Japanese Stiltgrass

It’s been discussed in a few other posts but probably deserves it’s own discussion.

Apparently my state was the first in the U.S. where it was found/documented:

U.S. Distribution: Japanese stiltgrass was first documented in Tennessee in 1919, introduced as a packing material for goods from Asia . It has spread across much of the eastern U.S. as far north as New Hampshire and as far south as Texas.

It can grow in full sun or heavy shade. It can therefore grow in dense forest and crowd out much of the understory. I’ve seen many places in parks or national forest where the forest floor is covered in it and the common native plants are in short supply.

It’s actually fairly easy to kill… It has a very shallow root system so pulls up easily.

Glyphosate will obliterate it. But it grows in my wife’s flower beds so that’s out…

Selective herbicides like Ornamec or Fusilade II work fairly well. i hope they won’t bother those flowers because I doused her flower beds with Fusilade this year!

I didn’t start trying to control it early enough and now it’s everywhere… I killed a ton of it this year with a string trimmer and I’ve now sprayed a bunch too. Am hoping to get the upper hand… Suppose we’ll see.

So are you “fighting” it too? Have any words of wisdom or advice?

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It made it to my yard last year. The only good thing is its like a Vampire and can’t stand the sun. I have seen acres of woods near me with a carpet of Stiltgrass overtaking it. Dry or moist areas, makes no difference as its grows and grows…

Went to a meeting on invasive plants and spraying with roundup was what the forestry department was doing. Its an annual so at least that makes it easy to kill.

I have it mixed with poison ivy seedlings so no string trimmer for me slinging ivy juice around. I went 60 years without getting poison ivy. Now just a touch gets bad.

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