Thistle

[bat man]

Cleaned a plot with a dozer a month ago and took the Argo in today and there be thistle. Foot tall and lots of it.

Glypho or what this time of year. Stu said Milestone? I think?

 

[biglakeba$$]

If you dont care about collateral damage. Nuke it all with gly.
Cheap way to go.

 

[bat man]

Just want to throw cereal rye and leftover oats down for weed control this fall. But I want the thistle gone as I can get it.

 

[biglakeba$$]

Hey stu,
We have mostly Plumeless thistile and have never had anything live after its sprayed with gly. Several years ago, we did a HUGE gly spray on any area that was old pasture and absolutely clogged with thistle. Nothing lived at all as far as the thistle.

Interesting you point out that if its anything but canada thistle.....

 

[Freeborn]

Is there anything you want to survive the spraying? If not, Gly is economical and you should get a clean kill at 2.5 quarts per acre and particularly if you add AMS. If I am in an open area of my Prairie grass I use 2,4-D which kills thistle, leaves the grasses alone and is economical. If I am near my fruit trees I use Stinger which is good around fruit trees but pricy. I have never used Milestone but I have heard it is very good but it is very pricy.

 

[biglakeba$$]

10-4!!!
We have our thistle under control for the most part. Thanks to thick grasses now.
After we had the cattle removed from the property that had been there for years, we had the absolute most horrific outbreak of thistle you could imagine.
It was still bad while the cattle were there, but good lord after we had them removed for good..... OOOOFFFF!
Now that the grasses have taken over, amazing how that alone took care of the problem long term.

We had Doug Hedtke from the U of M extention office come out to our property several years ago. He was the head of studies on thistle control out of western MN at the time.
Great guy.
But according to that LandDr(the PLM guy) on Hotspotoutdoors.com, free advice isnt worth sqaut..... LOLLLL.
Inside joke to those who havent followed the topics on that site....

 

[david]

In Kansas, I use Milestone for thistle along w/ Escort. Between the 2, I have great success on all types of thistles. A note of warning... a little goes a long ways. It doesn't seem like you are adding much chemical, but if you spray heavy, you will kill the thistles and then some. 1cc/gallon milestone and 1 ounce/100 gallons escort.

 

[SmallChunk]

I'm with Stu, CT is tough to fully kill with straight Gly. I would add something else to your brew!

 

[Jim Timber]

That's the key. Get desirable species growing densely and the thistles don't have a chance....UNTIL you open/disturb the soil...then you have to exhaust the thistle seed bank (or deal with the rhizome like roots of CT).

Funny, I hadn't seen this when I got that letter from the township - but I knew it already too...

Brooks, another option for this time of year would be fire. If the thistle is cooked to where the vessels burst it literally bleeds out just like scorched flesh would. The plant doesn't have anything to draw down to it's roots and it dies. No chemical residuals and it's kinda fun once you learn the exposure needed with your torch. It's like fire painting on the plants. You can see them change color as the damage has happened. No need to dry them and actually burn them off - just scorch them to where they leak out and they'll decay naturally.

I had a nasty CT infestation along the road which I crippled with 2 years of spot flame treatment over maybe 4 times total. Replaced them all with wonderful 6-7 foot tall shade tolerant grasses (in full sun :D ) and then the township came and sickle mowed it last month. I got a letter dated Friday that there's thistle all over and I'm supposed to remove it. I told them I had, and if it came back it was because some dumbass mowed my grass and restarted the seed so they can deal with it now. :mad: I didn't call them a dumbass, but it was really tempting.

So I'll second Stu's comment - if you want it gone, you just need to outcompete it early in the season next year and wipe out anything that's established before it goes dormant. It's not all that tough to kill, but the seed will remain for a long time and that's what you'll be fighting.

I've also read that repetitive tilling works, but that's hard on your soil. You'll need to keep churning every 3-4 months until all the seed has germinated and been ripped apart but before any of the plants make it to seed.

 

[bwoods11]

Milestone or Stinger, I cannot remember which is cheaper.

 

[j-bird]

I use crossroad/crossbow (general broadleaf killer) and it works well from my local Rural King store.

 

[bat man]

I found crossbow at Runnings but its 4 qts per acre. And I thought Milestone was spendy.

Where can I get the cheapest quart of Milestone. ? (3 acre field to nuke)

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Generic Stinger is cheaper than Milestone. I ended up with great results this year with Clopyralid 3, thistles have turned black and dead as can be. I ordered from Solution Stores.

 

[Native Hunter]

I use crossroad/crossbow (general broadleaf killer) and it works well from my local Rural King store.

That's what I use for blackberry briers in NWSGs too, and it works well.

 

[Freeborn]

Try Keystone Pestsolutions for generic Stinger, I have purchased a number of herbicides from the them and their prices are good. I have also purchased my apple sprays from them.

http://www.keystonepestsolutions.co...-replaces-stinger-garrison-herbicide-282.html

 

[sandbur]

Funny, I hadn't seen this when I got that letter from the township - but I knew it already too...

Brooks, another option for this time of year would be fire. If the thistle is cooked to where the vessels burst it literally bleeds out just like scorched flesh would. The plant doesn't have anything to draw down to it's roots and it dies. No chemical residuals and it's kinda fun once you learn the exposure needed with your torch. It's like fire painting on the plants. You can see them change color as the damage has happened. No need to dry them and actually burn them off - just scorch them to where they leak out and they'll decay naturally.

I had a nasty CT infestation along the road which I crippled with 2 years of spot flame treatment over maybe 4 times total. Replaced them all with wonderful 6-7 foot tall shade tolerant grasses (in full sun :D ) and then the township came and sickle mowed it last month. I got a letter dated Friday that there's thistle all over and I'm supposed to remove it. I told them I had, and if it came back it was because some dumbass mowed my grass and restarted the seed so they can deal with it now. :mad: I didn't call them a dumbass, but it was really tempting.

So I'll second Stu's comment - if you want it gone, you just need to outcompete it early in the season next year and wipe out anything that's established before it goes dormant. It's not all that tough to kill, but the seed will remain for a long time and that's what you'll be fighting.

I've also read that repetitive tilling works, but that's hard on your soil. You'll need to keep churning every 3-4 months until all the seed has germinated and been ripped apart but before any of the plants make it to seed.

Who owns and is responsible for the mowed area-you or the township?

We own to the center of the road in my township. I feel we have some control and responsibility on what gets done in that area. Perhaps the mowed area needs to reduced to a minimum for public safety if it is YOUR land.

I have had some complaints about my trees. It is my land and my trees. I do cooperate a bit for public safety. But the township knows I like my trees and it has ben discussed at town board meetings. And I am not real popular with one local board member. He no longer will bring a cat in to roll up my fence and fence posts on my land with our first discussing it with me.

 

[Jim Timber]

They control 16 feet from the center of the road. I had put up t-posts 4-6' from the edge of the asphalt when I was using the area for a nursery and they had a shit fit over them. It would be no different than if it was divided up into 50' lots and there was a mailbox and a fire number - but they seemed to take issue with my posts being in the right of way to keep folks from driving over my trees. They claimed "we'd hate to hit them with the plow pushing snow back, ya know." Well, there's no reason to push snow back there. Even with all the snow we had last year, they never put a blade remotely close to where my posts had been. It's a blatant case of selective enforcement. I'm ready to get hostile and start suing if it keeps up.

I removed the posts being nice to the roads guy, hoping he'd fix the culvert. Instead they came through and nuked my trees because there was no indication they were anything other than weed trees. I've got 6 of the 100 douglas firs I planted which survived the chemical assault no one's willing to admit to doing.

 

[sandbur]

They control 16 feet from the center of the road. I had put up t-posts 4-6' from the edge of the asphalt when I was using the area for a nursery and they had a shit fit over them. It would be no different than if it was divided up into 50' lots and there was a mailbox and a fire number - but they seemed to take issue with my posts being in the right of way to keep folks from driving over my trees. They claimed "we'd hate to hit them with the plow pushing snow back, ya know." Well, there's no reason to push snow back there. Even with all the snow we had last year, they never put a blade remotely close to where my posts had been. It's a blatant case of selective enforcement. I'm ready to get hostile and start suing if it keeps up.

I removed the posts being nice to the roads guy, hoping he'd fix the culvert. Instead they came through and nuked my trees because there was no indication they were anything other than weed trees. I've got 6 of the 100 douglas firs I planted which survived the chemical assault no one's willing to admit to doing.

I would think that if they control 16 feet from the center of the road, if they sprayed your trees in that area, then they should spray the thistle.

Beyond 16 feet you control, and if you want tall grasses and not thistle, they should not be mowing it.

Of course, I am not a lawyer.

 

[Jim Timber]

They get to deal with the 8 ft of weeds they've created. I'm done fighting them over the space and I won't maintain it either.