Garuda wrote:
There are degrees of ownership. Personally I have no intention of keeping anything private and secret (as must be obvious, I would have thought) once it has been established that there is something of benefit here.I agree that as soon as anything is in the public domain it is everyones -ala patent and trademark laws, At best one might get some credit for idea development if you make a loud enough noise, but ownership can only come through labelling/branding and keeping the details of your formula private ala microsoft.SO sadly we are back to privacy and secrecy if you wish to maintain ownership. A luxury landowners may be able to do without but alas us landless researchers have no other choice.
I think the major effect is internal (cell disruption, perhaps) and the external colour change is a by-product of it.Most interesting and I will be interested to see how it works on other plants. What is your understanding of how 501 is doing this other than the burn off effect?
The easiest way I can analogise this is to describe what happens when sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in solution in tepid water is brushed on to a piece of raw pine lumber. Within 5 minutes the pine literally begins to turn yellow. I say literally because most colour 'change' in woods is through reflection or refraction of cell contents, the wood itself does not change colour (a case of what we think we see as opposed to what is actually there). The reason is that the soda solution permeates the timber thoroughly, filling the cells and forcing sap out. It is in fact a rapid and inexpensive seasoning process. (I was a woodworker for over 20 years; if you ever have a hardwood paling fence put in, do not waste money on expensive paints or oils. A solution of one tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate to one litre of water brushed on with a four inch brush will season and protect it for several years at a time. Some nice colours too.)
The photos of the test areas I have were taken whilst the process was happening, immediately afterwards, that evening, the following morning, and a month later. (I have also some photos of unsprayed lovegrass taken since which can be used for comparison.) The almost immediate (within 15 minutes) external effect was a greying colour change. That is, the plants themselves went from a healthy vibrant green to a grey-green. The seeds became greyish-white and misty.
By the following morning the main body of each of the plants showed faint signs of recovery while the seed remained the same. A month later the seed stems are yellowing to cream, the seed appears to have no strength at all, the remainder of the plants have lost all signs of vigour.
We will be attempting to germinate seeds collected a week ago as soon as the fire situation permits.
I appreciate what you are saying about other ways of curtailing plant growth, Glen, but in the Oz situation with worsening soils, very hot weather and extreme aridity, I don't see that stopping it 'dead in its tracks' is necessarily a good thing. I realise I do not have the farming or other botanical experience of many subscribers but one thing is very apparent even to me - knock over an invasive weed successfully and the likelihood is another species will grow in its place. The horrendous gorse problem a client of mine has in the Goulburn (NSW) area is a case in point. Burn it, pull it out or poison it (as used to happen) and serrated tussock (ST) grows instead. He also has ST already - remove it and other weeds grow (including gorse).
The soil determines what will grow, not the landholder. Remove the soil's cover, other cover grows to take its place. So what we have to do, I feel, is knock the invasives over in such a way that the landholder has time to get something of value to him/her AND the soil in place for the next growing season.
I think that is what we have here. The 501 knocks over the lovegrass sufficiently to stop seed viability but allows it to take enough nutrition from soil to maintain a low 'life' state for a period of months.
I'd be interested on people's thoughts on this.
roger
