Thistles and topping

casscass4444

Did anyone ever hear the saying "cut in June cut to bloom,cut in July cut to die".heard it today though it was a good one

Notoldorwise

Cut thistles in May, they'll grow in a day
Cut thistles in June, 'tis still too soon.
But cut in July, it's then they'll die..

gr8 m8

I heard that just before a thistle goes to seed (when it's at its prettiest ) all its reserves are at the top of the plant. If you can top off the head at this stage then the plant will use up its limited left over reserves to support the regeneration of its seed head and as a result it will perish!

I'm guessing that's where that saying might come from. Jaysus the old stock of farmers knew the ins and outs of farming didn't they!

kay 9

Top them on a wet day, water entering the stem kills them. I often do them in June with good results but don't have many this year yet

Farmer_3650

I'm in GLAS so I couldn't top until last Saturday and I had a good few thistles. A man told me a good way to kill them is to batter them with the haybob. I tried it on a a field back in June. They have all died since. He reckons it will kill them for good. Does any of ye know if it will it not?

wiggy123

normally the buck thistles... get a spade-chop centre of them, rain gets in to them--and kills them! what I do, with the big ones-as they grow! so I'd say what u say-re haybob prob work

gr8 m8

Hello.

I saw it on YouTube about an American lad who "drags" his pastures, basically he goes in after the animals with a steel gate that has angle iron welded to the bottom of it. He claimed that the irons scarred the thistles and opened them up to the elements and infection and it killed them.

He weighed the gate down with lengths of timber and attached a row of tires to the back of them so they dragged around the cow sh!t and claimed the field looked like it got a very light coat of slurry.

I wonder if you could add a chain harrow then to the back of the row of tires would it be a complete one pass system?

patsy_mccabe

If you want to get rid of thistles, either top them before they flower out or just lick them with round-up. MCPA will kill them too.

Dickie10

i sprayed big spear thistles with thistleex tonight. are they too strong at this stage? should i top? i topped last july in one field and thier back as bad as ever

Farmer_3650

Dickie10 wrote: »

i sprayed big spear thistles with thistleex tonight. are they too strong at this stage? should i top? i topped last july in one field and thier back as bad as ever

Repeatedly topping thistles is the best way to get rid of them. We had a 14 acre field that was full of thistles last year. We are in GLAS so we could not top it until July 15th. At that stage most of it was too heavy for topping so I topped about half the field. This year the half I topped had the odd thistle here and there and the other half was full of thistles again. Just shows topping really does make a difference. Just try and top on a wet day. The water will help kill thistles.

shrek008

Farmer_3650 wrote: »

I'm in GLAS so I couldn't top until last Saturday and I had a good few thistles. A man told me a good way to kill them is to batter them with the haybob. I tried it on a a field back in June. They have all died since. He reckons it will kill them for good. Does any of ye know if it will it not?

Thought you couldnt do any topping till the 15th July if you are in glas? Did they change the rules??

Ms. Chanandler Bong

shrek008 wrote: »

Thought you couldnt do any topping till the 15th July if you are in glas? Did they change the rules??

Yeah they've brought Glas 1, 2 & 3 in line so you can top from July 1st now. There was a link posted on the Glas thread to either the official page on the website or else a letter someone received about it. There was a lot of (busy) happy campers last Saturday morning going by some of the posts about it!!

Green farmer

Been topping nettles and thistles here for a good few years at start of July because of aeos and now glas but their just getting worse and worse each year. Weed licker is the top of to buy list now.

Farmer_3650

Green farmer wrote: »

Been topping nettles and thistles here for a good few years at start of July because of aeos and now glas but their just getting worse and worse each year. Weed licker is the top of to buy list now.

I usually top them in the first 2-3 weeks of July. I find that the thistles slowly die out but the nettles just stay there

Base price

Green farmer wrote: »

Been topping nettles and thistles here for a good few years at start of July because of aeos and now glas but their just getting worse and worse each year. Weed licker is the top of to buy list now.

Just be aware that you cannot use a weed licker on lipp.

Green farmer

Base price wrote: »

Just be aware that you cannot use a weed licker on lipp.

Thought you can spot spray or weedlicker but no blanket spraying in Glas.

rushvalley

Base price wrote: »

Just be aware that you cannot use a weed licker on lipp.

Yes you can

Base price

Green farmer wrote: »

Thought you can spot spray or weedlicker but no blanket spraying in Glas.

You can only spot spray to control noxious weeds/rushes. Since you refer to thistles & nettles you cannot use a weed licker. A weed licker can only be used to control rushes.

Bleating Lamb

Imo this is an exceptionally 'good' year for thistle growth!:(.....would the great dry spell in April and May have helped them?

Is it too late in the year to get good results from spraying thistles,both thistle types here....ones that grow wide at ground level and spread out and the tall ones?.....or when is best time to treat them.....ground too rocky to make topping possible:(

ganmo

Once the spear thistle go above ankle height it's too late to spray and the creeping one once the bud starts forming it's too late.

I'm in the same boat and hand cutting is the only option

Biscuitus

Very bad year for weeds. It was the mild Winter and good Spring that gave them a head start. Most weeds were already a month plus ahead in April.

Bleating Lamb

ganmo wrote: »

Once the spear thistle go above ankle height it's too late to spray and the creeping one once the bud starts forming it's too late.

I'm in the same boat and hand cutting is the only option

Too many here to consider hand cutting so I guess I will just have to wait until next year to tackle them?

Know every year is different but roughly when month wise is best time to spray both types of thistles?

Muckit

You'd be surprised what you'd get through with a brushcutter. Thistles being biennial are very easily killed by topping.

kk.man

Base price wrote: »

You can only spot spray to control noxious weeds/rushes. Since you refer to thistles & nettles you cannot use a weed licker. A weed licker can only be used to control rushes.

Can you spray under the electric fence on lipp?

Base price

kk.man wrote: »

Can you spray under the electric fence on lipp?

Your required to maintain your fences under disease control so I assume you can. I have sprayed the division fence between lipp and wbc with a broad leaved weedkiller in order to control thistles and docks from earthing the electric fence strand of the fence.

Western Pomise

Muckit wrote: »

You'd be surprised what you'd get through with a brushcutter. Thistles being biennial are very easily killed by topping.

Thisletex is best one for thistles although it isn't cheap,but on other hand if you are cutting them with a strimmer you will use a nice bit of petrol.I have a lot of thistles coming where they didn't before on tricky ground that a tractor would not work safely on.Definitely notice more thistles than normal around the country this Summer.Didnt get to them in time this year going by what people are saying about best time to treat them.

Mf310

I guess no spray would work now to kill thistles.. followed this thread bavk in july and topped the thistle around middle of july thought it had worked but now they're all back again

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mf310 wrote: »

I guess no spray would work now to kill thistles.. followed this thread bavk in july and topped the thistle around middle of july thought it had worked but now they're all back again

There's less of them though. If you can cut/top twice a year they will be more or less gone in 3 or 4 years.

Mf310

Buford T. Justice V wrote:

There's less of them though. If you can cut/top twice a year they will be more or less gone in 3 or 4 years.

I reckon theres more they were probably too far ahead when i topped anyway

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mf310 wrote: »

I reckon theres more they were probably too far ahead when i topped anyway

Cut often and they will use up their reserves in putting out new shoots and this will use up any stores they have. Something like cutting every second grazing for a year and you will see a huge reduction in numbers the second year.

yosemitesam1

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Mf310 wrote: »

I reckon theres more they were probably too far ahead when i topped anyway

Cut often and they will use up their reserves in putting out new shoots and this will use up any stores they have. Something like cutting every second grazing for a year and you will see a huge reduction in numbers the second year.

You do risk reducing the amount of productive grasses doing that and encouraging thistles to grow

ganmo

I prefer to cut once and spray the regrowth