Weeds!!

[PaulH]

Seems like this time of year I spend more time pulling weeds out of my bonsai than doing anything else.
Just for fun post your most hated bonsai weeds. Here are my top five hated weeds:
1. Oxalis, those root runners go everywhere in the pot.
2. Irish moss, spreads like a brush fire and takes the top inch of soil with it when I pull it.
3. Violets, They're pretty but they show up everywhere.
4. Purple spotted Spurge, takes over in hot weather and is camoflaged so I can't see it without my reading glasses.
5. Privet, I've got a huge privet tree in my yard and seedlings come up everywhere, on the ground, in my pots, even just sitting on the benches.

 

[lordy]

Seems like this time of year I spend more time pulling weeds out of my bonsai than doing anything else.
Just for fun post your most hated bonsai weeds. Here are my top five hated weeds:
1. Oxalis, those root runners go everywhere in the pot.
2. Irish moss, spreads like a brush fire and takes the top inch of soil with it when I pull it.
3. Violets, They're pretty but they show up everywhere.
4. Purple spotted Spurge, takes over in hot weather and is camoflaged so I can't see it without my reading glasses.
5. Privet, I've got a huge privet tree in my yard and seedlings come up everywhere, on the ground, in my pots, even just sitting on the benches.

the top 3 are def. in my top 5. There is also a type of mint that seems to go wild here (no pun intended) as well as something like maybe chickweed. UFB! You should see my wife's flower beds. I spend more in weed control than I do in pumice.

 

[Dav4]

Well, I just learned the specific name of my most hated weed Just a moment ago- Oxalis sp.- thanks Paul. Irish moss was my next most hated...but I already knew that.

 

[sikadelic]

Hell, I have a hard enough time learning all the tree species. I haven't even started with the weeds yet!

If it isnt my tree, I jerk that bastard right outta there.

 

[RKatzin]

Along with the ever present oxalis and grasses, thistles and morning glory, I have English Elm, Sweet Gum, Black Locusts (look like bean sprouts), Hawthorn, and willow coming up in my pots all the time and hundreds of Black Walnuts all over the ground. The benefit of being under shade trees.

Out on the other end in the garden where my growing out trees are is the ever annoying blackberry. The whole area was a brier patch five yrs ago and they just keep coming. Doesn't help that I'm surrounded an three sides by brier.

FYI: Just a tip if you don't already know, pull those weeds in the dark of the moon, between the full moon and the new moon and you will get the whole root and all. I test weeds outside the pots and when they pull easily I go after the ones in the pots. They will come out root and all with less disturbance to the trees. Try it and see, Rick

 

[PaulH]

Oh yeah. Blackberry and California grapes are always trying to take over my trees on the ground and I have to cut them back from my benches constantly. Every time I feed my trees with liquid fertilizer the berries and grapes grow six feet.

 

[Dav4]

Don't even talk to me about blackberry. I can't do yard work in shorts for more then half an hour without needing a transfusion.

 

[JudyB]

mulberry!
and lemon balm....
and of course all the others previously mentioned.

 

[GrimLore]

Maples EVERYWHERE Gutters, lawn, and every potted plant

Grimmy

 

[michaelj]

Cotoneaster
Oxalis
and I don't know the name of the other three most prevalent weeds in my pots.

I get a few grape and maple seedlings popping up, too, but I don't hate those. I pluck them and put them into little growing pots when they get to be a few nodes tall.

 

[Poink88]

Oxalis is #1 for sure.

I just learned about irish moss and initially (foolishly) encouraged them to grow until I needed to pull some. Now they are being removed.

There are others but I do not know their names...I do not keep them long enough to introduce themselves.

 

[sbarnhardt]

Boy, talk about an education. I've learned the names of at least two weeds/plants that grow on my yard.

The oxalis grow like crazy in 2-3-4 spots in my yard. They end up in large mounds that are full of little white flowers. I always thought they looked kind of neat and now you tell me they're weeds. LOL Oh Well!!

Then there is, I think, the lemon balm. Then again, I'm not totally sure that's what I have. The leaves look sort of similar, but they are more rounded than are the pictures of "lemon balm" that I Googled. I'll try to go get some pictures of what I have and post them. Maybe someone will recognize it. In either case, we have it "everywhere" and you can not get rid of it. Pull it up, till it up, think it's gone.......Oh No!! Few days/weeks later.........It's back!!

 

[Vin]

Maples EVERYWHERE Gutters, lawn, and every potted plant

Grimmy

Kinda reminds me of Pennywort/Dollar Weed that goes around here. However, I have yet to get any in my pots (knock on wood).

 

[PaulH]

The oxalis grow like crazy in 2-3-4 spots in my yard. They end up in large mounds that are full of little white flowers. I always thought they looked kind of neat and now you tell me they're weeds. LOL Oh Well!!

A weed is just another name for a plant growing where it's not wanted. Several types of oxalis are nice ornamentals. Some are even edible. There's a variety with large yellow flowers that is very deliciously sour when you chew it as I did as a kid. I still put it in salads sometimes.

 

[JudyB]

Then there is, I think, the lemon balm. Then again, I'm not totally sure that's what I have. The leaves look sort of similar, but they are more rounded than are the pictures of "lemon balm" that I Googled.

When you pull it up does it have a strong smell, sort of lemony, but bitter at the same time? I can't stand that smell.

 

[sbarnhardt]

When you pull it up does it have a strong smell, sort of lemony, but bitter at the same time? I can't stand that smell.

I just went out and pulled a couple of leaves of it. When it's "pulled" there is no smell, but when I crush it between my fingers there is a smell. It's pronounced, but I don't necessarily know if I'd call it "lemony." It's not offensive in the normal sense of it being really smelly, stinky, but it is pronounced, sharp, pungent.

I'm including a scan of an actual couple of leaves from it. This is not a picture, but a scan of the actual leaves. There is no way my old knees would let me get down close enough to the ground to "take a picture."

I had an elderly lady tell me once that they used it, or something very similar, to make some kind of tonic/tea from it to give fretful babies.

 

[ABCarve]

Doesn't anyone use roundup?

 

[Cadillactaste]

Doesn't anyone use roundup?

That is my husband's poison...he is like on a mission or something when he gathers up his sprayer and such with it. Lol

 

[Vin]

Confucius say "Roundup no good for bonsai"

 

[cmeg1]

Whatever these things are

I hate these things,very aggressive and seem to spread by spore.
Anyone know what they are?