Mulch to Remove O. pes-caprae

Kristin Jakob kristinjakob@att.net
Sun, 12 Jan 2014 20:14:52 PST
The deep-seated bulbs can be very persistent in the absence of herbicides; I was dismayed to have a colony emerge in my garden when I weeded an area of greater periwinkle (Vinca major) that had hidden them from the sun for decades! They had probably grown weakly through the periwinkle but not flowered (it was a fairly shady area), so I had not noticed their presence, but they burst for with vigor once exposed to more sun and air. 
They do not set seed in the form naturalized here, but spread by rice-grain bulblets in two ways - by midwinter, many develop along the underground annual stem, especially near the soil surface, and the parent bulb also sends out a fleshy horizontal shoot about 5" long, tipped with a single bulblet. These tiny bulblets dislodge readily during manual weeding efforts, and are too small too easily sieve or hand-pick from the soil. Burrowing rodents (and gardeners moving plants from A to B) are the principal vectors by which the bulbs can quickly spread to virgin soil. A nightmare weed, and freezes only singe the top growth. If you set a potted plant directly over infested soil, the plant can even invade the potting medium via the annual shoots growing up through the drainage hole(s), leaving the bulblets behind when the shoot dies down in late spring! 

Kristin Jakob
Mill Valley, California (just north of San Francisco)
On Jan 12, 2014, at 5:52 PM, xerics wrote:

> 
> I have been successful using 6 mil black poly.
> 
> Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Steven <hartsentwine.australia@gmail.com> 
> http://date.com:1/12/2014/  4:09 PM  (GMT-08:00) 
> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> 
> Subject: Re: [pbs] Mulch to Remove O. pes-caprae 
> 
> Hi John, I often use mulch to kill pest weeds, however I have this oxalis in my garden by mistake & it thrives where I have mulch up to 6" thick.. The only way you could eradicate it with mulch is if you continually lift the mulch so the oxalis never received any sunlight what so ever... This is a very difficult task because it will shoot & ramble quickly through the mulch.. If it sees sun you will loose your battle so be vigilant !!!
> You may be better to use a combination of spray & then mulch, but I have found it very difficult to control & I started with only 1 plant.. 
> 
> Steven :  )
> 
> On 13/01/2014, at 8:42 AM, John Wickham <jwickham@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
>> I was wondering if anyone has any experience using mulch to remove Oxalis pes-caprae. 
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