What are these weeds?

[jmasgalas]

These have seen to come in abundance since we did some logging. We are located in South Central PA. Are they an invasive plant? Any benefit to deer?
These are the other broadleafs that have seemed to take over. Not sure of they are the same

 

[bueller]

#1 is Common Mullein. No benefit to deer. I do believe it is classified as an invasive but I haven't seen it act that way by me.

 

[Honker]

Common mullein and american pokeweed, if I'm not mistaken

 

[wiscwhip]

Mullein is not invasive in so much as it is opportunistic. It thrives on poor, recently disturbed soils(like a logging operation), and as bueller said, no benefit to deer. Those are 2 year old plants, as the tall stalk only comes on in year 2. In the first year they simply produce the rosette portion of the plant close to the ground. Cut the seed heads off the top and burn them just to keep more seed from entering the seedbank, then take a spade shovel and shove it under the rosette to sever the taproot, you can burn them with the stalks if you like. It is persistent, so you may have to do this again next spring, but try to catch them in the early rosette stage and spade them out of the ground before the send up the stalk. If that is pokeweed, I believe deer will browse it, but I still wouldn't want it to drop a bunch of seed, I would try to eliminate that before the seed hardens and drops. Mowing should work for that.

 

[Native Hunter]

I agree with Mullein and Pokeweed.

I'm very familiar with both, and see more Pokeweed than Mullein. PW has been found in some places to be a highly preferred browse, but I never see it touched here. There is so much of it I would never need to plant anything if deer ate it. It's a perennial and comes back from the same root each year. Mowing occasionally will set it back but not kill it. Mowing frequently will kill it. It is easily killed with 24D or Gly.

Birds are crazy about the fruit and spread the seed everywhere.

 

[chummer]

I have pokeweed and it is browsed lightly. The other one grows on the side of the road but I have not noticed it being touched.

 

[Btaylor]

Pokeweed gets devoured at our place.

 

[Tree Spud]

Mullein is an undersireable. Big plant, that spreads very quickly, consumes lots of moisture & soil nutrients with little or habitat value.

I spray them bend and cut their stalks, or pull them.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Pokeweed is everywhere and like Native Hunter said , the birds spread it all over. I've seen the mullein on a couple log landings, but never saw a deer eat one or find evidence of browsing. I don't recall ever seeing pokeweed browsed either.

 

[j-bird]

I have both and I have not seen a significant use of either. Pokeweed can get pretty big with a large dense but hollow "trunk" that may take a pretty good whack depending on how big it is. They seed on the pokeweed will turn purple when ripe and easily stain your clothes as well.

 

[Tap]

My deer love pokeweed. And, although there are a few plants of it in my plots, it never really amounts to much. It does get pretty impressive in edge areas of limited sun where I'm not planting anything anyway.
And yeah, the stocks can get pretty substantial and tough...I've seen buck rubs on it.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

i'm up in NE PA. like others have said already, 1 is Mullien and 2 is Pokeweed. On my property deer hammer the pokeweed.....but mostly in October and even November..when it is pretty much brown and dead looking....i have no idea why. I have a small 5000 sq ft area just below my current number one stand location. I used to plant that area as a food plot, but eventually learned that it wasnt to my benefit to have it as a food plot, so i just let it go feral again. it has several clusters of pokeweed. the one cluster is in one of my shooting lanes, and I have shot 3 does in 3 years eating from the same pokeweed bush. like tap said the stems can get pretty beefy and i have also seen pokeweed clusters with beefy stems get thrashed by bucks.

 

[Weed Wacker]

Consider yourself lucky if that's the only invasive you have. I also have a property in south central Pa and we are loaded with mile a minute, Japanese stilt grass and tree of heaven. It seems like me and my boys are doing nothing but spray spray and more spray.

 

[yoderjac]

Not only is pokeweed heavily used by deer in my area, it is one of the most nutritious summer food sources for them.

 

[fshafly2]

I have tons of pokeweed on my farm - birds(-?) spread the seed it everywhere and deer never touch it. I have to regularly mow the pokeweed in my alfalfa and red clover plots. Deer hammer it on another nearby farm, so pokeweed is never an issue. Go figure...

-fsh

 

[jmasgalas]

I did notice the pokeweed is being browsed. The mullein is mainly growing along the edges of the food plots and along the access road. At first I thought it might make good cover but it browned and dried out pretty early in the season last year.