container for fresh snacks.

Curt#

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Comments (7)

veggiefaery
13 years ago
I have a horrible time with creeping charlie myself. It drives me crazy, and I really hate the smell of it. The best I can tell you is that creeping charlie is easy to pull up. Get a pair of garden gloves on, and start pulling. Then I would put some kind of physical barrier around your strawberries.

Last year I put a raised garden bed literally in the middle of a patch of creeping charlie. I pulled up all the creeping charlie first, and then turned over the soil to make sure I killed all the roots. Then hubby helped me build a raised garden bed, which we filled with a foot and a half of soil or so. The creeping charlie still surrounds the raised bed (then I pull it all out), but it has never gotten in the bed.
forpityssake
13 years ago
Oh, GOSH!!! What a shame! At the end of the strawberry season, could you transplant them & then use Borax? It takes forever, IF ever, to get rid of that creepy Charlie.

(I've got a last name for Charlie, & it ain't very nice.)
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Triclopyr takes weeks and weeks of spraying to get it under control. In your case, glyphosate is the best choice. Buy the stuff from Tractor Supply under their brand Groundworks 41% glyphosate. Mix it per the instructions and add some plain old dish detergent to help it stick. It's much cheaper than the brand name Round Up and will kill CC. Spray it when you won't be getting any rain for at least a couple days. The hotter the temperature the better it works. All you need is a good mist on the leaves of the plant. From there the leaves take it into the root to kill it. Expect a week to 2 weeks to see results as it takes some time to get the herbicide from the leaves to the roots and with creeping charlie you have to kill the roots or the stuff comes right back.. For most herbicides including Glyphosate, they work best when the plant is healthy and actively growing. This way the plant takes in more of the herbicide straight to the roots. You really need the folliage to absorb the herbicide. Sounds to me like you need to seek out another master gardener.
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for the lawn.. use 100% round up in the very expensive.. high tech container at the link ... drip a few drops on each plant and just keep at it for however long it takes ... what you can do.. is take a handful ... grab it.. pull it up .... use scissors.. and one drip on each cut ... the other alternative with RU.;. is to get a spray tank.. and practice with water.. until you can make BIG DROPLETS come out of the nozzle end... gravity makes them fall to the earth.. to many peeps think RU is french perfume.. and atomize it under too much pressure.. and go figure.. it floats on the air ... anyway.. droplets are a function of how many pumps ... pressure.. and the nozzle adjustment from mist to drops... and when you get real good.. you can add trigger pressure .. just practice with water on the driveway.. until you understand how your tools works... and then properly dilute the RU for the application .... [the full strength stuff can be returned to the properly labeled container for storage ] and with a training plant like this.. you dont need to saturate the whole.... i bet 60% coverage.. will kill up to 95% of it .... and that is all i try for.. on my first spray ... and then i come back in a week.. and do the rest ... you will be needing to reseed the lawn in fall ... so even at worse... come late august.. just kill the lawn and all .... and reseed in fall ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link
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Thanks for the information on where to get my soil tested! The price is very good and I like that I may be able to get an organic recommendation. Soil solarization apparently worked so well for cc because of charlie's shallow roots. Even though I did not wet the surface and did not have it totally secured (buried) at the edges, it still killed it all except for the very edges. I also noticed that in some areas, it did not completely kill the grass and it's growing back with no cc. It's been an interesting adventure. I wonder why this method is not recommended for getting rid of this pesty weed (organically) more often. I've got a bolt of plastic and will be doing a larger area over the next couple of weekends. By the time I get the cc killed I should have my soil sample results and can plan my lawn's nutrition. It will be so awesome to have a lawn I'm proud of, without chemicals. There is not a single lawn company in this area that performs organic lawn care so I'm having to do all of this myself (and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed) but finally seeing some rays of hope helps.
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Pull it. Too much borax/boron or any other mineral will cause changes in your strawberries. Another thing with this mineral is that it is an insecticide not a herbicide. If you have any earthworms or any bugs pollenating your strawberries or any other plant in your garden they will be killed by touching and cleaning their bodies. Some can ingest through their skins so just a touch is deadly.
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ericwi
13 years ago
That's why they call it creeping charlie. It'll be your friend for life. But you can pull it up, and it makes great compost, so all is not lost. Sweet revenge.
veggiefaery
13 years ago
Not sure I would put creeping charlie or any kind of weed in my compost. I wouldn't want it to spread my garden beds.
vermontkingdom
13 years ago
I hate that darn plant. It is such an insidious pest and spreads like crazy. My lawn and raspberry patch are lost causes. It tries like crazy to invade my vegetable garden but I'm on full alert and constantly pull up its grasping tendencies. I too find great personal satisfaction in pulling it up and putting it in my hot compost bin. That sucker cranks up the heat to about 150 degrees and poor charlie is kaput. I'm winning individual battles but I think it's winning the war.
veggiefaery
13 years ago
Not sure I would put creeping charlie or any kind of weed in my compost. I wouldn't want it to spread my garden beds.

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