Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) - Tips for Foraging and Management in Natural Areas
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Autumn Olive is a favorite among foragers for its abundant, nutrient packed fruit. It is reported to have seventeen times the anti-oxidant lycopene than tomatoes. Unfortunately, it is also a very aggressive non-native weed that is severely damaging natural areas. Anyone who enjoys foraging should watch this video to understand the need for a balanced approach to its enjoyment and control. The solution might be aggressively harvesting the fruit in season, and removing the plants afterwards. We explain our process and show areas which have been treated and areas which have not.
Oak Haven is a 60-acre private woodland in Southwestern Ohio near Cincinnati. Jim and Julie Varick both have degrees in Botany and over thirty years of experience in managing natural areas. They enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for the natural world and would like to build relationships with like-minded people to share knowledge and resources.
@5:00 THANK you for the amazing explanation and examples around the complexities and issues with nitrogen! That was solid!
I know it's been 2 years since you uploaded this amazing video, but I have a question. We have SO much buckthorn on our property and you mentioned cutting the and killing the autumn olive; why not pull it out the ground? Does it hurt or disrupt the soil to pull them out if we can?
Interesting video There are species of Eleagnus that are native to some states or America Eleagnus commutata is one of them. Its the manufactured nitrogen that causes problems in the water ways. The stuff they spread on farms on a large scale that causes the wrong type of algae to bloom. In the upper reaches of the river Shirl there are Autumn Olives on both sides and the water is crystal clear and salmon spawn there every year. Think its been like that sinse at least 1860s ish It also grows along rivers in its native lands and again the waters are crystal clear.
Thanks for the reply. Where is the River Shirl? I'd be curious to see if the Autumn olive is a balanced part of the ecosystem there, or if it runs amuck, like it does by me.
There's not enough time in a lifetime to treat autumn olive the way you're doing it. You need a brush hog herd of goats ,dozer 50 gal sprayer. Maybe a ventrac, track hoe. A spot sprayer and a weed trimmer maybe if you your doing poison oak around your house in a city. Not a farm in West Virginia
What is not being stressed and or even hardly alluded to here is that you absolutely CANNOT keep Autumn Olive solely on your own property: it is invasive. The birds eat the seeds like crazy in the autumn and fly everywhere, spread the seeds through their poop, and this plant just takes off, as The Woodland Steward says because it uses nitrogen from the air but also the Elephant in the room is that plants that did not evolve in the area have no natural enemies - BUGS. So they take off - but they are not eaten by bugs and thus no birds get to feed their young with the bugs that lived because they had something to eat. A huge number of mammals eat bugs also and even hummingbirds get 70% of their diet from bugs. And then of course other animals eat the animals that ate the bugs. Exotic plants do not feed the environment, and invasive exotic plants are smothering the environment, using up natural resources and giving nothing back (no food for others - except the berries, a very limited resource). Just remember, no soft-sided bugs, no baby birds - and on down the line. Not just on your property - everywhere! THANKS, WOODLAND STEWARD, for excellent videos. In future ones, remember the bugs' point of view also please! The ultimate reason to love natives.
Thanks for speaking for the bugs, Salvia! I read someone asking on a native plant landscaping site how to protect their plants from bug damage. Someone responded that one of the reasons we plant native landscapes is to give those bugs something to eat. What a great re-direction of purpose. We actually want the bugs to eat our landscape!
Another excellent video. We have so many here on our place in VA that so far all I have been able to do is kill the big ones, which requires a chainsaw. I cut them just above ground surface (after cutting enough branches to get in to the base, often quite a chore) and immediately dab the cambium on the entire cut circumference with a triclopyr and diesel mix using a buckthorn blaster dabber. I've found that it kills them completely dead, even the older monster olives (we call them "Old Growth Autumn Olive"), with no suckering. I'm years away from getting our AO under control. I'll probably spend several weeks at least on them this summer and fall. I've experimented some with basal bark spraying but it is hard to get all the way around our plants and it just uses too much herbicide.
I wonder if the Native Americans in the U.S. feel the same way about the white people ? 🤔
I assume so!
@anthonyburdine1061
Another virtue signaler hijacking valuable videos!
Wonderful video, thank you!
Thanks!
In our experience, Autumn Olive is a pioneer plant, meaning, it only grows in fields and at the edge of mature forests. You'll never get a "forest" of autumn olive. They just don't grow tall enough to ever compete with something like an oak tree. And you'll never see it growing in a forest of tall and mature trees. Eventually, oaks and other typical forest trees will grow taller, causing shade, and stopping it's growth. Of course until someone, or nature, comes along a clears a forest. This starts the process all over again. I have to disagree that autumn olive will ever compete with trees we typically see in an actual forest. Just walk into any forest that has mature trees and try and find any autumn olive. Your example here is of a very very young forest area (judging by the trunk size of your trees), and I would argue the nitrogen is actually helping your native trees grow faster.
Autumn olives are the bane of my land managing existence. I spend dozens of hours, hundreds of dollars, and thousands of curse words a year in my tireless effort to eradicate them from my little slice of heaven.
Thank you for being very informative and articulate on just what havoc an infestation of these wretched plants can be. I believe I have a new favorite UA-cam channel.
Thanks Brian!
Tomatoes. Orange and red tomatoes (especially processed canned and cooked tomatoes) are one of the best sources of lycopene, a mineral important for sleep. Lycopene, a potent antioxidant, has also been associated with heart and bone health.Nov 13, 2022
Thanks!
@josephdupont
Yes but Autumn Olive blows tomato lycopene availability out of the water! You have to eat at least 25% more pound for pound to beat autumn olive
Love the informative and innovative management you layout. We have over 100 acres of forrest on our farm, with Autumn Olive and Japanese Honeysuckle constantly assaulting us, so we feel your pain. One issue we have run into is the some of the Autumn Olive being so large/mature it makes it near impossible to get to the trunks as the bush has spread so wide (spiders also love to inhabit the canopy). One rather aggressive solution we've had to turn to, is using a rock bucket on our compact track loader (a skid steer with tracks) to tear the bush out by its roots in early spring when the ground is still moist and little else is disturbed. After uprooting we pack the soil back down with the tracks of the loader. Typically I can align the tooth of the bucket just under the base of the Autumn Olive and push, lift, pull it out. Obviously this is not meant for smaller ones like in the video here. I just wanted to highlight the surprisingly shallow root depth these little demons have and one method we've had to resort to. PS Love your herbicide applicator hack!
There are many species of plant that came from somewhere else in the world thst are naturalized here now, but with the amount of seed they produce and the many bird species and mama species thst eat them, they will probably be around for good
Great video, especially liked seeing your set up. I'm looking to buy an electric brush cutter. Any recommendations other than Stihl which is very expensive? Have you tried this technique on Japanese Barberry? We have an infestation of it in our woods.
I don't have any experience with electric brush cutters. Let us know what you find. I do the same thing with Japanese Barberry. I cut it down with the brush cutter as close to the ground as possible, then paint all those bright yellow stems with 20% glyphosate.
@@TheWoodlandSteward Thanks great info!
Please, how can I contact you? I need a tree Elaeagnus umbellata .
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. I have been able to apply many of your techniques with success in the management of invasive species on my property. Do you happen to have a link or description of the blade you use on your trimmer? Thanks again.
Thanks! here is a link to the blades I buy. Check that the diameter and arbor size is right for you. (This is an affiliate link that kicks back something to us if you follow it.) amzn.to/3Ch5spk
Makes great jellies and jams aswell
Thanks for the knowledge and inspiration. We have a cabin business in Hocking and these videos are helping us take back our native environment.
That is awesome!
I plant all my fruit and nut trees in sets of 4 with one of these in the middle. When i added these, the fruit and nut trees took off with production. Plus i get to nibble on the berries. Its a win win for me.
I hope that works for you. I'd be concerned that the Autumn Olive would grow to compete with the trees, particularly if they are close enough that the fruit trees are benefiting from the nitrogen produced in the roots of the AO. Of course I am also concerned about the impact of spreading the seeds to the rest of the neighborhood where the Autumn Olive doesn't have as beneficial an effect.
Foraging these berries soon!! 😊
In coastal NC we have Silverthorn/Thorny Olive, Elaeagnus Pungens. It can reach up into the canopy of pine, and creates huge thickets. Also has nasty, honey-locust like thorns. The thorns can almost get 4 inches long, and are actually stems that haven’t produced leaves yet.
It sounds awful! I'm glad it doesn't grow in Ohio. (Yet!)
@@TheWoodlandSteward I don’t think it’s frost tolerant! The farthest north I’ve seen it is Norfolk, VA.
i have an idea. How about a law, nationwide, that says when loggers cut timber, they have to go through and cut and treat all the non native stuff like olive, burning bush, and honeysuckle bush before they can log it.
Interesting idea!
Good work! I did my undergraduate work on Autumn Olive.
Interesting! I would like to hear more about what you did.
@@TheWoodlandSteward i studied the spread in the Pisgah National Forest and how it spreads from wildlife openings along the road
thanks people from the 1800s, thanks for nothin
Please help me understand the herbicide mixtures. I believe, in your videos when you talk bout using a 2% solution, you take 2% of the product, which says on the label it is 41%. But here, when you talk about a 20% solution for stump painting, you are diluting the product by 50% - 41% to start with so now 20%. But I took 20% of the product (which reads 41% on the label) and that is what I used to treat stumps. It is too early to know if it worked and I had not yet seen these other videos where you talk about diluting the product by half.. I love your conservative approach to using herbicide and the application is fabulous (thanks for that video on retrofitting the spray applicator). Thank you for any further advice you can offer. Your videos are very professional and imminently watchable. I predict you will gather much more attention as time passes because these dang invasives are not going away anytime soon. I must do my best here on my land!
Salvia, please check out our newest video on measuring and mixing herbicides and see if it answers your questions. If not, please let me know. ua-cam.com/video/SQcZCHDq2_4/v-deo.html
@@TheWoodlandSteward thank you!
Love that sprayer setup
So do I!
Nice to find this channel. So far everything you have said bears out with my experience. I am dealing with 180 acres with tons of Autumn/Russian olive and various honeysuckles. Just started treatments last fall, didnt get a lot done, most was testing to see what worked.
Just found possibly 2 different kinds, one tree had multiple drapes of berries, and white specs on the bark of the tree, and the other had plain brown bark with only one or 2 drupes of berries but they are bigger, and both berries from both trees have smiliar silver spots on the berries and wite or silvery undersides of the leaves, and one tree has long slender thorns, both are sweet
It's a really good foragers discovery
Does it have thorns?
I would call them scattered sharp spurs rather than thorns, but that may be the same thing.
Yeah the don’t look like thorns just look like broken twigs but they feel like thorns
Another is barberry
Have to disagree with your argument at 16:25, it is other peoples' right to do what they want with their own property. You do not get to interfere with that at all.
I appreciate your taking the time to respond. I would just like people to think about the fact that the decisions that they make for their own property affect everyone else in their community.
I consider it good stewardship to mitigate invasive species and prevent them from leaving my property. I look at it as paying it forward and being a good neighbor.
Yet the government, for the people by the people, grants us the the right to "interfere" with what you do on your property when your action or inaction interfere with others. Example below:
557.01 NOXIOUS WEEDS, GRASS TO BE CUT.
(a) Every owner, lessee, agent or tenant having charge of or responsibility for maintenance of the following described lots or lands within the Municipality shall be required to cut noxious weeds, grass or other types of vegetation as hereinafter described: (b) Every owner, lessee, agent or tenant having charge of or responsibility for maintenance of any lot or land described in this section shall be required to cut or destroy or cause to be cut or destroyed all such weeds and vegetation such as Russian, Canadian or common thistle, wild lettuce, wild noxious weeds, grass or other types of vegetation growing or being upon the lots or and as aforesaid so as to prevent the same from exceeding a height of eight inches.
@@prof.parallax2664 You absolutely cannot keep Autumn Olive solely on your own property. The birds eat the seeds like crazy in the autumn and fly everywhere, spread the seeds through their poop, and this plant just takes off, as The Woodland Steward says. Your actions are wreaking havoc in the natural areas of other peoples' property and starving wildlife. Just ask the hunters. Thank you for hearing my view and looking into the truth of this statement so you too can enjoy your land but be a good steward and a good neighbor.
All of these people who have assured you that they are just in their judgement against people who grow autumn olive. Would defend the use of herbicide. Maybe we should be gracious with each other and not demand that all our land management practices be the same.
How about if when you cut the stem instead of treating it why not tey grafting a native species into that stem or is that not a possibility due to nothing closely enough related?
Would be great if there was some type of listing or map of properties that do have these plants that is willing to have foragers. I have never heard of autumn olives before stumbling across a video.
I LOVE Autumn Olive! It is one of THE MOST beneficial plants in the world. I’ll continue planting them.
I would be interested in hearing what you see as the benefits and how you weigh those benefits against the downsides.
Imagine waking up and deciding to troll him.
d8syor
#von.ong