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New England Gardening

garlic mustard

17 years ago

I have been battling this menice for years. FG in their aug. issue has an article about it...says the seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 5 years. Mostly I have the flower-ettes although some are 6 inches tall with huge leaves. Anything taller gets pulled and bagged for the trash.

Anyone else notice with our wet cool spring that this weed is worse than ever????

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Comments (5)

diggingthedirt
17 years ago
Ugh. I've got this on all the perimeters, it's a real nuisance. I think it's a biennial, so corn gluten appied each spring may take care of it - it's going to be a never-ending battle, though, because it's in all the wild areas of my town.

It will be impossible to really eradicate it without a town-wide effort.
Sue W (CT zone 6a)
17 years ago
I hate this stuff. I live next to a wild catch basin/power coridor where it flourishes along with Rosa multiflora and a variety of other thugs. Every spring I yank out hundreds of seedlings from my perimeter garden but no way can I eradicate the field areas. I did read somewhere that if you go out in early spring and weed whack the rosettes to the ground you can prevent it from flowering. If you have lots it might be worth a try.

Sue
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I realize that this is a very, very old thread...but I was doing a search on garlic mustard, and can’t resist adding my two cents on the transatlantic exchange of plants and animals. Years ago, my mother and father were on a birding tour of the UK, and their guide was speaking about the unfortunate (in his view) proliferation of the red fox in Britain, because hunting live foxes had recently been banned. It is a native of North America. My mother, ever tart-tongued, piped up with, “Well, Colin, we’ll take back the red foxes in exchange for YOU taking back the starling and the house sparrow!” which got a hearty laugh from the rest of the group. My mother told me that both those birds were released in Central Park by some idiot in the 19th century who wanted there to be a pair of each species of bird mentioned in Shakespeare residing in the Park!
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Is this garlic mustard? (NJ)
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Comments (5)
If you have a lot of GM, at this point in the year it's easiest to wait until they send up flower spikes (early May). With a small enough area, you can then pull them and the roots will be a lot weaker than this stage where they're growing close to the ground. They actually pull out quite easily when in flower. Just make sure you bag them and throw in the trash because they can quickly set seed. If you have a very large area, you can also wait until they flower and then take a string trimmer and shred the plants down as close to the ground as possible. They're biennials that will die after they flower, so the goal is to keep them from setting seed. Whether you pull or you use a trimmer, you'll need to do this every year for awhile because seeds from prior years will continue to sprout.
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You have experience with Garlic Mustard?
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Comments (22)
I have been fighting it for 5 yrs. I purchased this property 5 yrs ago. The original owners were old and had not cared for the home for yrs. I have only used the physical method pulling and disposing. You are correct it is a biennial. I pull when young. Later in the season I see some tall ones here and there so I get them out. Sometime when they are tall it does not come up by the roots. When that happens most do not come back but I have seen some come back when I do not get the root but it comes back small. So I know just cutting it down and not getting the root sometime do not work, I am on a few acres so it has been a job but after the first two yrs I saw a lot less. Now 5 yrs later all I have to do is a little one hr maintenance walk/ride around here and there, Because the seeds can live so long I know I ill never be totally free of them but it is not more than other weeds now.
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Comments (2)
Unfortunately, the garlic mustard has dropped seed for however many years it has been growing on the two acres. Those seeds can remain viable under the soil for at least ten years, so you need to keep pulling the plants and preventing them from going to seed, until the seeds in the soil have been exhausted. Fortunately, if you don’t bring the seeds to the surface, they might never have a chance to germinate. But, when you pull the plants, that can bring the seeds to the surface. So, it just takes long term dedication. It can be a huge job. I had a similar situation that I worked on for four years before a job transfer took me away from the property. I found the garlic mustard pulling somewhat therapeutic. But, I also succumbed to using weed killer on zillions of microscopic sprouts that showed before the native wildflowers sprouted. Good luck.
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claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
17 years ago
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a recipe for Garlic Mustard Pesto...

Claire

Here is a link that might be useful: Garlic Mustard Pesto
hostasz6a
17 years ago
This plant is all over our town. Lately some has cropped up in my garden, which I pull right away. Gee, if the pesto tastes that good, people may cultivate the weed. I've used early dandelion greens in salads.
Cady
17 years ago
It is rampant, but I yanked up most of it. The good thing is that my chickens and bunny love it, and have eaten every morsel of garlic mustard I've given them. If it comes back, I'll turn the flock out to eradicate it. Of course, they'll also eat my perennials... lol

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