The unit I was working in today had lots of shooting star in flower. Also present were Jacob's ladder, golden Alexanders, tick trefoil, purple milkweed, carion flower, spikenard, whorled loosestrife, etc. Unfortunately, the bramble density was so high that resprouts were often growing close to good plants. Great care had to be taken to keep the herbicide off these plants. Since Garlon 3A affects all broadleafed plants, some damage may be inevitable. Shooting star is of special concern since the unit had lots of large plants, many flowering. The photo below shows a sprayed bramble resprout (the blue dye is an indicator of spraying) right next to a shooting star plant in flower.
What to do if the bramble and the shooting star plant are touching? I have two options. One would be not to spray the bramble, and try to control it later when it is more mature and the shooting star plant may have gone dormant. The other option is to spray very carefully so that only the bramble leaves are covered.
I opted for the second alternative, but found that even with great care, it was virtually impossible to keep some herbicide off the shooting star leaves.
The blue dye, which we use to control the spray pattern, tells the story (see photo at left). Even though the bramble resprout was six inches away from the shooting star, some herbicide droplets splashed onto its leaves.However, I am almost certain that these small droplets do not provide enough herbicide to damage the flowering plant.
A bit of triage is necessary here. If we are going to eradicate the brambles, we have to be willing to live with a little damage to the good plants. Fortunately, in this unit there is lots of shooting star, so there is no danger of wiping out the whole population.
Tom, you remove the foilage of any "good plant" that was hit by herbicide, thus preventing translocation. I think this would be less harmfull than even a small amount of herbicide left on the plant.
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