A decade of spraying and grubbing out lantana
Submitted By: sgraham
Location: Bega Valley, NSW
Land Type: Rural Retreat
Affected by Severe Weather?: Cyclone
What weed/s are you managing?
Lantana
What is your weed management strategy?
Spraying and grubbing
What have you learnt about managing weeds this way?
ImpactOnLand
What have been the benefits and drawbacks?
When we purchased our property in 2010 much of it was totally overgrown with thickets of lantana up to 3 metres in height and I engaged a civil contractor in 2011 to rip out the lantana infestation from the entire wooded area. Subsequent to the initial weed clearing I have had the lantana infestations sprayed twice 2014 and 2017 and hosted a Landcare Group working bee to remove the lantana that had regrown. Spraying is only partially effective as the seed bank remains and, in addition, more shoots regrow from the remaining robust root systems unaffected by foliar sprays. The lantana continues to grow back and from late 2020, when I had a helper for a week, I now spend around 4 hours every week manually grubbing out new lantana growth including the roots. My experience is that unless constant attention is paid to the problem the weed will rapidly regrow. While I do have other weeds on my property, I spend most of my efforts controlling lantana. I recognise that I need to pick my battles and it’s simply not possible to control all the weeds all the time. With the lantana being managed, I have been able to plant and cage over 300 hundred indigenous native trees and shrubs to enhance canopy cover and increase the diversity of the local flora. Caging has been essential to protect the plants from deer and local fauna while they grow to maturity.
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