Discussion Board - thistle?

Keith

I grew up in apple orchards and every farmer I know has a rig to spray weeds with. For the most part we just use them to stray under the trees. There are herbicides for just about everything, even granular powders to prevent seeds from germinating.

Some of the sprays work much better _this_ time of the year, when the seed is done & the plant is focused on refeeding it's root system. Tordon, Grazon, and some others I bleieve are specially designed for Canadian thistle and this time of year. Stinger is another made for thistles. Read the labels, & pick the one that works for the timeframe you are in. You can get great results if you follow the label. Thistles do, tho, take 2 years to really clean up - that root system will always make some escapes.

The Roundup & glysophate products kill thistles well - along with anything else growing. Works well on severe patches for little cost, need to replant them to hay tho.

As to mowing, you won't get rid of them. Slows them a bit, but does not kill them. In a good alfalfa field that you cut every 30 days for hay, with good growth you can actually crowd them out a bit, but about the time they thin down to going away, the alfalfa gets thin & lets them come back full strength again.

--->Paul

Nothing wrong with your method - sounds like it works for you where you are.

Wouldn't work in the types of infestations I see here. Considering Canadian thistle roots go 3 feet & more deep, & they set up a network of growth, I'm not sure I see how a dab of salt would help any. Fankly 2,4D doesn't really do anything for them either, just ticks them off for a while. Need something powerful to kill off these patches around these parts.

One of the best things I ever did to control them in the pasture was to divide my pasture into 4 portions, and graze the heck out of 3 of them rotationally so the cattle ate the thistles; the 4th area I cut for hay.

As I have gotten the portions rotated around, different ones grazed hard, other rested, many of the weeds have gone away, and the grass grows much better. Haying one lets the grass get deep roots again & be helthy; grazing hard with several week rests between grazing seems to agree with the grass more that with the weeds as well.

But, that's a long term way to go too. :)

--->Paul

Canadian live from the root or seed, grow in large patches with interconnected roots 3-6 feet deep. They have sharp prickles on them, but just soft enough that a cow will get them if all the other stuff is cleared down. Perannual weed, never goes away, just spreads. Smaller purple blossoms. We have 2 types, one is lighter green, other is darker green, other subtle differences in blossoms & stickers but basically same.

Musk or milk thistle is very milky stem, like a milkweed. They have little prickles on them, but don't need gloves really to handle them. Yellow blossoms, annual weed.

I can understanding salting a Russian thistle group; I couldn't understand salt doing anything to a Canadian thistle patch unless you brought in a dump truck of salt.....

--->Paul

Ray