BeverlyR Seavey

 Bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus, is an invasive plant from east Asia. It kills native plants by girdling and vining on them, its weight eventually bringing the host plant crashing down. Bittersweet is toxic to both humans and pets.
  I bought a property that is infested with bittersweet. Some people run triathlons; I dig up bittersweet. I am writing with two requests. One is asking for any tips on how to get rid of it. Does anyone know a researcher who can say when a submerged root is dead, unable to sprout new branches and leaves? I have come across 10” diameter roots that are definitely dead. On the other hand,  I have seen 1 cm diameter roots sprout branches and leaves after being exposed to the sun for a few days. A collection of these parameters would help. Also has anyone noticed bittersweet growth veer away from another plant?

My second question is, “ How do I talk to the neighbors whose invasive plant are coming from their yard into mine?” Has anyone come up with a successful strtategy?

I intend to grow a lot of sunflowers for the seeds this year. I would like recommendations for strains that produce nice plump seeds and also resist pest infestation. Has anyone noticed a strain that resists pests better than others?
Any recommendation for companion planting and trap plants?

I have a couple of those. Be sure to clean them out regularly.

Yes- that is pretty much my impression but I am sort of guessing. The academic article referenced above, Nature volume 478, pages49–56 (2011), seems to suggest otherwise - that there are smaller molecules. If your public library carries JSTOR you can take a look at the article - no need to do a David Schwartz. My impression is that the smaller molecules are breakdown products of the larger complex, highly varied molecules. Remember that the humus sample is a snapshot of the degradation process - different molecules in the population are at different stages. It might be that it all breaks down to small molecules ultimately.

Well everything is temporary. Humus sticks around longer than a whirlpool where the same water molecules are temporarily rearranged. It is more that the complexity-  the randomness/diversity of molecular structure that , in a certain time frame, defies
breakdown. Various enzymes must chance upon the molecular bonds in order to attack whatever is at a free end of a complex molecule; a peptidase, then a cellulase or other polysaccharidase. The mixed molecules comprising humus do slowly break down into much smaller molecules but this is reflected in a change in the chemical covalent bonds.

My impression is that humus is composed of mix polysaccharides and glycoproteins. It is not true that all the "organic matter" is gone if what you mean is carbon (that's what "organic" means to a chemist). Lignin, for instance is made up of very mixed, very complex polysaccharides. Lignin doesn't have a single chemical formula. It is more like something generated by a regular expression, like language. A molecule could be branches and each branch consisting of a stretch of amino acids, a stretch of linked sugar, modified amino acids, alcohols. There is carbon in the amino aids and sugar, but it is very hard to break down. When I was in biochemistry I couldn't figure out how the amount of cellulose was quantitated in a sample mentioned in a scientific article. I traced back through back reference after back reference and finally established that cellulose was measured as what is left after you degrade everything else. These days there are enzymes (cellulases) that can degrade cellulose but if humus is a mixed molecule then a
cellulase won't be able to degrade much of humus.

Our soil in one part of our yard has tested positive for lead, being somewhat close to a road. This is where we have our comfrey plants. Typically how deep is lead contamination from traffic? Would the leaves contain kead?