Clubine vs. Callery Pear...The Battle Continues

Описание: Callery Pear, also called Bradford Pear, was introduced to the United States in the early 1900's from China. This plant was originally thought to be sterile but it has become an invasive problem. Steve Clubine discusses with Elizabeth Steele how he tackles the Callery Pear invasion on his native grassland.

Steve relays that some of the easiest times to identify the Callery Pear seedlings is in the fall when the leaves turn a pink color, or in early spring and late fall when it has green leaves when other shrubs don't have leaves.

Using a pair of tree loppers and a quart of his "secret sauce" (20% triclopyr (Remedy, Garlon 4) + 1 to 2 oz of Stalker + water to fill a quart bottle) or Tordon RTU, which is more expensive, Steve removes each plant by hand. Mowing is not a good control mechanism as it causes the plant to send up more sprouts. Steve's creative idea to solving the problem was to offer the neighbor who owns the trees $100 each to cut them down and treat them!

Steve estimates that he has killed over a thousand Callery Pear trees in his pasture, and he has observed that he has significantly more invasion of the Callery Pear in his introduced cool season grass pasture than the diverse, native pasture. Why is this? One hypothesis revolves around the birds roosting more in the cool season grass pasture and the seed passing through their digestive system and being deposited onto the field. Another hypothesis is that the Callery Pear seedlings can't compete as well in a native grassland where there is a lot of diversity of plants because there is not an open niche for them whereas in the cool season pasture the comparative lack of diversity leaves an open niche for them to germinate and become plants. Another hypothesis involves the different carbon to nitrogen ratios of the different grasslands creating a more favorable germination condition.

Steve keeps a close eye on his property for new Callery Pear saplings, and he treats them before they get large and harder to handle.

Video Time Stamp for "Secret Sauce Recipe" @ 2:04

#callerypear #regenerativeagriculture #invasiveplants