Controlling Thistle

[flowerbug]

Love me some mulch! That sounds a whole bunch easier than digging!

it does! almost makes me want to get some goatses and large bales of hay.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

almost makes me want to get some goatses and large bales of hay.

I dare you, lol!

 

[flowerbug]

Never know, your mom might fall in love with a couple of adorable kid goats... they are so cute!

oh no, for sure she won't. i'm the softy here for critters, not her.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Straight vinegar? 5%?

 

[Lazy Gardener]

When they use epsom salt in a weed killer formulation, it is used at much higher concentration. However, given the expense of it, I prefer to use it as a fertilizer!

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

Wish I had an answer for you... My guess is it will take a multi-faceted approach. Not sure how much area you're dealing with - but as you already know, keeping it cut so it can't go to seed will probably help somewhat.

Multiple acres. I'll also add the imgredient that I have 5 young kids and an on the property tree farm, so time is always lovely

 

[Hinotori]

I cut them down to only a few inches and use one of the step in weed removers. It works for the 2 types of thistles we have here. Works even better if I catch them when they are small.

One of these things.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004S0PH1A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OCHDDbNHJEQPD

 

[Hinotori]

Oh and I learned that old kombucha is acidic enough to kill most plants. In warm weather it gets a bit too acidic and I don't drink quite as much so there gets to be a backlog.

So I dumped some of the extra outside and it killed everything there. Do not ever pour anything like that with live culture into a septic system.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

Yep. If you add a squirt of dish detergent, like Palmolive, it'll make the vinegar stick better. What it does is dessicate the leaves so the top part of the plant dies. I've seen recipes that say to add epsom salts, but since that's a fertilizer, doesn't seem like a good idea when you're trying to kill the roots. I just go over the area about every 3-4 weeks and spray to get any new shoots coming up. This is the second year, and I am seeing a definite reduction in the couch grass. Can't let up though, or it'll come back.

This is basically my approach with cutting it at the base when I don't have the time to devote to yanking it out: tire it out & starve it from a successful photosynthetic process.

I've heard people go the vinegar route. Maybe I need to invest in a backpack sprayer and just coat the whole damn area every few weeks next year. My goal is to restore it to a prairie, but the thistle is ridiculous

Livestock are not an option, otherwise I'd just get some goats and fence in the whole prairie.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

I have pasture infested with thistle. We brush hog just before it flowers, but that's not really enough.

In the yard, we've dug it out. My son did the work. I paid him $0.25 per intact thistle root. This year I haven't found a single thistle rosette in the lawn!! I pay him for digging out of the pasture too.

That certainly supports my pulling tactic.

How old is your son? Some of those thistle are hard to pull for an adult