best way to get rid of burdock?

[cathleenc]

what are your strategies for battling and removing/reducing burdock? We have a bumper crop each year!

and I don't want to eat it. I understand that many herbalists consider the root to be a powerful tonifier and that it is also a traditional japanse food but not when we're at war - maybe when burdock and I have found a sort of truce then I may be able to consider it a delicacy. Today just an enemy.

so how do I get rid of it? I've been warned to not dig it out as it will cause multiple new plants to grow.

thanks
Cathy

[bergere]

I have just been using the pruners and clipping it off at the base. Keep doing that and after awhile it won't come back.
You want to try to get this done before they set their seeds.

[Patsy]

I spray it with white vinegar. You have to keep after it, but it helps! Start spraying when its really small, & don't let it go to seed! I know its a real bugger to get rid of!

[chickenista]

All of the above plus... dig. If you have a specific bed you want to clear of it, then digging is your only way. Go out after a rain or wet down the patch. Put your headphones on and grab a shovel.
Place the shovel vertically and step down. When you are a full shovel head in start wiggling the shovel. If the ground is firm, do the other side of the burdock too.
Then gently pry. You do not want to snap it off, just loosen it so you can pull.
After a while you find you can judge the length of the root by the size of the leaves or by sheer intuition. It really is quite a satisfying way to spend some time. I like it.
As long as the root comes out whole you have no worries. If it snaps and you don't go down and get the tip.. it will come back.. maybe not this year, but it will come back.
And mow, mow, mow, mow, mow it. Do Not let it go to seed... ever!
I have an acre of it that I am slowly winning the battle over.

[Paquebot]

Burdock is a definite biennial. It grows from a seed the first year and stores energy in the roots. It blooms the second year and dies. If you hoe off a second-year plant, it will die and you have no further problems. Two years of close mowing took care of a big patch near our community gardens. Nothing but grass the third year.

Martin