Canadian Thistle ??

[Lou]

Im seeing too much of this weed and want to get rid of it for good. I know I can kill each plant individualy with round up , but ive got a lot of it. If I brushhog it befor it goes to seed will it come back ?

 

[paul]

100% will come back.

Getting rid of it is a multi-year deal. It regrows from root prunings, seed, and underground runners. It has a massive root system that can live for some time.

There are special herbicides that work better on it. There are times of the year - more in fall - when instead of running all nutrients up to the seed buds, it is running the nutrients back down to build the root system. These root building times are better to try to killit with sprays.

Tillage you need to keep the ground black for a couple years. Let the plant come up & refeed the root, and it will last another couple of years....

Good luck.

Glyphosate a couple of times in a year and replant what you want growing there the next year is about the best way. Don't skimp on the herbicide mix.

--->Paul

 

[Allan in NE]

Won't stop it. It regenerates via the wind, the roots and birds pack the seed around too.

Nasty darned stuff and in most places it is listed as a noxious weed. The county will usually spray it for ya in these parts.

Allan

 

[Deano]

2-4D will knock them down without killing everything else

 

[bunghammer]

My Dad and I used some stuff called curtail. Bought it from the local coop. We sprayed them last summer and they did not come back this year, may be worth a try for you.

 

[RobMD]

You've basically got to plow it under and then spray roundup 34328724378 times to prevent it from coming back.

In other words, you can't kill the stuff unless you do underground surgery and remove the millions of root hairs.

I simply cut all of mine down with a sickle bar, and along the road, I use a handheld corn stalk cutter. You want to cut them **BEFOOORRRRREEEEE** they put out the seeds. Bushhogging basically knocks off the seeds everywhere.

All I've ever done is cut them down.

 

[2x4]

thistle is a bi-annual plant, meaning it blooms and produces seed every 2 years. It has to be killed out for 2 years in a row to stop it from coming back. Of course, it comes over to your property from neighbors, so consistant mowing before it goes to seed is the easiest & cheapest control. The blooms may go to seed even tho they've been cut off, so mow early & often to get 'em all.

 

[glennster]

i have been spot spraying with roundup and 2-4d and have been keeping ahead of it. here is a link that has a lot of info on it.
canada thistle

 

[Lou]

Sounds like Ive got a problem , saw it coming for a couple of years and did a little spraying with round up but not enough. Im going to check on some other herbicides.

 

[Dick L]

Probly the cheapest way to rid the thorny things is to cut them after they are in bloom and before going to seed. I had a bad infestation in my pasture. I mowed/multched the pasture as soon as most were in bloom the first year. The second and third year I only had a very few thistles. I think I mowed them three or four times. That is the way our local Amish was getting rid of the thistles so I figured if it worked for tham I would give it a try.

 

[Anonymous-0]

The problem with 2-4D is drift.

You have to hit thistle with lots of glyphosate. No spritzes, you have to soak the whole weed with a 1% solution, and it probably helps to have some AMS in the water before you mix in the glyphosate. The AMS takes up hardness ions that would deactivate glyphosate and makes some weed accept the glyphosate better.

Gerald J.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I've cut, sprayed and burned it, but some always came back. Used Roundup spiked with 2-4D once but that killed the competing grass and allowed it to spread further. Have since settled on spraying 2-4D twice a year and after 5 years only saw six plants this late spring which I hand pulled. If it re-sprouts, I'll give it another shot of 2-4D later this year and will check again next spring. I've heard the best method to kill it is to spray the herbicide Stinger immediately after a hard frost.

 

[Dave 2N]

Throw Scotch at it.

 

[Mike (WA)]

I've mowed and I've sprayed, and probably a combination of the two is the best. Hit with 2,4-D ("Weedmaster") when they're about a foot high (well before blooming), then mow when those you missed are ready to bloom (but haven't yet). Very best control is with goats- they will get it ALL, but takes about 3 years to get complete eradication.

 

[JBMac]

There's a new selective herbicide called Milestone. It's really good on them and leaves a residual.

 

[Paul Sebek]

Have a family get together and dig them out of the field. Wears them out so there"s no bickering and no diner time leftovers.
I"ve always dug them up or cut them down myself, haven"t seen any on my pasture in a couple of years and only about ten on the home place this year so far. Had to work like a trooper the first couple of years though, especially along the road.

 

[Dan Swanson]

I have used the combination of 1 1/2 oz glyphosate and 1 oz of Tordon per gallon of water for several years now. I know some don't like use tordon but this combitation really works. Don't have to soak the plant, just spray it when activly growing and before the hot weather hit. Or, wait till fall. Yes, it can be hard on the grass from time to time but almost in all cases the grass grows back the next year. I have kept track of patches I've sprayed over the years. I had sprayed patches 7 years ago that were size of a house just once with this mix, and and there is no thistle there yet. The grass came back the next year and all is O.K. Ususally if the new plants it's because I missed them. Curtail and Stinger are a bit pricely but they are very good to use if you do not want to harm the grass. Brother in-law sprayed about 80 acres with Milestone last year it looks great. There is one plant here and there but it's from not spraying far enough past the edges of the last plants. Later, Dan

 

[Charlie M]

I bought some weed killer called Safer soap a few years back which is a mixture methyl esters (derived from fat) and tried it on a few weeds as an experiment. The only thing I could find it worked on were thisles. I sprayed when they were small and within a few hours the plant had shriveled up and died. I think its still available in home hardware centers that sell garden supplies. You could buy a small squirt bottle and give it a try.

 

[Anonymous-0]

the only people who can not get rid of it are not trying---when it blooms spray 1 qt 2-4-d and 1 qt atrazine you will kill the plant and the seed the other way is to spray 1pt 2-4d in the spring when it is too cold to spray without a coat this will save your clover and legumes our problem here in ky is all the crap farms who never work or try and control the thistles their farms truly look like crap

 

[Dave_Id]

Curtail or Weedmaster both worked well for me. I was plagued with hawkweed that I had to spray everyyear, and just hit the Canadian Thistle at the same time.

 

[paul]

Stinger is a popular one.

There are others.

Dicomba (Banvel, Clairity, Sterling, etc.) is better than 24D.

These will kill most broadleaves, but your grasses will survive.

--->Paul

 

[paul]

Stinger is a popular one.

There are others.

Dicomba (Banvel, Clairity, Sterling, etc.) is better than 24D.

These will kill most broadleaves, but your grasses will survive.

--->Paul

 

[Anonymous-0]

Canada thistle is a perennial, and in my experience, it always comes back after cutting, although you might prevent it going to seed. I haven't had much luck controlling Canada thistle with tillage either. In fact, it seems to spread it out and cause more plants.

I hit my thistle patches with 2-4D a couple of times a year with a spot sprayer. That controls them somewhat, but I have not ever been able to eliminate Canada thistle completely from my pasture. There may be other sprays that would work more effectively, but in my state, it is a real hassle to get the required license. So I use the 2-4D that I can still get without a license.

Roundup works too, but it kills the grass around the thistle plants, which is not what I want to happen. Good luck!

 

[MN Scott]

Milestone. I've used it for two years now in my pastures. I spray about 10 acres every year. Its the cheapest way to go and it gets them good! They have to blow in by seed to repopulate and that takes several years for them to build a new patch. Curtail also works good but is pricy. If you have them in a corn field Hornet works good on them.

 

[jd-tom]

I'll put my vote in for Milestone also. Actually, there is another product made by the same company that is called Forefront. It's a mixture of 2,4-D and Milestone and it costs the same as Milestone so you basically get the 2,4-D for free and get a few other weeds controlled in the process also. I had a patch of Canada thistle in my waterway for years that I could not get rid of. I sprayed it last summer with Forefront. It burned the grass a little too but it all came back this year AND NOT A THISTLE TO BE FOUND!

 

[Anonymous-0]

mow dark of moom

 

[Richard G.]

Around here they come in the chicken litter that is spread on pastures.
The "farmer" next to me always waits until they go to seed and then mows them. Sometimes when the wind blows, it looks like it is snowing in the summer.
A friend says that for every seed that hits the ground, five sprout.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hal, you can buy Milestone in Washington without an applicator's license. It works real well on thistle and it has more residual effect than 24D.