understanding knapweed

Wow, lots of stuff here! I have heard it is good to use in herbal skin care formulas, as well as in medicinal herbal formulas to combat cancer. However, I do not know if we can use all of the excess knapweed for these purposes. At least we don't have kudzu like they do in the southern USA! Perhaps we can make fuel or paper or something with it?

According to this video: http://video.pbs.org/video/2338524490 around 33min in, they say that Lupin emits chemicals that combat knapweed, so one could plant their perimeter with lupin and wage veggie-battle! It also explained that lupins protective benefits also extended to the other plants around it, so it could do well in polycultures as well. Ive got some to deal with near my food forest, so Ill try it out and let yall know!

Knapweed honey is great.

In forest restoration, shade-creation (tree planting) is the best strategy against Centaurea (as other approaches are too cost prohibitive and don't have the long-term effect of deep shade).

And, in an edible forest garden, it won't last long... maybe a couple of years... before it loses its advantage and disappears for all the reasons above.

paul wheaton wrote:I think it would be great if a year from now if we had one thread for each plant.  Including plant that some people call "weeds".  So, today is a great day to start a thread about star thistle.

Did this weed thread project ever happen? I did a quick search looking for a thread on leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.) and didn't find much. In an attempt to tap the collective wisdom of Permies and avoid the 2,4-D/Picloram solution, I would be willing to start that thread on my very deep-rooted and wide ranging "friend."

Sincerely,
Spurge infested in South Central MONTANA!

This summer I have observed a large number of salsify growing amongst knapweed.

Abe Coley wrote:This summer I have observed a large number of salsify growing amongst knapweed.

Cool. We've been planting more and more lupine around our place, so I was pleased to see this thread revived and to read how some think the lupine discourages the knapweed.

Also, FWIW, we have a separate thread for insect controls:  knapweed root weevil.

I raise hair sheep, mainly American blackbelly.  We have quite a lot of knapweed and the sheep love it in fact better than blue grass, brome, timothy and orchard grass.  It has protein level better than alfalfa of 12-19 percent and is also a nitrogen fixer.  It is only a two year plant so if you overgraze it the sheep will have to start eating grass :  )  They much prefer weeds around here.