Who Knew This Is the Time of Year to Armor Up and Attack Garlic Mustard?

Garlic Mustard, an invasive plant originally from Europe and Asia, has no native predators. Neither insects nor disease inhibit its spread. It grows fast in full shade, releasing chemicals into the soil that inhibit the growth and development of our NH native wildflowers and tree seedlings. Therefore, garlic mustard can take over the understory of a forest and prevent trees from regenerating.

Garlic mustard blooms in May. The flowers are easily identified when in bloom by their 4 petaled white flowers at the end of the stalks and side shoots, leaves that smell like garlic when crushed and their white tap root with an “s” curve near the top of the root. They can grow to be almost 4 feet high. Please use this link to help in your identification of garlic mustard from their first year with rounded leaves (no tall stalks or flowers) and subsequent years when they are in flower with jagged leaves, tall stalks and blooms. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/56061-Alliaria-petiolata/browse_photos

To remove garlic mustard, it must be gently grasped near the ground and pulled up. It is important to do this while the plants are blooming and before their seeds mature and thousands of seeds are released from each clump. For years you will need to repeat the process because the seeds left in the soil are viable for up to 10 years. This year in our yard we are only having first year growth, no flowers. Over time you too will have the satisfaction of seeing large colonies shrink. It pays to be persistent!

To avoid its spread, dispose of garlic mustard in plastic bags in your garbage cans, not in your backyard compost. If you have large filled bags, you can tie up the bags and leave them in the sun for a few days. The plants will wither in the sun reducing the size of the bags for disposal. Until May 22nd, garbage bags can also be left at Tenney Field, just through the gate to the left. Last year 170 bags were collected. For more information about garlic mustard, go to the link below.

https://hanovernh.org/DocumentCenter/View/571/Least-Wanted---Garlic-Mustard-PDF