Nettles and docks

JohnBoy

As seen over on the photos thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=73723552&postcount=271 I have some paddock fences with a serious dose of weeds.

I know august is not the time of year to be doing this but it's august and I'm doing it


What's the best approach? spray, cut, spray any regrowth?

or should I cut then spray regrowth?


It's a mix of nettles, docks and thistles, but mostly nettles.


Also what should I use? is it too late in the year for selective sprays? should I go straight to roundup, or should I go for a full whack dose of something like grazon 90?

poor farmer

I spray under fences and along ditches with a mix of round-up and grazon 90 . It gives a good kill but i find that the come back the following year especially thistles.I thought grazon 90 was supposed to kill thistles for good

49801

your prob not spraying them young enough. dont wait till stem extension... rosette is what you want. if you wait till stem extension/flowering the chemical will not get down into the routes.

if you use roundup expect weeds to grow next flush
use a selective like grazon90 or nettle-ban and give the grass the chance to out compete the weeds.

JohnBoy

I know I'm not doing it young enough, but I cant do owt about that now.

At this stage in the year would I be better off going in with the strimmer first and cutting the regrowth?

or should I just plough on and spray?

49801

JohnBoy wrote: »

I know I'm not doing it young enough, but I cant do owt about that now.

At this stage in the year would I be better off going in with the strimmer first and cutting the regrowth?

or should I just plough on and spray?

apologies i did not get the thrust of your OP

depends... if spraying now you'll have to spray twice.
so spend money on chemical and do it quick or spend time on the trimmer and spray once... not much fun strimming and having debris hitting your mask.

If i wasn't buying the chemical I'd spray twice and hope there was not 100% regrowth.

Muckit

I always like to question why things . . . like why are the nettles/thistles there in the first place?

ie rushes appear if land is wet
moss needs just damp/moisture to grow, so usually found in unfertile areas.

Nettles from what I've experienced, are more prone to growing in clumps where livestock have congregated, poached and dunged alot, ie. by hedges, under trees, where old silage pits etc were. They would tally with what I've read about them, like docks, they like high nitrogen and phosphate. They also like slightly acidic soil (that's why they grow on dung heaps and around silage pits).

You can do wonders by simply digging out the roots, same as with docks. Pull, spray etc aswel

JohnBoy

49801 wrote: »

apologies i did not get the thrust of your OP

depends... if spraying now you'll have to spray twice.
so spend money on chemical and do it quick or spend time on the trimmer and spray once... not much fun strimming and having debris hitting your mask.

If i wasn't buying the chemical I'd spray twice and hope there was not 100% regrowth.

Chemical shouldnt be that expensive. and the strimmer dont run for free either, nor is it remotely as fast.


Spraying twice so.

Muckit wrote: »

I always like to question why things . . . like why are the nettles/thistles there in the first place?

ie rushes appear if land is wet
moss needs just damp/moisture to grow, so usually found in unfertile areas.

Nettles from what I've experienced, are more prone to growing in clumps where livestock have congregated, poached and dunged alot, ie. by hedges, under trees, where old silage pits etc were. They would tally with what I've read about them, like docks, they like high nitrogen and phosphate. They also like slightly acidic soil (that's why they grow on dung heaps and around silage pits).

You can do wonders by simply digging out the roots, same as with docks. Pull, spray etc aswel

Why? lots of factors I suppose. there are a few patches in paddock that would correspond with the poaching areas where past tenants left cattle out too late. The the field also has ok fertility (relative to the rest of the place) NPK indexes of 2 3 and 2 respectively.

There was also an olde dungstead above that field, and a small grove of trees.

All of these factors combined I suppose with a lack of any controls for the last ten years has left us with nettles anywhere that's not been grazed, plus one paddock with nettles and docks everywhere.

That paddock will be reseeded in the spring, but I want to try and reduce the problem round the ditches and especially under the paddock fences. Would I be right in saying that the double electric fence between the paddocks would have discouraged cattle grazing under the wire and thus encouraged the weeds?

JohnBoy

Back to my nettles.

couple of interrelated questions.


In a patch of nettles, how interlinked are the roots? is a clump of nettles one big plant? if so would you expect to get a good kill on a patch of nettles without actually hitting all the nettles directly with the spray?


Should nettles be growing strong at this stage?



The reason I ask is when I sprayed the paddock boundaries last year I also would have thrown a lash of grazon 90 into the patches of nettles in the paddock.


They died off completely, but then again nettles should do that anyway in the winter right?

So now I've checked them a couple of times over the last few weeks and there's only small patches of regrowth.


Is this early for nettles to be up, or could I actually have killed off a lot more of them with the grazon 90 than I first thought?


the reason I ask is we're going to reseed the field and I dont want to spray it off to discover that the nettles were just about to come anyway!


am I making any sense?

49801

tbh i think you should crack on with your reseeding and not let weeds influance your plans. you'll be spraying for weeds after emergance anyways.

Attie

49801 wrote: »

your prob not spraying them young enough. dont wait till stem extension... rosette is what you want. if you wait till stem extension/flowering the chemical will not get down into the routes.

if you use roundup expect weeds to grow next flush
use a selective like grazon90 or nettle-ban and give the grass the chance to out compete the weeds.

JohnBoy
I think this is good advice above.
Not too late yet but read the users guide http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/cms-webapp/userfiles/file/Farming%20Information%20&%20Services/Grazon%2090%20Info/Grazon%2090%20Farmer%20Information%20Guide.pdf and apply accordingly

Traonach

Muckit wrote: »

I always like to question why things . . . like why are the nettles/thistles there in the first place?

ie rushes appear if land is wet
moss needs just damp/moisture to grow, so usually found in unfertile areas.

Nettles from what I've experienced, are more prone to growing in clumps where livestock have congregated, poached and dunged alot, ie. by hedges, under trees, where old silage pits etc were. They would tally with what I've read about them, like docks, they like high nitrogen and phosphate. They also like slightly acidic soil (that's why they grow on dung heaps and around silage pits).

You can do wonders by simply digging out the roots, same as with docks. Pull, spray etc aswel

I'm putting in nettle beds in my place Using well rotted cow dung/straw mix. Planting them in a sheltered spot beside a ditch.

JohnBoy

49801 wrote: »

tbh i think you should crack on with your reseeding and not let weeds influance your plans. you'll be spraying for weeds after emergance anyways.

The weeds are a primary factor in wanting to reseed this field.

49801

JohnBoy wrote: »

The weeds are a primary factor in wanting to reseed this field.

there will always be seeds that you do not desire in the soil profile.
man is not mightier than nature. but fresh leys do out compete weeds better. And it is normal to spray for weeds post emergence of the new grass to prevent weeds getting a hold when the ley is at a vulnerable stage

Your plough will bury the weed seeds on the surface.... but is it going to bring up seeds that are below:eek: . Dont get too caught up about it! Think of it this way... man adopted the plough as a weed suppression tool as much as a seedbed forming tool. Organic farms use ploughs routinely for this reason.

if you are still happy with the grass ley other wise you could try just blanket spraying and follow up with spot spraying. But really it sounded like you had already made up your mind to reseed;).

reseeding as a rule of thumb should be carried out every 7-10yrs or 10% of your area per year.

So previous thoughts still stand... crack on with the round up... but i do see your problem over the hedge:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: