What is the best way to get rid of burdock? We have a small patch of land where we constantly battle the burdock. Is it like comfrey: sort of the cut and come again type? We try to get ahead of it before it blooms and seeds, but we always miss some. There are better and more important things that require our effort and energy! Any help will be appreciated. We'd rather not poison, if possible.

-- JD (godsfarmgirl@yahoo.com), June 12, 2001

Answers

eat em,, the young tender stems are just like celery,, the root can be ground and dried for a coffee like drink

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), June 12, 2001.

When you cut them, they will come back, no matter how low you chop them off. You have to pull them up and get the whole long tap root, which is alot like a dandelions but bigger. Helps to do this after a good soaking rain, or use the tractor and a chain to pull them out, don't laugh, we've done it before! Works, though, they don't come back then!!!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), June 12, 2001.

Hi, JD~ If it's large enough to pasture, cows will eat it when the grass gets low. If it's a very small patch that you can attack by hand, I'd suggest taking a spade and doing it that way. You insert the spade next to the plant, lean back on it and you'll hear a "pop" as the root breaks off under ground, then just pull it out by hand. Of course, with the seeds the plants throw around it'll take more than one year to get rid of them, but if you don't want to use something like Round Up, it's an option. If you get the large plants the first year and don't let any seedlings get going during the summer, the next spring you could lay down a tarp to smother any new seedlings that would come out, too. Good luck!

Jennifer L.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), June 13, 2001.

We also eat them (boiled, then breaded and fried, yum!)and have found that we have to go further and further into our favorite field to get them since we seem to be killing them with our harvest. The owner of the field doesn't mind at all.

Another point to consider is to cut them down before the seeds set. Someone I knew would drag them into a pile to burn not realizing until the following year that they spread the seeds as they dragged them.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), June 13, 2001.

Burdock is one of Mother Nature's greatest gifts! Although one can approach it as a pest, as does most of the masses, perhaps it would interest you to look into how you could consider burdock as an opportunity.

Burdock root has many marvelous medicinal uses; has been used for millenia. In fact, dried and powdered burdock root can bring a very fine return in the herbal market.

Some cultures, most notably Asian, use the root as a vegetable,and indeed it is loaded with nutrients and is very tasty.

Could be your pesty 'weed' is a blessing in disguise......

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), June 13, 2001.

JD: Oh, I heard, "it's such a wonderful medicinal herb!" and "cook it!" Yes, I'm an herbalist, and yes I know that....but we had at least 3 acres of the stuff...and I'm not talking about a couple plants here and there. We asked a lot of folks, including a guy who knows a lot, and this is what we are doing and did. First, we did a controlled burn in the fall with our neighbors help. This got rid of all the rag weed and other stuff left up. The burdock didn't burn down, but it did kill the tall plants. Then, we went along and hand-pulled up what was there. It took a lot of time. We made bon-fires of these, in various places. But the seeds!

Okay, next phase...and this is the nasty one.....we mow. It will probably take one more year of mowing it (we've already done it for two) to get it under control, from the "experts" we talked to. Still, it won't keep more from growing, since it is in the woods and all over. The bigger plants that come up still where we CAN'T mow, I did out by hand. But, they need to get a bit big, and then you shear the root in two underground (so you don't have to get all the root.) With these I have made liver tonic teas and you can eat them....but three acres before was a bit much. Good luck!

-- Marcee King (thathope@mwt.net), June 16, 2001.