North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran and/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

Of course we have yellow nutsedge as a weed too.  The reason it's so hard to get rid of is the tubers.  The tubers are small and scaly, would be hard to separate from dirt which is why they probably do better as pigfood, or crushed, mixed with water and then strained to get out dirt and fiber in the traditional manner.  The tubers are usually there if you dig them at the end of summer, seems like the roots and tubers tend to all be attached, a handy thing for plants to send nutrients to each other.  Apios does that, it likes to live near water, and I think the interconnected roots send water to other plants further away.  That's the impression I got from looking at a friend's patch.  When we told him that we'd ordered some Apios, he laughed and said he'd show us his patch.  He said, "It killed the honeysuckle."  Seems like there was still some honeysuckle left, and it definitely hasn't killed ours.  It has however, spread over to one of my plum trees.   In trying to eat our way out of the problem I have the dilemma of how to dispose of the scraps after preparation.  It's not as simple as composting potato peels.  Bits of root that were between two tubers often have enough life to get going.  I'm pretty sure that's how I got some going in my peonies and hazels.  The seeds scare me too.  I realize now after some 12 years that I'm not going to be able to get rid of the Apios, but the seeds are so small that I don't know where they might wind up.  An Apios vine grows up along a branch, over to another branch, makes seeds at the very end of the vine where it hangs over previously unconquered territory...   It grows up an 8 ft tall Jerusalem artichoke stalk which falls over at the end of the season, taking the Apios seeds with it.  Of course, Apios can travel nearly that far underground in a year anyway, but the seeds are more insidious.  As long as they stay in the garden I can dig them, but once they go out into the trees, I can only depend on the trees to control them.  Or maybe goats, if deer really like them that much.  Of course, Apios is small potatoes compared to the bamboo patch...    Donna