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How to thoroughly kill Wisteria?

32K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  Steamguy 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I need some help! I recently removed a 20-year-old Wisteria from its "infestation" on the house and arbor. But this ALIEN THING from HECK won't DIE... You can see what it looked like here.

We cut it off at the base (it was about as big around as your waist), and I've been religious with spraying Roundup on the base to kill the vine as much as possible.

However the thing is like the last scene from "Carrie," with sprouts continung to come up out of the ground. I keep hitting them with the Roundup and they turn brown and die off, but this THING from HECK won't QUIT!!!

Yesterday I found a big long vine coming up in the middle of the laceleaf hydrangea. AAAARGH! Sneaky alien thing!!!

Any suggestions how I can completely it without killing the other stuff nearby? I'm using the premixed Roundup - should I go with the nuclear option and get the Full $trength $tuff...?

Thanks for any help!!!
 
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#3 ·
full strength, the premix is good for weeds but nothing much else. if the stump is that big, drill several 3/4-1" holes 5-6" deep in the top of it and pour the UNCUT generic RU in them until full. the next day refill the holes. after that, it is toast.

there is no need to spend the bucks on the brand name concentrate, get the generic 41-43% glysophate and it is the exact same thing. i use it to maintain several tower sites and Razor Pro or any other generic brand work fine at 1/3 to 1/2 the cost.
 
#4 ·
Thanks very much! I'll try the generic glysophate, will stop at the local feed store tonight on the way home, I know they sell it.

The main stump I kept saturated for days. You could see how it grows as a vine because there are multiple cambium layers in it, I stopped counting at something like 15 layers. What I'm getting now is sprouts from the longer roots from this alien thing that weren't fully killed from the first kill.

I just want to make sure that I kill all the cold reaching fingers of this Carrie-clone as soon as they come up out of the ground.

Showing my age here... this would make a great video game: Kill the Alien Wisteria!
 
#5 ·
I had the same problem for the last few years. There is was a big old wisteria growing up the back of our house and into the attic. We tried to trim it for a while, but finally decided that it has to go. They are very stuborn plants when you want to try to get rid of it!:banghead3:
 
#6 ·
...growing up the back of our house and into the attic...
YES!!

This is exactly the same trouble I was having with this alien thing. If you didn't hack it back at least once a week, it was into everything. :duh:

In different years I would forget to get after it, and paid for it periodically: it got up under the siding on the house, got under the roof shingles, broke a window screen, and right before we ripped it out, it was trying to kill a big Norway Maple.

My wife could NEVER understand why I had grown to hate that thing. It was only "pretty" for one week a year, the rest of the time that creature from heck was sliming the concrete patio below. She didn't walk on that part very often, but I was through there every day, slipping and twisting something periodically.

Hey, I mean, in our Bible studies, we talk about "this broken universe," and every time it came up I could point to a perfect example!!

But...!! She had the dawn break on the day we had pulled it out and were burning it. Every time she'd try to move one branch, something else, like a tendril, would whip out and sting her pretty good. She came down from the burn pile, and was telling me about it and showing me her welts - I was very sympathetic in a good-husbandly way, and then I said, "Imagine it doing that to you EVERY TIME you go to prune on it!!"

"...oh..." she said as the light of understanding dawned upon her.

Glysophate is on my shopping list...!!
 
#7 ·
I've been battling wisteria for a decade.
My great-grandfather tried growing it as a bush in several places for a decade (according to my grandmother)with no luck and got mad one day, dug it up and threw it in the woods.
About an acre of it up 70 feet into the tree tops.
I had the most luck digging up the lateral roots, some which were 6 inch diameter and ten yards long, with a vertical root about every two or three feet which of course snapped off and resprouted.
The seeds seem to sprout for ever and I don't think any animal eats them.

I'm winning, but I've spent lot on brush-killer and it can take years, I swear they can go dormant fro the brush killer for a whole season.
I have poison ivy in the same areas so I usually hit everything green in that area twice a year.


I really don't know why any one in their right mind would pay good money for the things at the garden center.
 
#9 ·
A quick postscript: I spoke with a Master Gardner a few days ago, and she told me that you really can't kill it until it sprouts and leafs out. Then the glysophate will be transported all the way into the root (of that particular rhyzome) and kill it. Problem is that the alien thing will throw several rhyzomes, not all of which will go active at any one time. She said, "Patience and perserverance."

The good news: I do apparently have the majority of it killed. So far. I kept after it all this summer and seem to have most of it under control. There's one rhyzome that keeps sprouting; I'll keep an eye on that one and if it sprouts again, I'll tent it to keep the rain off and shoot it also.

For the humor corner:
My nephew sneaked off with a few pieces of the main trunk and made me a set of cocktail coasters out of them. He said that he had them in a hot spot in his garage wrapped in blue towels, and weighted heavily, for months. They shrank down to 1/6 their original size. He presented me with the "Thirsteria" coasters: "Wisteria: it's a heck of a coaster."
 
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