I think the bittersweet won

[posiepurrs]

I have a large, horseshoe shaped bed with the backdrop being junipers. The birds gifted me with bittersweet right in the middle of the junipers. It has taken over. I have tried cutting it down and depriving it of sun, even tried the (shudder) dreaded Roundup. I checked the stems - it is STILL green. I hate to tear the junipers out but I think that is the only way I am going to get rid of this scourge. I wish I could avoid doing this since the junipers are big (5-6 foot high and 20 feet across). They have been in the ground close to 18 years. It will take me probably 2-3 years to do it since the budget doesn't allow me to hire someone with machinery to dig them out. Maybe my neighbor with the back hoe will take pity on me! I think I will replace them with a mixed shrub garden, with a few evergreens mixed in for winter interest and for the wild life. Right now the bed is filled with birds, rabbits and even a ground hog.

 

[Chuck]

I have a large, horseshoe shaped bed with the backdrop being junipers. The birds gifted me with bittersweet right in the middle of the junipers. It has taken over. I have tried cutting it down and depriving it of sun, even tried the (shudder) dreaded Roundup. I checked the stems - it is STILL green. I hate to tear the junipers out but I think that is the only way I am going to get rid of this scourge. I wish I could avoid doing this since the junipers are big (5-6 foot high and 20 feet across). They have been in the ground close to 18 years. It will take me probably 2-3 years to do it since the budget doesn't allow me to hire someone with machinery to dig them out. Maybe my neighbor with the back hoe will take pity on me! I think I will replace them with a mixed shrub garden, with a few evergreens mixed in for winter interest and for the wild life. Right now the bed is filled with birds, rabbits and even a ground hog.

Roundup will eventually kill bittersweet but only with repeated applications. Use a product with the active ingredient triclopyr. There are many brand names such as brush b gone, cut vine and stump killer etc. It is applied directly to the "stump" of the cut vine so it will not hurt your junipers nor leave a lot of residue in the soil.

 

[GeneQueen]

Killing twenty year old junipers because some bittersweet is growing next to them is like abandoning your friend in the wood because their shoelace was untied. Pull out what you can,Cut stump with some glyphosate, mulch.

 

[posiepurrs]

I can not reach the worst of it. It is not just ‘some’ bitter sweet - this stuff is AGGRESSIVE and will kill a mature tree. I tried just removing what I could at first but after a month it was back, double the size. Mulching doesn’t do anything- I tried that in another area. I even had the mulch thicker than needed usually and it grew right through. That was after being sprayed with Round up. I don’t want to remove the junipers but I also don’t want to have to wade into them once a month to remove the vine I can reach.

 

[Chuck]

It's very simple. Just get a bypass lopper tool, cut the vine as close to soil level as possible and paint the stump immediately with Cut Vine and Stump Remover. The chemical will go into the roots and kill the plant quickly and not hurt anything else. Guaranteed

 

[posiepurrs]

Even with my loppers I can not reach some at the middle. Maybe if I was in my 20s or 30s I would be nimble enough, but I am not.

 

[posiepurrs]

I think I may have a solution so I don't have to remove all of the junipers. I will take every other one out. That way I don't destroy the entire bed, still have mature plants and provide some cover for the critters who live in them. If I do it that way I believe I can get the bitter sweet out - at least that is what I am hoping!