moving my pokeweed

21 years ago

We allowed a pokeweed to grow in our backyard last summer, and grow it did --- the largest stem was 3" across before it finished, and now the roots are a good 2" across. Anyway, I love the pokeweed and the birds it attracts, but it's in a very inconvenient spot for me. It's just now got some green shoots coming up from the roots and I thought I could just dig up the roots, cutting them down to a manageable size as I dig, and then plunk them in a better spot. Sound reasonable? I also wondered if I could plunk some larger pieces of roots into the soil at a a nearby city park, just at the edge of the treeline. Would it grow do you think? I wonder if the maintenance crew would chop it down though...

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Comments (6)

jillmcm
21 years ago
Pokeweed will seed itself everywhere - although it's a great bird plant, I wouldn't encourage it anywhere you don't want an army of volunteer sprouts. Pokeweed also has an enormous tap root - I'm not sure how it would do if you cut the root off. You may be better off transplanting a very small plant to where you want the pokeweed to be, and killing off the one that you wanted to move. Be warned, even that will be tough. Pokeweed are great plants, but not for the small yard!
geoforce
21 years ago
Pokeweed will grow from short root cuttings taken or roots pencil size or so, Also can slice a section off the side of the crown for farter regeneration. Tap root can be enormous. 6" diameter is not unheard of and 2 foot or more deep. Purple dye from the berriesstains laundry, decks, sidewalks, cars, etc very nicely when the birds pass it.

George
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The article link posted by saltcedar above has very good information including how to cook it. The root is the most poisonous and the source of accidental poisoning by people. If you stay under 6" height in shoots, I think you'll be fine with double boiling especially in smaller amount initially. I've read that some older folks don't like bland young shoots and eat even taller plants, but that's probably not recommended. There are a lot of youtube videos on how to prepare them as well, and I've watched them all before I cooked mine. I thought people were exaggerating about how it tastes so good and competes with asparagus shoots, but I must agree for sure when cooked with bacon grease. It didn't taste like asparagus (which I only like them grilled), but it was definitely flavorful with good texture. My husband just dug out taproot and it killed the plant easily. It's definitely not like the maddening knotweeds or other invasive plants that send out uncontrollable runner shoots. Other than it being fast growing and being very noticeable (cause it actually looks unusual and pretty), I didn't find it difficult to control at all - I prefer it over smaller weedy plants (dandelion, chickweed,ground ivy, etc) that spread thousands of seeds to germinate all over my yard and plant bed. This post was edited by bluema on Thu, Oct 10, 13 at 14:23
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Wood chips, or any other high carbon material, mixed into the soil as a soil amendment can cause Nitrogen to be tied up for a period of time while the soil bacteria are digesting them, but wood chips, or any other high carbon material, appied to the soils surface as a mulch will not since the soil bacteria will not stop their other work to digest them, although over time they will without using large amounts of available Nitrogen to do that.
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That's really pretty! I'd read of variegated pokeweed, but had not seen a photo. There is pokeweed in the woods near my house, and this year I have pulled about a dozen babies. Strangely, I didn't see any last year. I actually transplanted a pokeweed into the dead-shade bed against my garage, to try to get a little height in there. Would you save a few of those variegated berries for me? I could send a sasbe, unless you wanted to trade.
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Birds love the berries that Pokeweed produces so the seeds that will grow into the plant are dropped everywhere and I have had them growing up in the middle of my Rhododenrons and Azaleas. Learn to recognize the distinctive seedling leaf and yank them out early and they will not have that enormous root that makes later removal difficult.
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cjlambert
21 years ago
Tansy - I had the same predicament a few years ago, and moved a massive root with success. I'd give George's tips a try before wrestling with a monster root. But, it can be done!
Carol
amy_z6_swpa
21 years ago
The plant is really amazing---we have one that popped up in the lawn right behind my garden's back edge, and even though hubby mows it to the ground every couple weeks, it still sprouts right back up.
getyourleash
21 years ago
Despite it's bird attraction , I despise pokeweed. It can take on a life of it's own and be impossible to remove. I had to use a small hatchet just to cut some OUT of my fence! Of course, it came right back up.
gunnysack
21 years ago
I allow one well controlled Pokeweed plant to grow in my backyard and use the root to make a compress to treat Poison Ivy.

Kathy

moving my pokeweed

Comments (6)

jillmcm

geoforce

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amy_z6_swpa

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