himalayan balsam

was wondering if we would be allowed to organise an uproot the balsam day, between richmond and teddington
this species spreads its seeds via the river, flowers before most native species and for longer, and, am led to believe that its flower is more attractive to pollinating bees than native species, once established it forms a canopy native plants cant compete with,
what do you reckon fellas, on a moist day it can easily be pulled up roots and all

I am not sure of the regs down there but i know up here we are allowed to uproot balsam. We have had local community groups, field clubs and volunteers helping out.
Knotweed, now thats a different kettle of fish!!!!

nice one chris, am well aware of knotweed and the usual method of eradication, which definitely aint uproot it

this weed is now waist high, the ground is moist, is it the right time to pull it up, and are thames 21 still hitting the kew to teddington stretch with their volunteers, if so when can we join'em
basically if you can recognise this weed, the himalyan balsam, and you see it on the riverbank, try to pull it up roots an'all, but make sure you get the right plant and dont do more damage to the other species in the process
basically this stuff mullers our native plants, by growing quicker, flowering longer and being more attractive to bees, without the variety of native plants, there will be less variety of insects, etc etc, and here's the irony, bee keepers say bees collecting from himalyan balsam produce nicer honey
anyways if you know where its growing, post it on 'ere, we'll try to get a pic posted

.

figured if anyone has pulled this weed up, bang the details on'ere, but be warned, you gotta grip it at ground level to make sure you get the root, and its amongst nettles and brambles
so if you like getting stung by nettles, thorns from blackberry bushes and back ache, you've found nirvana

30/06 spent a couple of hours at teddington
08/07 spent a couple of hours at teddington again

figured that as the island isn't to large, I had half a chance of dealing with it myself, the stretch downstream to ham car park is to badly infested for a one man band, but if you wanna 'ave a go, post it on 'ere and I'll join you

PLEASE REMEMBER TO LEAVE THE BALSAM IN A PILE

Make sure you pull it before it flowers or seeds. As it will produce seed heads even if uprooted. Best to get it before it flowers. It has explosive seed heads which can spread over a large area.

nice one chris, I didn't realise that even when pulled up, the flowers produce seeds, as thats the case, its gotta be bagged now, 'cause its started flowering

Read an article abouyt this stuff as they have been pulling it up on the Wandle also.
Awful stuff by the sounds of it, is it all starting to flower?

it sure is buddy

spent a couple of hours before work pulling it up at teddington, even managed to get stung on the face by the nettles, on the plus side, there aint none left on the island, although some will regrow as its impossible to get the roots up when the damn plant is 6ft high and there are undoubtably some seedlings to germinate, but hey we're winning for sure

Sounds like you are mking inroads, it's an annual so main thing is to just keep plugging away. We got rid of a load up here a few weeks ago, it was in someones garden initially but had spread down a stream. we cleared the lot with the help of a few volunteers. We are slightly behing southern parts so things are slower in flowering etc etc so we caught it in time...hopefully.

Next problem.. a mink has been spotted by myself and a few others, our area is free of most invasives, no crays ( yet) just the odd patch of balsam and nothing else. The only issue we have is ( believe it or not) Minnows, they are not native here ( only native fish we have are B.Trout and Sea Trout, Salmon, Char and Eels, plus the odd stickleback). Minnows were introduced by anglers and have spread everywhere, they outcompete juvenile Salmonids which then affects the populations.

Anyway, i am putting mink rafts out next week, hopefully it will be a rogue male looking for a mate but you never know.

We found some today, it was hiding, but that was no good, have to say it does hide with the other species really well.

What was interesting was the fact that besides some of it had been pulled up (roots as well), the Balsam that was on the high tide watermark was still growing, it had been there a week from what i was told, and you could see fresh shoots on the stem with leaves.

If you find some, make sure it goes way up the bank.

figured it'd be good to let you all know that after a summer of continually pulling it up on teddington island, there aint none growing no more,
it'll be interesting to see whether our efforts have any affects on next years crop

a special thanks to the british trust for conservation volunteers, BTCV, who did a sterling job on the banks upstream of ham car park

Excellent news mate