Unintentional garden of pokeweed

I'm just abt at the end of my first summer in my new home. This is a c.1955 ranch that had viburnums up to the roofline & yews almost as tall everywhere else. There are also some dandy old spruce & pine trees that are HUGE. Earlier this summer I attempted to clear out a spot underneath a couple of spruces. I remembered seeing some poke last year. In any case, we pulled up just abt everything underneath the trees, cultivated the surface with a mini-tiller, & mulched. I put in some columbine & a couple pulmonaria. What I have now is a huge batch of pokeweed. I really don't want the poke --- I'm fearful it will just take over the whole yard. Should I pull it all up by the roots? Did my miniature attempt at cultivating the soil just aggravate things? Any suggestions gratefully received!

I have hand pulled many of them. They come up easily when the ground is moist. I didn't even know what they were for the longest time, and then someone told me it's the plant in the Elvis song (I'm too young to listen to Elvis).

If you're too young for Elvis, then you probably won't know the tune from Bye, Bye, Birdie's song "I've got a lot of livin' to do." It sounds like I should be singing "I've got a lot of pullin' to do." Ouch!
Despite my advanced age, I don't think I'd ever seen poke or heard much abt it until 2 or 3 houses ago when one appeared in an old rose garden & grew majestically all season until it was abt 8 feet tall. At that point several people identified it & then came a slew of recipes, poison warnings, etc. Apparently, at some point in its development, SOME parts of the plants are edible & cookable. Since I couldn't get any agreement on when that was, & which parts were definitely poisonous, I never tried to cook it.
Do you think I inadvertently created more by tilling?
BTW, I recently added an off the wall comment on your post on the spreader-sticker stuff, but it doesn't show up as a YES! in the far left column.

This message was edited Aug 12, 2006 1:55 AM

I think you can cook the emerging leaves that are not mature. You're supposed to cook and rinse them several times. Too much trouble for me but I suppose back in old days when lots of people were poor, they did what they had to do. I have only ever seen one that was about 8-9ft tall, like a tree. Did the ones that you tilled have the berries on them? If they did, then the ones you are seeing may be from the seeds. I usually pull mine before they set seed. I have used Roundup on them too. I takes about a week to kill them. I buy the "Eliminator" brand weed killer concentrate at Wal-Mart. It has the same ingredient but is half the price.

Any time you create a disturbance you set the stage for these types of plants to come on in and put down roots. I'd just hand pull them.

goshsmom:

Just a gentle note on terminology.....invasive has a supremely negative connotation, related to a plant's behavior to change the environment it grows in (chemically, hydrologically, allelopathically, etc.) so that it thrives and other plants are suppressed. This is different from a plant that simply reproduces well in a disturbed area that we as gardeners don't like. Weed is a better term there (a plant out of place) and is very much what you have.

It looks like you prepared a really good germination plot for existing seeds that were already laying on/in your soil, where former poke plants existed. Additionally, birds eating poke fruit from elsewhere will perch and make "deposits" that are all ready to sprout as well.

All the advice above covers removal/elimination of poke. It is a rather large plant for most residential yards, but it does provide some rather striking foliage, flower, and stem color. You can keep it from reproducing by simply cutting it off at ground level after each flowering cycle.

I'm going to add a link to an ID thread that had some interesting poke discussion: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/636064/

Good luck with your crop.

Phytolacca americana may be a native but it can also be aggressive in the right spot. I agree, there is no research out there indicating it is invasive in the least and doubtful any will be forthcoming but it does get a tad bit ovewhelming in some garden settings. I believe the seed bank on this plant is short lived.

I just followed the link to that other thread! What a fun thread. The purple stems are very attractive and Cedar Waxwings as well as many other birds love the berries. The berries of this plant were a favorite of the Passenger Pigeon which is now extinct. One comment, berries are toxic to humans.

Ah, I wondered why I had so many birds visiting, despite the 3 cats! Many thanks to all for latin name, hyperlinks to info & many pictures, & also for gentle instruction re: terminology. If there had been a forum called "Weeds" I probably would have posted this query on that board. "Invasive Plants" seemed the closest match, but I do see the difference now.

We have a forum called Garden Foes but ya know something... how does one know what is invasive and what isn't unless one asks? Lots of plants that are invasive end up over there and lots of plants that are aggressive end up here. No biggie and V V is a good teacher as are others. The P. americana was aggressive in your yard and many people use the word invasive interchangeably with aggressive. Lots of people still assume plants that "naturalize" are native when just the opposite is true.

Phytolacca americana is a bird magnet and if there are three stray cats out and about in your area, you might want to seriously consider removing it because its just attracting birds into harms way.

I found one about 6ft tall growing out of one of my brush piles today. I decided to leave it because the berries were almost ripe. It will be dead once I set that brush pile on fire this winter (if the burn ban is ever lifted). That's a topic for a new thread.

Thanks, Equilibrium for the reassurance as to the appropriate forum (forums? fora?) re: this plant. I spent the past weekend pulling poke. It was pretty reluctant to leave! The cats are not strays, but mine, & they all have bells on, but still manage to bring me a bird now and then. The fact that they take care of mice & moles makes them endearing despite their appetite for feathers. I wish they'd get down to business and scare the deer away!
And Escambiaguy, we TOLD you it got big!

Hmm. Don't reckon I ever heard Elvis do 'Poke Salad Annie' - I just remember it by Tony Joe White, who wrote it.

Hey, Lucky, I bet that salad didn't have any pokeseeds in it or he wouldn't have been singing too sweet a song!

I leave the poke weed at the back of the yard for the birds and pull the ones in the main yard just in case the kids get interested in the berries. I think that poke weed is quite attractive really, especially in the fall. It probably would look great in a flower arrangement.