{"id":19025,"date":"2022-03-23T13:07:23","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T17:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?p=19025"},"modified":"2022-03-23T13:08:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T17:08:35","slug":"controlling-liverwort-organically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2022\/03\/23\/controlling-liverwort-organically\/","title":{"rendered":"How can you control liverwort organically?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Question:<\/h3>\n<p><strong>For the first time last summer I identified many liverworts growing in my vegetable garden. I did some research and found out the cause and best practices to prevent them. However, some solutions for eradicating them were chemical. Since all my gardens are organic I would like your best organic solution for eradicating the weed. Since they are in my vegetable garden at quite a high level, some of the solutions I found on-line were acids which will change my pH. I\u2019m wondering if covering the liverworts with a few inches of loam and straw kill them? If that would be a good solution, when the straw decomposes, will the liverworts reestablish?<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Answer:<\/h3>\n<p><em>Abi Griffith, Horticulture Community Education Assistant<\/em><\/p>\n<div>As you probably already know, liverworts grow vigorously in conditions with high humidity, high nutrient levels (especially nitrogen and phosphorus), and high soil moisture and spread by spores.<\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately they are tricky to manage once you have them, but in general, you want to take away these favorable conditions as much as possible.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m including an excerpt\u00a0from a factsheet about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/horticulture.oregonstate.edu\/weed\/liverwort\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/horticulture.oregonstate.edu\/weed\/liverwort&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1648132425411000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3O-A7m7U7eiSeITK67-IRl\">liverwort<\/a>\u00a0from Oregon State\u00a0University, outlining cultural practices to control\u00a0liverwort in a greenhouse setting (where it seems to be a problem), but principles would be applicable in other settings:<\/p>\n<p>Cultural practices that can assist with discouraging liverwort proliferation include:<\/p>\n<div>\u2022 Consider ways to modify your irrigation practices to limit overwatering. Liverworts (and pearlwort) thrive in wet conditions, and any practice that limits the amount of water will decrease liverwort vigor.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022 Incorporating or dibbling fertilizers rather than topdressing.<\/div>\n<div>\u2022 Increase air flow throughout your crop.\u00a0 Anything that increases airflow and decreases humidity should help reduce liverwort vigor.<\/div>\n<p>Keeping all this in mind, anything you can do to keep things less congested and more dry will help.\u00a0 If you want to mulch, I would consider avoiding straw, which retains water,\u00a0and consider coarser\u00a0materials that\u00a0drain well such as coarse bark, cocoa hulls or even rice hulls. This\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canr.msu.edu\/news\/topdressing_container_nursery_plants_for_liverwort_control\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.canr.msu.edu\/news\/topdressing_container_nursery_plants_for_liverwort_control&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1648132425411000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Fwlpa_xEb9LG9pbAW0CJm\">article<\/a>\u00a0explores rice hull use. You could try planting into holes in landscape fabric for longer-season, heat loving vegetables, to control and smother any weeds. Also, if timing allows, cover whole sections of liverwort infested areas of your garden with a weighted tarp to solarize what is there and then follow the cultural controls after. It may be a bit of a process! Curious whether the site you selected for your garden is overly wet\/humid as well?<\/p>\n<p>Here is another\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canr.msu.edu\/resources\/identifying-and-managing-liverwort-in-michigan-nurseries-and-greenhouses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.canr.msu.edu\/resources\/identifying-and-managing-liverwort-in-michigan-nurseries-and-greenhouses&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1648132425411000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3xZZTOu5jUf7LWKraefq4R\">article<\/a>\u00a0for further reference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: For the first time last summer I identified many liverworts growing in my vegetable garden. I did some research and found out the cause and best practices to prevent them. However, some solutions for eradicating them were chemical. Since all my gardens are organic I would like your best organic solution for eradicating the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask","category-maintenance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How can you control liverwort organically? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2022\/03\/23\/controlling-liverwort-organically\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How can you control liverwort organically? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: For the first time last summer I identified many liverworts growing in my vegetable garden. 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