I would leave it in the bags. Using it in compost runs the risk that if you dont cook the seeds long enough, they will grow wherever you put it. Send the bags out with your trash.
t

Does anyone know where this came from? I don't remember it as a weed 40-50 years back and now it is everywhere. And so is cow parsley (anthriscus sylvestris) another weed that's a johnny-come-lately. And greater celandine. Were they always here and I never noticed them? I remember weeding when I was a kid and it was mostly purslane and pigweed. Those three and jewelweed make up the unholy quartet that are a constant battle. At least the jewelweed is easy to pull - can't say that of the cow parsley!

I agree, don't use it as compost. See if you can cook it in the sun for a while then throw it away.

Oldroser, it has been around for a long time actually, having been seen first on Long Island, NY in 1868. It is a native of Europe where it is widespread from Scandanavia to the Mediterranean. It was probably brought to the states as a food. As a child in southern NY, I remember it carpeting parts of our woodlot in the '70s. We managed to control it eventually though endless pulling cycles.

Here's a website with lots of links about this species if you want to know more. PF

Here is a link that might be useful: GM Link Site

Every April/May for the last 5 years I've gone into the woods hunting for morels. (mushrooms) 5 years ago I didn't see any garlic mustard...or if I did I didn't know it because it wasn't so apparent. Now you can't miss it because it carpets the woodland floor.

I've pulled over 50 plants in my yard this spring which was a 1st. I recall seeing a few plants down the road last year. I started walking along the road where I live and found millions of juvenile plants along a bank near by. I figure that in another 5 years it won't be possible to find morels at all and the native wildflowers will soon disappear as well.

Oldroser, GM was around 40-50 yrs ago but for some reason it has spread like wildfire in more recent years. It's thought to have been brought here by the early colonists.

I thought honeysuckle was bad but I think GM is a much more pernicious weed.

We are over run with garlic mustard too. We live in a small city lot that backs onto on old woodlot and although the area is small, I pulled out thousands of garlic mustard plants over 2 seasons and continue to pull small seeded plants still and expect to do so forever because it is so prolific here. The woods are literally carpeted with it, along with another alien invasive, Oriental bittersweet. Between the two alien species, everything else is being choked out including lovely species such as or trilliums, dog-toothed violets, mayapples, bloodroot etc... They are horrible things, garlic mustard and Oriental bittersweet.

Barb

I lived in a wooded several acre plot. I've determined (and quickly) that there's way too much to bag.

I don't know what to do; it's overwhelming!

Get it before it seeds! Good luck. PF

Giboosi, I really feel for you. If you have a weed eater just keep knocking it down so it can't produce seeds. If it goes to seed you'll really have your work cut out for you. Of course it's only a matter of time before...well, I hate to be a pessimist.

My neighbor who has a couple of acres has tons of juvenile plants this year as well as a few dozen 2nd yr plants. I mentioned it to her and even went over and pulled lots of it. She has a handicapped son that keeps her plenty busy and she doesn't see the urgency in pulling 'a few' weeds. She looked at me like I had 4 eyes when I mentioned it. I don't think people realize the potential of this weed.

HA!!! One plant can produce a 1000 seeds and they can germinate for a period of at least 5 yrs. I pull it when I see it or clip the seed head but I have several large shrubs and trees including hollies that I can't get into to destroy the plants..even if I could see them.

Peggy the pessimist~

Peggy if your up to it ask permission to pull the weeds from her yard your worried about because if allowed too establish.... you know

Here in CT, I don't remember seeing it until about four years ago...last year I spent many hours pulling it out, and this year it is better.

Why now do we suddenly have this invasion? That plant is truly a nightmare...I think it is the fastest growing plant I have ever seen!!!

I think my plan of action is to pull it up, pile it up, and apply preemergent herbicides to the pile and immediately surrounding areas. This way I won't have to contaminate the woods with chemicals, but will be able to limit the spread somewhat. A happy medium?

They're already pod-laden, although the seed isn't ripe enough to explode yet.

Don't have any good ideas, just want to commiserate. What an awful weed and, I think, more prolific this year than ever before. I have pulled so many of these little beasts. But there is something which is, in my opinion,much, much worse. The dreaded japanese knotweed. How I loathe it . . .

Giboosi, the only other thing I can think of besides using chemicals to dispose of your pile of pulled up plants is to take a good day and dig yourself a fire pit and just burn them as you pull them up. It will be smokey because they are green but it will eliminate the plants and seeds without using the chemicals or the cost of the chemicals if you have to buy them. Wonder what it would smell like if burned since it smells like garlic when it's green?

Barb
s/w Ontario, Canada

Fledgeling,

I did volunteer to pull the GM. She looked at me like I had 4 eyes. I think she thinks I'm a little over the top for worrying about weeds. She's one of the nicest people I know but she cutivates weeds and doesn't mind that she has honeysuckle, English ivy, knotweed, multiflora rose, etc. I don't even weed my own weeds when she's around because she wants them!!...to plant in her yard. LOL!

Btw, I did pull some of the GM when she wasn't looking.

I am invaded. about 10 acres, maybe more. we pull and pull and pull and even if we don't bag, we pull to let the plants under the garlic mustard have a chance. ughh!

Catgrass, I feel for you. We only have a small city backyard built on an old farm woodlot so the amount I had to pull was nothing compared to your situation. I'm not even sure HOW you would control 10acres of that horrible stuff. I'm on my second year of pulling Garlic Mustard and am down to just removing tiny seeded plants but I can tell you that once we got rid of the big plants that the other native plants did fill in the big empty spots where all the garlic mustard was. It was a sad sight the first year but now in our second spring we have trilliums, hundreds of jacks, dogtoothed violets (trout lily) and ferns taking the place of all the garlic mustard that was literally choking them out a year and a half ago.

Barb
Ontario, CANADA

By the way - the weeds came with the woods :) I didn't let it go. I was pulling 100 a day, and then up to 200, and so on, then I got my husband addicted to pulling. I think he and I need to start a GM Pullers Anonymous. We think we can resolve the issue in 10 years. I pulled several hundred the other day, and underneath was a stand of at least 100 mayapples. in bloom! aahhhh, reward!

I've spent hours and hours and have only a fraction pulled. Im really scared of what will happen if these scatter their seeds!!!

Giboosi, remove as many of the seed heads as possible. They're you're most immediate threat right now. GM is a biennial so you can elimunate 1000's of plants by gathering a few seed heads before they pop.

Good luck~

I strained my back this spring (probably weed-whacking GM), and between that, the cold weather, my DH travelling so much, and caring for two small children, the GM has gone to pod on my property this year. I so planned to take care of it this year too before it went to seed.

So, tomorrow morning I'm on GM pulling duty. I'm thinking about trying to burn it because I'm afraid if I bag it and send it off in the garbage, it will just invade some other area. Then I'm going to hit the babies with BurnOut, which is an organic herbicide.

Peggy - I'm also becoming obsessed with this to the point that I have considered pulling my neighbors' GM! You're not the only one.

Shady, I hear ya. I'm obcessed with GM too...obcessed with getting rid of it. I 'do' pull it in my neighbor's yards. They are non-gardeners to the MAX and haven't a clue what any of the wild flowers and weeds are in their yards. Both neighbors on either side of me bought the same wooded lots as me but they went striaght in and put herbicides to kill EVERYTHING. Well little did they realize that it just killed the foliage and this year all the bulbs (trout lilies) and hearty weeds (GM) are back. So now I go in to talk with them and as we're talking I pull out their GM. They must think I'm nuts but I've worked so hard to get it all out of my yard that I'll be D@mned if I wanna get more from THEM. Both had intended to sod their woods which I don't care for the look of but it would at least keep the GM away but so far neither neighbor has sodded and all the GM and poison ivy is coming back. These folks are so "DUH" that even though I told them the ONLY way to rid themselves of poison ivy for good is to carefully dig it up. But they don't listen and just keep lopping it off where it comes up out of the ground leaving the roots to grow more prolifically. I've told them over and over not to do that but they seem to think that if they can't see it (lopping off the above ground growth) that that's sufficient and then look at me dumbfounded when all that stuff grows back ten-fold. They even do it with dandelions and it drives me nuts. STOP PULLING OUT THE LEAVES AND FLOWER OR THE ROOTS WILL GO TO CHINA! Nope..they still don't listen to me. :o/

Barb
Ontario, CANADA

I think you are going to have to bag the Garlic Mustard. It stinks and smokes a lot to burn it. Let me give our story - the good & the bad. We bought a wooded property (about 2 acres) & the first spring 5 years ago discovered it totally infested with GM. The first year my husband & I pulled every spare minute (including vacation), and stuffed 105 "42 gallon trash bags" before giving up for the year due to exhaustion. We didn't get it all pulled. However, every year we have pushed back the "LINE" of garlic mustard a little further. We have some areas now without any of those awful weeds. And, every year, we have less bags filled in less time (& no more vacation). We will probably have about 40 this year, which is still a lot, but, we will probably cover most of the 2 acres this year for the first time. Here is the good news, for the areas that we have cleaned of the GM every year, we are enjoying hundreds of trilliums, jack in the pulpits, mayapples, and other beautiful woodland plans. Our property now looks gorgous instead of a horrible mess. It is beause of the progress we see that keeps us motivated every year. I think the trick is to concentrate in some areas & clean the area well, look for every single plant & push the line back. In addition, my husband sprays the following years crop in the fall with Round-Up. It does not kill them all since they are very stubborn plants, but, it does seem to cut back the numbers. Here is the final & best news, this year we are seeing very few of the first year GM waiting to bloom next year. It is a project, but, if you approach it as a marathon & with determination, it can be won. You will see a return of wildlife & butterflys, and, more birds & more bird species when the woods are cleared. My heart goes out to anyone with this problem, but, honestly there are worst things than spending quiet, peaceful, early spring mornings in the woods pulling these weeds. It can almost be therapeutic if you approach it with the right attitude. You can't save all the woods, but, you can save your woods.
You might try calling your county for assistance in how to get rid of the bags of GM. Ours used to have a special pick-up for it that they charge $1.00 a bag. They quit doing that, however, after they picked up our 105 bags. Now my husband has to take them to the dump. We feel we have no other choice.

Love our woods... I wouldn't feel too badly about taking your GM to the dump. There are much much worse things that could go to the dump than that and by the time the bag is degrading, the GM seeds will no longer be able to germinate as it will be a bunch of hot, stinky, liquid slop.

knottyceltic ... we take 5 bags to the dump 3 - 4 times a week. That is all that we can fit in our SUV at a time. Each bag weighs about 40 pounds. It has never been rotting when we dump it out. It looks as fresh and perky as it did when we pulled it even if it was in the bag for a few days in the sun. We take it to the dump now as soon as we have a load since about 3 years ago we had a bad experience with raccoons (we think) tearing open the bags & scattering all the thousands of picked garlic mustard all over our yard/patio - many of the seed pods were popping & much of our hard work was in vain. Our patio was black with all the seeds. There were literally thousands and thousands.

Ewwww... you do have a "GM MANAGEMENT PROBLEM" ;o) I would be inclined to pull as much as you can and then mow the rest with one of those bush whacking devices before the seeds are mature. That will give you more time to pull the stems/roots up without another generation of GM seeding the ground. Horrible EVIL weed that GM is... You have my sympathies.

Barb

Barb, Yes we do have a problem. Everyone thinks we exaggerate until they see it. Family members have come over to help during the last 5 years, and, their eyes just about pop out of their head when they see it. We must have a very healthy growing conditions because many of them grow to 4 feet tall with hundreds of pods. Others are tiny and seem to hide.

I am not looking for sympathy, but, want everyone to realize that please DO NOT LET IT GO. It does not go away by itself. The people that lived here before us did that. One of the neighbors indicated it was a factor in them selling the house. They couldn't deal with it & the beauty of their woods was gone.

Barb, everything I have read (and we have read everything about it we can find on the intranet including varous university studies), says that once the flower is present, the seed pods will continue to develop even after it is pulled out of the ground. Therefore, you can't leave the pulled GM in the woods. Scientists have even done experiments with it & put it in a brown paper bag without water, sunlight or dirt -- the darn plants still created their seeds. If you cut it before the flower appears, many will grow another stem from the root.

LoveOurWoods,

"Everyone thinks we exaggerate until they see it."

Yes, and most people won't take it serious until it's too late. Many people just don't know about it. It's only just begun to become a serious problem in my immediate neighborhood but I'm surrounded and I'm no more than a couple of years from having major problems. I only have 3/4 of an acre fairly heavily planted. The forest is nearby and in the forest the GM lurks waiting for the right moment.

I've noticed as well that GM can vary in appearance from plant to plant or from one area to the next.

Love our woods... thanks for that info. No, I've never left any flower heads in my woods nor would I recommend it...I'd bag them as I go or rake them up and bag them immediately after cutting them down. I just suggested whacking them as a quick solution if people think they are about to drop seeds imminently.

On a good note, I am pleased to tell you guys that after pulling all our mature GM we had many seedlings last fall which we ran out of time to pull before snow hit. This spring more than half of them never returned. We spread leaf litter a foot deep over the remaining seedlings and have just pulled it away and all the seedlings are gone. So apparently you can smother them or they decay or something because we have none left except for the ones that ARE NOW GROWING IN OUR LAWN!!!!! Grrrrrrrrr! Can you believe it? We got it gone in our woods and now our lawn is full of it. I'm pulling as fast as I can but I'm afraid I'm just going to have to weed'n'feed to get the rest. I just can't keep up with it and obviously mowing is just making it want to grow even stronger and faster. Oh well...I figure this GM problem is not going away, all the lots on each of the 3 sides of me are full of it so I can't expect not to pull it. I'll be pulling it for as long as it exists here in abundance (which it does). I was just saddened to see so very much of it in my lawn now. :o/

Barb
Southern Ontario, CANADA Zone 6a

I just found this picture of my 'woodland' garden. ACCKK! Had to share it! This picture was the during first spring we owned it. This year we pulled it all. (link to picture below)

Here is a link that might be useful:

CatGrass,
I swear you snuck in and took a picture of my woods last year. This year, we went at it with a pulling and whacking vengeance. Hopefully, next year, we'll see some benefit.

Now it's time to declare war on the stilt grass before IT seeds...sigh. It's always something.

Wow! That's what MY woods looked like when we first started. It took me 2 years on hands and knees and bags and bags of pulled weeds before we got it under control. But don't fret... this year I bet I've pulled less than a dozen seedlings ALL YEAR. As soon as I pulled it all I poked holes in the ground and plopped in blue cohosh and jack in the pulpit seeds and then just scuffed my shoe over the hole to close it. Then we dug in and planted some woodland plants and shrubs to compete with any new GM that tried to come back. Some of the areas where the GM was is still bare and that's where the little seedlings are popping up but where lush foliage filled in I've found barely a single seedling. I'm SO pleased with the results.

That said, it will be an ongoing battle with the seedlings though because the fields surrounding my property (just outside the woods are filled with the stuff) and my very next door neighbor won't weed their grass which is more GM than it is sod grass. They keep asking me how to get rid of it but then they don't do anything abot it, it's quite annoying. I'm handpulling all the GM that's growing in my grass and we'll see what it's like next year. If it's just as bad or worse I will see if spray herbicide will take care of it. We used granular this year and it didn't do a darn thing.

Good luck with it,

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA zone 6a

I treally hope the emerging biocontrol method will help. even if it helps a little it would be worth it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Native areas surveyed for Natural Enemies-Natural Enemies Found