Exposing Overgrown Lava Flow

[MarkP]

I have used glyphosate a lot. If used with sufficient care it allows you to surgically remove unwanted plants without a lot of physical disturbance. It requires patience as it takes weeks for full effect to be seen. Repeated applications are often required. So far it has killed everything I have needed it to. I was once tempted to buy some Milestone. Glad I didn't. That stuff remains active for years. If you compost the dead vegetation the Milestone is still active in the compost, killing whatever you put the compost on. Not saying Milestone is bad, just that you need to know what you are dealing with. People endure chemotherapy if the circumstances warrant it.

I often go through phases where I actively try to kill off a bunch of guava. Weeks go buy and the results don't seem satisfying enough so I do another application. Eventually I lose interest and stop paying attention. Months later I notice that the guava that didn't seem to be dying has in fact died. It just took a long time. It was probably a combination of physical ring-barking that occurs if I am doing hack and squirt and just repeated applications. I have physically cut down clumps of guava and treated the stumps with glyphosate and had the stumps re-sprout. At that point I apply diluted glyphosate to the new foliage. I have also cut and treated stumps on my side of the fence and had guava die on my neighbors side of the fence.