Never Give This Sucker A Break

The toxic principle in the group of poison ivy plants is the same in all of them. It is officially known as a "nonvolatile phenolic substance called urishiol," and it is found in all parts of the plant from seeds to roots. The most danger, however, is from the green leaves, although the smoke can be very poisonous to eyes and throat. I well remember my father getting a dose of ivy poisoning while burning brush when I was a boy on the farm. It is no fun, I can tell you. The best way to kill poison-ivy, and its pals, is to apply a fairly new chemical known as Ammonium sulfamate or Animate. It is not dangerous to use and does not harm the soil. It is generally considered more positive in action than the chemical weedkiller 2, 4-D.

Other chemicals that are effective are borax, carbon disulphide, creosote, fuel oil, sodium chlorate, and sodium arsenite. Most of these substances are also more or less harmful to other plants, but they may not linger in the soil more than a season. Whatever you do, do not take chances with poison ivy. Small plants growing from seeds scattered by birds may be pulled up by hand, or a rake, but wear gloves when you touch it or else you may rue it. Quack or "witch" grass is another bad plant that is difficult to eliminate on the farm, or in the garden, once it is established. In a home vegetable garden smothering is perhaps as good a way as any. I have struggled with a quack infested Victory Garden for two years, and have paid my respects to this rascal on many a hot summer day by wheel plowing and hand hoeing. The rootstalks run underground, and every section is capable of starting a new plant, and immediately. However, if you will stretch strips of tarred paper between rows these will smother out most of the pest in a season, and serve as a moisture conserving mulch at the same time.

Never give this "sucker" a break; pull it up by hand or dig it out whenever you find it rearing its green head. Remember that clean cultivation is one of the best ways to control weeds. Never let them go to seed.

Chemical weed killers will probably never entirely abolish the need for cultivation and hand weeding. But they mark a great step forward. As Dr. Avery has well said in a recent issue of Flower Grower: "The future of selective weed killers is bright. While there are now only two (the other is closely related to 2,4-D), there should be many such preparations in a few years, all of them with different qualities. Selective weed killers are of great importance to agriculture and research on them should proceed swiftly. The home gardener will be one of the beneficiaries."

By: davidbunch

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