Golden Rod causing trouble

hello, after some years of intense observation I must agree that (in our
European regions) Solidago Canadensis really is a pest, it not only
expels native species but also spoils soil, so other flowers will not
grow in eventual gaps
so could anyone from Northern America describe with a few words the
concurrency of this plant with others, i. e. succession, cultivation
methods, distribution and so on
many thanks in advance
kauhl (Lake Constance)

kauhl-meersburg <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in
news:d4tvsb$6af$00$[Only registered users see links. ]:


I live in New Mexico, where Solidago canadensis occurs, but isn't
common or invasive. It grows along ditchbanks and some waterways. It
is a Tallgrass Prarie plant, and generally grows with grasses and
other plants that generally get over 1 meter tall. I would not be
surprised if it was susceptible to a species of root mealybug that
periodically decimates stands of the somewhat related Gutierrezia
sarothrae.

Sean

thank you Sean, you see, in our temperate european climate golden rod
has found its optimal habitat, not only distributed by wind (like in
your prairies) but also by root spreading -
in the moment my strategy is eradicating it together with its roots
kauhl

In article <d4tvsb$6af$00$[Only registered users see links. ]>,
kauhl-meersburg <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote:

Here in southern Ontario there are a number of native species of
Solidago, and except for a few unusual ones, I can't distinguish them.

Goldenrod is something of a pest here, too. It's usually seen in waste
places like roadsides, railroad rights of way and other places suited
to tough weeds. It's very common in disturbed ground of all kinds, and
tends to take over abandoned agricultural land and poor pastures. It
does well on thin and infertile soils and since farm animals won't
usually eat it, it has an advantage in rough and overgrazed pastures.

I'm not surprised that it's a pest in Europe, since it competes well
here with other weeds, almost all of which are introduced Eurasian
species.

That said, goldenrod and native asters (Aster spp) provide a beautiful
display of color in the fall. They are often seen growing together in
disturbed sites with Eurasian grasses and tall Eurasian forbs.

It's not a problem in well-managed farmland and pasture, since healthy
grasses compete well with it. I've had some success in reducing its
prevalence by mowing it in full bloom before it sets seed. This was on
infertile sandy soil over shallow bedrock in eastern Ontario. The
growing season is short there, and mowing at that stage seemed to
prevent most of the plants from storing enough food to overwinter.
This won't eradicate it, but it reduced its prevalence by perhaps 90%
in the first year or two. If the growing season were longer, this
method would be less effective. Note that fall mowing has a similar
destructive effect on other late-blooming plants.

The area I'm describing is about 43-46 degrees north latitude, with
short warm summers and cold winters, 3-5 months frost free period, and
100-120cm of precipitation more or less evenly distributed around the
year, a bit drier in summer and winter than spring and fall. Most of
the area has good winter snow cover. Normal winter minimum
temperatures -20 to -40C, and annual maxima usually under 35-38C. A
lot depends on proximity to Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, which
moderate temperature extremes and extend the frost free season. Most
of this area is at about 100-400m elevation.

I hope this helps!

hello b a e,
that's just the reason I have posted the question that mowing before
blooming didn't help, young shoots appeared manifold like cutting osier,
so my method for this year will be rip out the individuals together with
their roots, not great work as the plants can easily be seen and time is
enough till blooming stadium -
you are right the golden rod takes profit of abandoned land and in my
case where I only undertake mowing those mostly damp areas only once a
year that's an optimal rythm for it -
taking care of those abandoned land is part of measures for preservation
of wild nature / rare species and assistance of middle and late
blooming flowers induces this socalled one-shearing -
until now I considered blackberry as winner of plant concurrency, but
referring to golden rod the game is still open -
what was totally new for me that this plant also deteriorates the soil
as consequence of root exudates, resulting like dense wood soil, fatal
for all other flowers -
so thank you very much for your sympathy and colleagual greetings from a
fan of flowers and insects
kauhl

In article <d569a8$oh9$01$[Only registered users see links. ]>,
kauhl-meersburg <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote:

Yes, mowing before blooming is counterproductive. You get shorter
plants with more inflorescences at bloom time! That's why I like to
cut them when they are well into bloom -- most of the the plant's
resources are concentrated in the tops, and in a short season climate
they don't have enough time to regenerate enough to store enough to
survive the winter.

Digging the plants will help a lot, but if it gets to be too much work,
or too destructive to adjacent plants, you can try cutting the stalks
at ground level with pruning shears, and perhaps applying a little
herbicide. I don't know which herbicide would work best. Goldenrod
develops a very strong root system, and the plants aren't easy to get
out.


Most of the ground cover in open areas around here is introduced
Eurasian flora, both escaped pasture species and weeds. So I should
be preserving the goldenrod and fighting almost everything else!


The most persistent weeds I have in my urban garden are Campanula
rapunculoides (I call it the Bellflower From Hell), garlic mustard
(Alliaria officinalis), burdock (Arctium lappa), beggar's ticks
(Bidens vulgata) and twitch grass (Agropyron repens). In the lawn
I combat dandelions (Taraxacum officinalis) and plantain (Plantago spp),
and have lost the battle with creeping charlie (Glechoma hederacea).
All of these are non-natives here.

One of the worst, most invasive and uncontrollable plants here is
bishop's goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) which seems to be able to
compete with anything, lawn or forest floor, and is almost ineradicable.
And Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) is practically obliterating
our wetlands, replacing native vegetation with solid masses of plants
which support none of the native animals or their prey.


It does develop a solid mass of tough woody roots. I haven't noticed it
preventing other plants from growing near it except by normal competition.
I hadn't heard about allelopathic root exudates in this plant. Do you
have more information about that?


Good luck to you. Let us know how it goes.

Btw, goldenrod here doesn't appear to be afflicted by any particular
pest or disease, as far as I know (and I don't know much). I see the
occasional spittle bug and sometimes some aphids, but generally the
plants are very healthy. I think its ecological role here is as a
successional species for newly open areas. The climax ecosystem of
southern Ontario is mixed forest, a series of transition zones between
the Carolinian Forest and the Boreal Forest. There's a little
Carolinian Forest in the extreme southwest and along the northwest
shore of Lake Erie, but north of Lake Nipissing, it's pretty much solid
taiga. It's very interesting to see which species "drop out" of the
flora where, and how the plant habit and habitat change as species
approach the limits of their ranges. I suppose there at Lake Constance
you can just climb a mountain and see an entire sequence like this
in a very small distance!

If you'd like to send me email, just delete "no-uce." from the address
above.

<[Only registered users see links. ]-uce.edu> schreef

***
Good thing you are not living here, as here it is protected by law, and you
should get fined for even picking a flower!
PvR

In article <4277bf85$0$55168$[Only registered users see links. ]>,
P van Rijckevorsel <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote:

Gosh, that's amazing! It's a constant battle for me here: Woman vs
Bellflower. Mowing doesn't keep it out of the lawn. Mulching doesn't
keep it out of the flower beds. I can't even get it out of the
vegetable garden because it produces all these fine underground runners
as fragile as bean sprouts, and every tiny bit makes a new plant. And
any that set seed, set gazillions per plant.

I understand the roots of the related C.rapunculus are edible, and it
was once domesticated as the vegetable "rapunzel", now known mostly
from the fairy tale. Maybe I should start eating them, but since we
are such enemies it might try to poison me! ;-)

hello bae (I take this for your name),
give me some time to answer seriously your well-grounded details, it's
just too unexpected reading golden rod has to be protected against
eurasian invaders, I must at first realize it and then I'll come back -
for the moment it's an interesting challenge to just find out the
statistical number of digged out stalks over regrowing ones to reduce
them gradually - cutting in any form and at any time does not prevent
regeneration in our modest climate -
concerning allelopathy I agree this phenomenon is rarely treated but I
promise you to dig out my files regarding this topic (for a quick
commentary it's to hard for me to translate it comprehensibly) -
just one try: "over the years golden rod establishes widespread clones
of vegetatively produced sprouts (rametes), which over a long time are
in relation one to another to exchange water and nutritive material"
(you got it?) -
and again a source in literature: Werner/Bradbury/Gross, the biology of
canadian weeds 45.solidago canadensis L. - Can. J. Plant Sci. 60, 1393 -
1409 - could you get a copy?
so much for today, meanwhile greetings from a beekeeper (among other)
kauhl

<[Only registered users see links. ]-uce.edu> schreef >

***
Actually it is not extremely rare here, but some of the /Campanula/'s are,
and the government decided it was easier to protect all of them rather than
only some. Neither the general public nor the police are all that likely to
be able to tell them apart.
PvR

I am just now reading a little about /Amherstia nobilis/, a species that is
presumed to be extinct in the wild, but extremely widely planted. Something
of a paradox there, and not an isolated case.