Hi Brownie
First of all, I am huge fan of your “In the Garden with Brownie” segment. Thanks so much for your tips and insights, I look forward to them every week!
Secondly, I’m hoping you might be able to provide some advice about a vine I am trying to tackle in our garden. I have no idea what type of vine it is, but it is so prolific (and seemingly unstoppable) that I am sure others in the neighbourhood would be struggling with it too.
I’ve attached some photos of the offending vine for your reference. It seems to grow out of a ginger-like root structure. No matter how frequently I remove it, it pops up again within a week. It grows incredibly quickly and in seemingly any soil type. It’s even taken over my passionfruit vines!
Do you have any insights about (a) what it is and (b) how I can stop it from taking over my garden?
Thanks.
Lucia, Glass House Mountains
Hi Lucia,
Thanks for the email. You’ve got probably one of the bad ones there. If you haven’t already found it by googling, it’s called Madeira Vine … a serious environmental weed.
You’ve got a bit of work ahead of you.
My suggestion would be to remove all the vines and leaves – and any of the aerial tubers they may have grown – and put it all in the general waste bin (not your green waste bin if you can help it – that’ll just potentially spread it to others).
Then the tubers you’ve found in the ground will need to be carefully excavated and dug out – again, they go in the waste bin.
Any piece of the tuber will regrow into a new plant (as you’ve found), so it’ll take a regular check and digging up of any new shoots you see.
Heavy mulching won’t do anything to stop them – their natural environment is creek banks, so they are used to being covered over by silt and thick flood debris and regrowing through it all.
There are some herbicide approaches, but to be honest, in your situation they are pretty difficult to get right and won’t achieve any better results than you can do with persistence.
Also – passionfruit can be susceptible to root absorption of herbicides like glyphosate.
I spent a lot of time over the years, in my previous careers with weeds and natural areas, controlling Madeira Vine, so I know what a battle you’re in for.
One good point is that it very rarely produces viable seed (it grows lambs tail-like flowers – which is why another name for it is Lambs Tail Vine), so it won’t reintroduce that way.
The only way you’ll get it back is if a tuber is brought in – like in mulch or soil or even dropped by a bird.
Not that birds eat the vine, but some will use it for nesting – like crows – and they drop tubers as they fly over.
The vine is pretty much devoid of any usefulness.
Although some people do advocate that it can be eaten, the leaves have a pretty good laxative effect and can produce violent convulsions – the tubers too.
And the dried vine is not strong enough to weave into durable baskets.
There is a biocontrol beetle that will feed on the leaves – but it really just weakens the plant in larger infestations, so that it gives weedos more time to treat it.
Thanks again for emailing. Sorry I haven’t got a good news, easy solution for you.