| By Russ Richardson 2006
Japanese stiltgrass along a woods road in the Bear Fork backcountry
Throughout the summer Japanese stiltgrass has been seen growing on road
sides, stream banks and bottoms, lawns, ATV trails and any other disturbed land
that gets even modest amounts of sunlight.
Japanese stiltgrass has pretty much shown up in every nook and cranny of the
Calhoun County woods and the highly destructive plant is rapidly displacing
many important native plants and preventing logged over land from returning
to a healthy forest cover.
Japanese stiltgrass in a Gilmer County
woodlot two months after logging was finished
Because of changes being documented in the forest after stiltgrass becomes
established, the long term impact of Japanese stiltgrass on the Calhoun woods
is likely to change everything from butterfly numbers and summertime song
bird populations to the numbers of rabbits, deer, turkey and any other animals
that are year round residents of Calhoun County.
Stiltgrass is an annual plant that goes to seed in early September and
specifically preventing seed production is the first step in long term control of
the weed.
The simplest and cheapest way to kill stiltgrass is to mow, brush hog or
weed whack it as close to the ground as possible from the first week of August
to near Labor Day. If it is cut at any time earlier than mid August it will
sprout back and produce seed as a very short but spreading plant and each
plant can easily produce over 1,000 seeds.
First stiltgrass treatment in the woods
of Crummies Creek one year after logging
Japanese stiltgrass has a seed that will accumulate in the soil and still
germinate for at least three years so any mowing or weed whacking will need to
be repeated next year but it can be eliminated after a few years of repeated
effort.
If you do choose to weed whack Japanese stiltgrass buy the stoutest string
your machine can handle and wear eye protection!
Healthy uninfested woods remain where stilt-
grass has been brush hogged and weed whacked
Herbicides that contain glyphosate, the active ingredient found in Round Up
have been proven to be extremely effective against Japanese stiltgrass. One
major disadvantage to using glyphosate based herbicides is that those types
of chemicals are non specific, meaning that they pretty much kill every plant
they touch.
At this time research is taking place to field test herbicides that will
kill Japanese stiltgrass but leave most native perennials undamaged. Property
owners are advised to carefully read labels and instructions before spraying
any herbicides.
Weed whacker cutting on the left and herbicide
treatment on right two weeks after treatment
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