'Quite spectacular': Wild cucumber vine invades P.E.I. farm

A P.E.I. farm may haveone of the biggest infestations of an invasive vine in the province, and the farmer says there's little he can do to get rid of it.

If we have some, I just pull it out by hand. But this is too much.- John Lauwerijssen

Wild cucumber covers an embankment and the trees behind the barns at John Lauwerijssen's dairy farm in Irishtown.

Lauwerijssenwas curious aboutwhat plant was taking over his property.

"[People] were always talking about the stuff growing in the ditches, and so I asked, 'What is it?' and they said wild cucumber," he said.

With its tiny white flowers, the vine is an attractive addition to a garden trellis or fence, but set free in a meadow or a roadside ditch, the vines wraptheir clingy tendrils around anything in their path.

The most important thing is to not let it go to seed.- Beth Hoar

"It looks pretty but that's about it, I guess,"Lauwerijssensaid of the tangled mass on his property.

The vines can grow up to 20 metres and have turned part of Lauwerijssen's property into theperfectpre-historic foliage backdrop for another Jurassic Park reboot.

This spectacular wild cucumber vine invades a P.E.I. farm

7 years ago

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This spectacular wild cucumber vine invades a P.E.I. farm

"Maybe you have to go through it with a tractor, I don't know," Lauwerijssen said, about getting rid of the plants.

Beth Hoar, chair ofthe PEI Invasive Species Council,hasn't visited the wild cucumber patch on Lauwerijssen's farm.

But when shown a photo, Hoar said it was a pretty impressive, albeit unwelcome, sight, and possibly one of the largest patches of wild cucumber she's seen on the Island.

"It is quite spectacular when you see an infestation like that. It's not in a positive way," said Hoar.

Block light for other plants

Wild cucumber is not poisonous, but it can do considerable damage to trees and shrubs by blocking sunlight.

"They climb up the other plants and basically cover the plants and that shades them, and then the plants can't synthesizeso they eventually die," said Hoar.

Getting rid of wild cucumber can be cumbersome.

The province said it doesn't have a programto control or eradicate the vine, directing people to get in touch withthe Invasive Species Council.

Don't let it go to seed

While the council doesn't have resources to go out and remove the invasivespecies, it does offer advice to homeowners on the best plan of attack.

"In the fall, the plants die back right to the ground and then they will germinate from seed in the spring, so the most important thing is to not let it go to seed," said Hoar.

If you don't stop it, the seeds drop to the ground. Not all of those seedswill germinate every year, creating a seed bank of plants to eventually spring from the ground.

"So even though you've pulled those plants that year prior to it producing seed, you have to control it until that seed bank is depleted," said Hoar.

The council does keep track of the bigger patches of wild cucumber, and Hoarsaid they will add the Irishtownsite to its list.

Meanwhile, Lauwerijssen is not too concerned about the vinespreading so far, the nearby highway keeps it confined and the plant isnot showing up in his farm fields.

He is alsotaking steps to keep it off his yard.

"If we have some, I just pull it out by hand. But this is too much," he said with a laugh.

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