Please Help ID these 2 weeds!

[RANGER.101ST]

Originally Posted by MacMaine

I moved right outside of Bangor two years ago. At that time the lawn and landscaping was pristine. Since I wasn't familiar with what plants they had planted, I didn't know what was a weed and what was a plant. Since then two species have gone out of control and are very obviously weeds.

1. Weed with a fan of narrow leaves and a very long spaghetti-like root system. If left, purple flowers will bloom. This weed is very fast growing and attacks other plants. The long network of roots that it grows makes it impossible to get rid of by simply pulling.

Please help identify this weed and help me get rid of it!!

2. I noticed one bush of this last summer and now it is growing everywhere. It has 3 teardrop-shape leaves at top and along branches and has very sharp prickers all along stem making it a pain to pull. The roots are long and don't come up easy.

I appreciate any help identifying these two weeds that taking over all the beautiful landscaping in such a short amount of time.

the first one looks like a green weed and the second looks like a raspberry or it could be a green leafy Thorny thingy

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

I've pulled a lot of both. You wouldn't believe how big my pot(ted) plants are! I'd stay to chat but there's a large helicopter landing in my yard and someone's pounding on the door. I think they want to see the greenhouses...

IT'S The D.E.A i told you not to plant them so close to the house.

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

the first one looks like a green weed and the second looks like a raspberry or it could be a green leafy Thorny thingy


IT'S The D.E.A i told you not to plant them so close to the house.

MW, repeat after me, "Officer, I don't know who left all these funny looking plants in my greenhouses. I swear that I've never seen them before this very moment."

[MacMaine]

Originally Posted by cdodge04

When I worked at Robbins Lumber we had a serious vetch problem in the Christmas tree fields. We were forever spraying the fields to kill it off every spring. That stuff will grow up in to trees, flowers and anything else around. It will completely over come the stuff around it.

If I spray, will it hurt a Japanese Maple tree? I'm thinking it will definitely hurt/kill the ground cover creeping evergreens (don't know their name) but the vetch is all over them anyway.

[BrokenTap]

I think many of you are waging a battle that you are just never going to win. I say that not to admit defeat but because you are going about weed eradication all wrong.

Pulling weeds and chopping up the roots does destroy the plants, but for whatever reason that location, soil and ph levels exist at levels that allow vetch and black berries to thrive. You can destroy what is growing...but you are going to have to do so again, and again and again...because you are not creating a situation that discourages its growth or regrowth. This is why herbicides don't work very well either, at least in the long run...they keep the situation under control for only as long as you keep applying them. That gets tiring and expensive!

A far better approach is to know your enemy. If you research what these weeds thrive on for sunlight, soil or ph you change one of the elements in order to make their ideal spot not so ideal. When you do this you also encourage other vegatation to takes its place.

One of the cheapest and easiest methods is to find what kind of PH these weeds like. If they thrive on highly acidic soil, simply apply lime to get the acidic soil shifted back to nuetral or alkaloid. If the weed in question is like Burdock for instance, and likes high nitrogen levels, then applying wood chips will discourage them since wood chips scrubs the nitrates from the soil. This also applies to many other trace minerals. If they thrive on soil laden with copper for instance, that can be nuetralized by using a product that ups the maganese levels.

You have a good start on these weeds already. You know what they are, now you have to find out what they like to live in, and what your soil is. A $34 dollar soil sample from UMO will tell you that and then you can attack the issue with knowledge. University Cooperage Extension Agents will work with you to eradaicate it, and you can ultimately save lots of work on your part, save money and not have to resort to nasty herbicides.

I am no weed expert, but I would guess you have highly acidic soil, which Maine typically has (we are the pine tree state) and berries typical like acidic soil as well. I'm thinking a few bags of $3 dollar lime would cure your problem and improve your yard to boot.