Native plants to outcompete kikuyu.

[kailash]

For over ten years I have fought/given in to the onslaught of kikuyu from the fence line(500 metres+) of two of my neighbours. The trouble is I have fenced off fifteen acres to a riparian zone that is on the border of my property and the neighbours' kikuyu just loves to head toward it. Kikuyu is considered here as a valuable pasture species.
Even the primary industries cannot dispel it's use. Though to their credit they are suggesting other less invasive native species like Hemartia.
Anyway, this riparian zone has been left to the natives. I won't bore you with the other weeds or the rare species I am trying to protect. However with the kikuyu's never ending invasion it is almost impossible for any existing vegetation to self sow. I have sprayed the fence many times over the years only to give in as I hate the stuff for obvious reasons. And yes I use the frog friendly stuff.
So yes, I dont wanna die from glyphosate poisoning year in and year out in my fight to save this wilderness area. And it's way too far from my house to use a chook tractor or pigs in a riparian zone or too expensive to dig a plastic weed barrier. What I would like is to find a native solution(preferably endemic) the equivalent of pampas grass or agapanthus as I don't want to introduce another weed!
I am in a temperate zone south of Adelaide so please don't suggest comgrey or arum lillies and all the regular species in the Permaculture Manual. They don't work here! Hey Bill, any help?
I'm a horticulturalist specialzing in native vegetation, so don't hesitate to throw some plant ideas at me that i may have missed.
And if u have a non plant based idea - I'm all ears.
It would be nice to be able to hold my neighbours liable for the control of their invasive kikuyu and see whether it is worth paying the price for its value as pasture. But then I suppose that would be like suing the white man for encroaching on the land of the aboriginal!

[pebble]

I have a couple of questions. What is growing in the riparian zone? Are there limits on what you would grow there? eg will you consider non-natives?

How is the kikuyu a problem in the riparian zone?

Where is there water in relation to the problem boundary?

(and this may not be relevant to your post, but why is comfrey no good in your area?)

[kailash]

I have a couple of questions. What is growing in the riparian zone? Are there limits on what you would grow there? eg will you consider non-natives?



How is the kikuyu a problem in the riparian zone?



Where is there water in relation to the problem boundary?

.

It's mostly natives endemic to the area. However there is rye grass, sour sob, cape weed, some thistle and dock. It used to be covered in gorze until we bit the bullet and removed it all. Briar rose is also still a problem,though the birds like it!
Because it is an area primarily zoned for local flora and fauna I have never planted anything in there that is not endemic, so I would like to use native local to the are if at all possible.It's mostly natives endemic to the area. However there is rye grass, sour sob, cape weed, some thistle and dock. It used to be covered in gorze until we bit the bullet and removed it all. Briar rose is also still a problem,though the birds like it!


It is a problem because it doesn't allow the native to self sow naturally. Since I have been here I have planted over ten thousand tube stock plants with only about 2% success rate due to drought, hare, rabbits, roos etc etc. I have seen other local seasonal creeks that have been allowed to succumb to kikuyu and there is no understory at all, just old dying/aging gums.The seasonal creek runs thru the centre of the fenced off area. It is about a kilometre long and on average 50 to 100 metre wide.
(and this may not be relevant to your post, but why is comfrey no good in your area?)
Comfrey is only good here in a summer drought area if it has summer water otherwise it flounders when it comes to outcompeting kikuyu I have it in the veggie garden with water and it goes gangbusters.

[matto]

Researchers also found that inundation duration is an important mechanism that allows alligator weed to outcompete desirable forage grasses: about 30 days' inundation allows the weed to outcompete kikuyu.

http://www.rirdc.gov.au/programs/nat...gator-weed.cfm

Perhaps puttling in some leaky weirs, spreading the water out over the current bankheight into the riparian area will help. Slowing the water down and increasing the months you have water can only be a benefit if all else fails, and will give your next 10000 trees a chance. Maybe you should think about gaurds as well if you have problems with wildlife.

[kailash]

Hee hee, guards. I think I have over a thousand or so of them. They're great until the plant reaches the top of the guard and then the roos or galahs just prune them level. I actually have had to individually fence off weeping she-okes as they're so succulent to the roos. That's the trouble when you're in an area where everyone else has just pasture. The roos come over and shelter in my place. I wish they just knew I was growing the plants to protect them. But I think roos prefer pasture so they try and keep the trees down!!!
As to slowing the water down. I am not allowed to interfere with the waterflow re council regulation and all. And because we have had dry winters and dams built upstream by other farmers, the creek only flows for four months or so and the kikuyu crosses the creek as it dries out in late spring and continues on unabated.

[ecodharmamark]

G'day kailash

Welcome to the PRI Forum.

...Since I have been here I have planted over ten thousand tube stock plants with only about 2% success rate due to drought, hare, rabbits, roos etc etc...

That's a very poor success rate. Have you ever looked at direct seeding (seems to do better under drought circumstances) together with fencing designed to keep out rabbits and roos?

Cheerio, Markos.

[matto]

If your stream is only flowing 4 months of the year it sounds like it is an Order 1 or 2 stream, in which case, allows you to do work in the stream. You are supposed to notify the catchment management authority of your intended works and they are usually ok with work in these kind of streams unless you are intending on doing major works. I have seen properties change from something like yours to being the source of water for downstream landholders in drought years with fairly low tech solutions.

Spiky shrubs like hakea might be an option to spread out over grassed areas. But I agree with Markos that you should lookinto a better fencing option if you want to change the succesion of this site.

[Raymondo]

Is there a Lomandra species you could grow? A friend has a 'fence' of Lomandra which is pretty effective at keeping out couch and kikuyu. Of course, with such a long line you'd need a fair few.

[kailash]

I'll try and answer all those helpful suggestions.

[kailash]

The area is fenced with sheep cyclone and barb on one side and ten foot deer fencing on the other. The fencing was put there to stop stock which it does amply. Nothing affordable will stop roos, rabbits or hares etc. I have put a ten foot fox proof fence around my orchard to protect the chooks and geese, so it's all a matter of economy. The orchard is only half an acre where as the wilderness area is about 12 acres. We have a saying here when we plant. You've got two choices, grow or die. The haress got so bad at one stage that I just felt like giving up, but I now have a nice crock pot and we all like the taste of it.
About direct seeding. The area is far to higgledy piggledy and I've left it too late now. In the beginning it would have been a very good idea, but I would say I have now succeded in having enough trees and bushes etc in there to just keep plodding on with a few more tubestock. That's why I want to keep the kikuyu out so those species can, when large enough start to self sow and be self sustaining.
Funny aside linking hares and direct seeding. My neighbour used to complain about my shooting of the hares, cute and all. However when they commendably decided to fence off ten acres to join onto my wilderness zone and direct seeded with some success I received a phone call one day asking me if I wouldn't mind coming over to shoot some hares!!! They have plenty of money, hence deer fencing on the side that joins them. I just wish they'd invest some of that money to getting rid of the kikuyu which is also coming from their place. If the hare scenario is anything to go by, they will be complaining about the kikuyu taking over their wilderness area and will be asking me for solutions. Ha! Bring on that day. Oh the irony.
Anyway, we went thru several years of drought which wiped out so many species. Word to the wise. One of the hardiest species to survive from tubestock and not even one hand watering is dodonaea viscosa. Unbelievable. And it can even cope with the local browsers.
Also none of the lomandra species locally are large enough. I have done some experiments with lomandra hystix and longifolia, but I am loath to plant anything that is not endemic to the area. Gahnia seiberiana(think native pampas) is about the best option.