Thread: weed control
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Old 10-09-2016, 11:33 PM posted to rec.gardens
Jeßus[_13_] Jeßus[_13_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2016
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Default weed control

On Fri, 09 Sep 2016 14:38:03 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Wed, 13 Jul 2016, Jeff Layman wrote:

I suppose that anything that works well isn't going to be cheap. Still,
that quart should last you a good few years!


I'm still working on it. First I now use an ounce for a gallon. The
instructions are all about how many pints per acre (e.g. 1/2 to 1).

Then the Canada thistle keeps popping up in new locations. The back yard is
about 1/2 acre in size. Some is overgrown. The location where the
infestation started, and where I started to spray, is now clear. But each
time I go out I find an entirely new area infested with mostly small
plants. So small I could probably pull them up and leave no root behind.
But then there will be a big one or two, like inside of a untamed rose
bush.

At the last spraying there were seeds flying all around. Even from small
plants. I hope spraying the seeds killed the seeds. I know the battle will
continue into the next season.

I am also fighting an infestation of garlic mustard in one corner of the
yard. This one will be easier. I pulled the second year up last year as it
was going to seed. This Spring I made sure I got every second year before
it went to seed. Do that again next Spring and I should be done. Maybe a
few seeds take two years to germinate, but I can look for those in a couple
years.

I figured out what the survival strategy is for biannuals. Garlic mustard
likes forests. If the plant was an annual, and a forest fire came through
just before putting out seeds, it would wipe out the plant. For a biannual,
if a forest fire came through, the second year would get wiped out, but the
low first year would survive.


This is probably not very helpful to you, but when I bought this
property it had a couple of acres of lawn/pasture surrounding the
house which was infested with a variety of weeds, mostly dandelions,
plantain and thistles.

Spraying and regular mowing never really worked as it just seemed to
create new opportunities for weeds to establish themselves again.

A few years ago I wised up and applied plenty of fertiliser and lime,
kept it well irrigated and ran sheep on it. Even after the first year
the difference was quite noticeable, by the second year the weeds were
essentially completely gone. The better types of grass have dominated
the pasture now too and grows super lush. I rarely need to use
herbicides anywhere on the property now.