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New England Gardening

Oriental Bittersweet run amok

16 years ago

Hi all:

Great forum! We're spending our first summer in a Boston area house whose yard was left to become tremendously overgrown. What's the worst that you all have ever seen oriental bittersweet? Where does this rank:

Click here for pictures of Oriental Bittersweet Run Amok

That's a row of ten evergreen (hemlocks?), of which the bittersweet has already succeeded in killing three. One of the bases of the vine is at least 2.5 inches in diameter.

I may just have to take out the whole row of trees? This may not be so bad, as the wife wants to put up a privacy fence there anyway. Thoughts?

thanks!

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Comments (5)

sweetpea5372
16 years ago
We have a horrible bittersweet problem where I live. We must have spent a week clearing out a 20' by 15' setion in the back yard only to find the stuff is starting to grow back from the roots that we didn't get out of the ground. We found that it was almost impossible to get it all. I'd love some answers to this as well. For now we are just trying to keep up with cutting them back before they climb the trees again. Good luck. Lisa
jant
16 years ago
Guys....get thee to Walmart or a big box store and buy some Green Light Stump and Vine killer. It's a liquid in a squeeze bottle that you apply to the cut vine.....it's the ONLY WAY I was able to eradicate over 20 huge vines all over our yard....they had damaged/killed several trees. You use so little that even one bottle goes a lonnng way. There is absolutely NO grow back. It's also 100% effective with poison ivy which we were up to our necks in.
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PM2, I think you've done the right thing by cutting the bittersweet at the base of your shrubbery (or trees) and letting it die. For small trees or shrubs, I have pulled and untwisted the vines from the branches, but with large trees I just let the vines decay enough so they can be pulled down (that takes a few years). I use the herbicide to increase the odds that it will kill the root system as well, so there won't be any resprouting. This is a VERY small and targeted application of the herbicide. However, if you are against pesticides, continually cutting the shoots will work as well. I've been an organic gardener for years, and only use occasional organic pest control in the gardens (such as BT or copper sulfate fungicide). But with these invasive plants, it became apparent that control is very difficult without the assistance of herbicides. Last year, since I wasn't getting ahead of the infestations in back, I broke down and tried a Brush-b-gone solution at the recommended dosage on the bushy bittersweet, or thicket areas, and it worked extremely well. It takes weeks, but the plants and roots died back and they became very easy to pull. I also use the Brush-b-gone on Buckthorn, although it has more tenancious root system. Herbicide should be sprayed on a calm, dry, and warm day - thus it dries quickly, and there is little overspray, which minimizes contact with other plants or wildlife. If it were me PM2, and your neighbors are amenable, I would be over there getting rid of that bittersweet myself (but I'm a bit obsessive about it)! Pixie-lou, I will have to try your shovel method too.
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As far as I'm concerned, bittersweet is Public Enemy #1 here in NJ. I spent last summer trying t eradicate some massive plants. I cut the stems and treated the cut stump immediately with brush killer or Roundup--whatever one I had on hand. I did the same with wild grapes and multiflora roses. Not 100% there but much better now. I didn't see any damage to other plants using this method. I didn't have any desirable plants in the vicinity, though--just trees. We had to remove a few of those, they were so misshapen. Still, I probably saved some trees from coming down in hurricane Sandy. They would have been weighted with vines and might not have withstood the winds. FWIW, I wouldn't bother de-vining the trees. It's not only a great deal of work, you can do more damage. They'll break off or rot and come down soon, anyway. Good luck! I'm off to pull garlic mustard! Liz
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nandina
16 years ago
Listen to jant as this is the most effective way to deal with your problem. Cut each vine at the base about 3" from the ground and put a bit of the killer on each stump as you cut. It will be much easier to remove the vine upper growth if you will wait for them to wilt and the leaves drop off. BTW...those vines make great wreaths.
boxcar_grower
16 years ago
If you are going to use chemical control, just make sure you dont us Glyphosate (round-up). Oriental Bittersweet is resistant to it.

The best way is physically remove what you can and cutt he vines to kill what is in the tree. Apply chemical control to what wants to re-grow.
hostasz6a
16 years ago
I'm glad to read this post also. We have quite a bit of poison ivy this year and it is scaling the trees. Read the attached article from The Wall Street Journal. I'm sure global warming affects bittersweet as well. We had bittersweet running all over the electric lines that the utility company came and cut down.

Here is a link that might be useful: global warming and vines

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