& Albany County Post - The Altamont Enterprise

The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, September 27, 2012
Fall Home, Garden and Car Care 7B
… Foreign plants and insects are making their mark in Albany County
“It’s problematic from the
standpoint that it’s displacing
other native species,” Pezzolla
said. “It’s
creeping out of
the edge of the
forests, where
it’s really taken
a foothold, and
the seeds are
spreading from
there.”
T h e g a r l i c
mustard plant,
she said, was
one of many
plants brought
to the United
States by European
colonists.
“They brought seeds for things
they grew in their homeland, not
knowing what they’d find in the
new country they were going to,”
said Pezzolla. “This plant, too,
was brought here kind of innocently,
but it escaped cultivation,
and it’s kind of been running wild
ever since.”
She said that garlic mustard
has been found in and around
Delmar. It blooms in late spring,
and is also a biennial plant.
In its first year, “It doesn’t
grow very tall,” Pezzolla said.
“We’re telling people to try to
mow it as much as they can.”
If the plant makes it to its
second year, it grows taller and
flowers.
“It’s important to not let it
finish that flowering phase,”
she said. “Cut it down before
it’s ready to seed. We’re trying
to discourage using herbicides.
Frequent mowing almost starves
the plant to death, because you’re
limiting its ability to do photosynthesis.
In this case, we’re
limiting its ability to set flower
and set seed.”
Another invader, which has
just finished
b l o o m i n g
along roadsides,
is Japanese
knotweed.
“It’s spacehungry,
and
“It’s space-hungry,
its root system
and its root system
is incredibly
is incredibly aggressive.” aggressive,”
Pezzolla said
of the weed.
“It’ll just keep
going till it
gobbles up all
the space. It’s
harder to eradicate because it’s
almost woody at its base. It’s very
tough, so the longer you allow it
to stay, the tougher it gets.”
Again, Pezzolla recommends
mowing, but gardeners may also
then try covering the stumps
with cardboard or heavy black
plastic to limit sunlight and
water absorption.
Japanese knotweed was originally
brought to the United
States in the late 1800s to be
used as an ornament, and its
deep and dense roots were used
for erosion protection along
stream banks.
“A lot of these plants, it was
just such innocence that brought
them here, and people thought
they were doing a good thing,”
Pezzolla concluded. “But the fact
is, we don’t know what’s going
to happen with our climate, and
the way seeds spread around.
Before you know it, something
that was a good idea has gone
very sour.”
The Enterprise — Zach Simeone
Unharmed hemlocks: Shortly after the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid was spotted in Glenmont,
Knox Planning Board member Daniel Driscoll points to the branch of a healthy hemlock tree at the
Hudson and Nancy Winn Preserve in Knox. Driscoll explained that the destructive adelgid, which feeds
on hemlock trees, creates small white ova sacs that “look like tiny Q-Tips” when it nests.
— From Purdue University Department of Botany and Plant Pathology
Deep roots: From an original one foot of root, these Canada
thistles spread underground in two years, reaching 10 feet below
the surface. The thistles cause problems for farmers since the roots
run deeper than the soil overturned by plows.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
An Addams Family garden In just three years, Canada thistles overtook this once lush Guilderland
garden. Although the gardeners spent hours pulling the thistles up by their roots, they proliferated,
strangling out the other flowers. Finally cutting them off knee-high, the gardeners applied poison to
each individual stalk. A few of the spiky leaves remain in front.
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