Dog strangling vine in Grey Bruce

Of course some plants do not arch over and being in long grass are hard to see until this time of year.

This is the time of year that dsv plants are most visible. The bright yellow and arching habit can be seen from quite a distance and the pods have not yet released their seeds. This plant has a large root system and next year would have been multi-stemmed. (Wet clay soil is hard to shake off.)

Here is my pick axe. It just happened to be one I had. It is big and heavy but then you don't have to swing it hard. A smaller one would be easier to carry but you would have to work harder. The next photo shows an area that has been sprayed and dug up over quite a period of time. Still we see dsv coming up. The idea is to use the pickaxe to undercut the roots and then pry the plant(s) out of the ground. The last photo shows the plants that can be pulled from the loose...ned soil. In this case the root system is oversized having survived being sprayed and due to how old the roots are (3,4,5+years). The best comparison to the pick axe method I can think of is a sod farm where special machinery cuts a 2-3 inch layer of sod from the field. When you are dealing with individual plants 1-2 years old, you only have to undercut and lift maybe a 6 inch circle. Again you have loosened the soil and most can be shaken off the roots. In this way my pail can easily handle a lot of plants - depending on size. See more

After a couple of hours looking, I found only one outlier plant today on a property next to the rail trail. (Yeah!) There are still plants in the "hotspots" in that general area (four or five) that will take years to get rid of but they can gradually be eliminated with regular maintenance. We are so lucky in Grey and Bruce that our hotspots are not 10 acres (or so) in size as I have seen in Ottawa. It is so true that early detection is key! Someone reported a small infestation in Southampton to us about a year ago. Saugeen Shores and their invasives expert Steve Mclean jumped right on it. I checked up on that site a few days ago. An excellent result has been achieved. An incipient disaster has been averted as long as everybody remains vigilant.

Here is a three-stemmer I have walked by in the past without noticing it but yesterday, now that the surrounding vegetation has started to die down (eg wild carrot), the plant has become more visible. The arched stem due to the weight of the pods, the yellow pods (not as noticeable in this photo as in the field) were also keys. I am sure there are more out there.