Compost
Composting with invasive plants can be a tricky endevour. Portions of invasive plants will happily regrow in your compost bin. However it is possible to compost these plants and return their nutrients to the soil.
Bokashi composting is an avaible option. It's an anerobic (without oxygen) fermentation process. The anerobic nature of the process doesn't allow for any regrowth of the plants added to it.
This process has been detailed for japanese knotweed in this article and accompanying talk and can probably be used for other plants.
As I work with these plants I can better understand how they grow. Below is a table of the plants I've worked with and their growth methods.
Plant | Methods of Spread |
---|---|
Japanese Knotweed | Roots can regrow from small segments. The plant also produces seeds however they are a less aggressive method of spread than the roots. |
Blackberry | Blackberry produces seeds in it's berries and it's roots will regrow from small segments. |
Ivy | Almost every part of ivy is capable of regrowing. Technically the leaves won't regrow but it's easy to miss bits of vine on ends of them. Ivy also spreads by seeds in berries, however it only matures to produce these berries when it recieves enough sunlight. |
Bindweed | Bindweed produces long rhizomes that easily regrow from the smallest segments. The above ground pieces won't reroot themselves. An easy way to distinguish them is that the rhizomes are white while the aerial parts of it are red or green. |