Am trying salt on the thistles. Spraying with RoundUp didn't give lasting results. I have cut the buds off and sprayed for the last 26 years. Am going to try what the old timers used to swear by. At least salting marks the ones I have done and I'm not scratching my head about whether I sprayed that one or not. I know that letting the donks have a go at them works because they eat the buds and they have cleared the areas they are in. But I have too many pastures for the 5 critters to take care of. What do you do? And do you salt your asparagus bed in the fall?

Salting works by killing the ground. I bought bugs and they have killed a lot of my thistles. One kind eats the seed in the buds and another makes galls in the stem. Check with your land grant college.

Salting works by killing the ground. I bought bugs and they have killed a lot of my thistles. One kind eats the seed in the buds and another makes galls in the stem. Check with your land grant college.

It depends on what type of thistles. Those tall Canada thistles ,you can mow them several times and they get root bound and die. The musk thistles I use 2-4-D and have good luck with that, but it will also kill the canada thistles. I have never used salt

A lot of these weeds or thistles produce millions of seeds and the return each year can very well be seeds that did not germinate last year or in past years. They can lay for years and not germinate.

Also, you need to spray when the thistles or weeds are not stressed, but are in a growing state.
If Round Up is not working for you, try Round Up Brush and Wood Killer. Also you can buy generic Round Up which is glyphosate.

Salt works! And if you use the right salt it won't hurt the ground. I did the thistle then pour a little epsom salts in the hole. Besides killing the thistle you also get magnesium and sulfur. We spent two days and a couple of six packs digging thistle and salting them in the hay field and they have never come back. That was 10 year ago!

Not wild about bringing in bugs, Dale. I keep thinking of the beetles that were brought in to eat aphids on soy beans and proceeded to invade our houses way beyond the geographic freeze lines. Horrendous pests!

I have used the generic RoundUp. And, yes, the seed bank in the ground has a lot of life in it. My farm is used exclusively for grazing and making hay and I really don't want to spray chemicals here.

Thank you, Jerry Hicks for confirming the validity of using salt. I was told to use bagged mixing salt. I have thought of using Epsom Salts but didn't know about putting it into the hole. Will try that. And... I haven't used a six-pack but will be sure to buy one for next time :)

How about asparagus? I need to kill grass that is growing in the bed. A former neighbor, an old-time farmer, used to salt his asparagus bed in the fall and it was nice and clear the following spring and summer. Apparently, asparagus is very tolerant of salt.

Let me preface this by saying I am not a chemist and I'm finding my chemistry (and other sciences as well) training in school are woefully inadequate, but it's my understanding that a salt is basically any compound that produces a neutral pH, or neutral electrical charge. So, this causes me to wonder if the reason Epsom salts work isn't so much because it's a salt but perhaps the thistles can't deal with a neutral pH and the salt adjusts the pH faster than applying lime? Very often when someone says "salt" the automatic thought turns to table salt,or sodium chloride, and applying salt to soil brings to mind such images as the Romans sowing the soils of Carthage with salt to prohibit anything ever growing there again. I have also noticed that peeing on a thistle will kill it. I learned this by noticing that when a cow peed on them in the field they died. I tried doing the same myself (not recommended in less isolated areas) and it worked, the thistle died. So, I would be interested in knowing more about why this works.

A friend of mine kills tansy (I know, not thistle) by applying a tablespoon of ammonium sulphate to the center of the rosette. I have killed a field full of spotted catsear (noxious, but not thistle!) when we applied ferrous sulphate to the field one winter. I have also applied 150 lb/acre Redmond salt to the entire pasture to get adequate sodium in the hay for horse nutrition (it worked, and there is a method an agronomist uses to determine a safe "base saturation" of sodium in the soil). Concentrated amounts of the fertilizer will kill a plant. I would take a spray bottle of water out to wet the leaves and apply the fertilizer directly. Heck, I may go out and try that today! Canadian thistle spreads by underground runners which is one reason it's so hard to kill.

Barb

Curtail will kill canadian thistle dead but there is allways a few that wasn't up when you sprayed. We get the best kill here by spraying after they bloom and are replenishing the root reserves.

Since I pasture pregnant cows and heifers, I WILL NOT use any chemicals, especially in spring when the cattle are due to arrive. Mixing salt seems innocuous enough as it is used as a dietary supplement anyway. Unfortunately, I have 130 acres of pasture land and 30 acres of hay field and I do not think I can physically apply salt to that many acres of the noxious weeds. But I will try. Thankfully, it is not wall to wall thistle! Anyone on the asparagus?

thistles can be a problem but what about burdock -- now that's a nasty weed

I have to relate something about the burdock. It is a nasty weed, but also very useful! As some you may recall, my partner got burnt pretty bad a little over a year ago. The doctors recommended skin grafts. After one of our Amish neighbors recommended a more natural treatment we decided to go that route. They had an ointment called Burn and Wound cream. To apply it, we used burdock leaves. The burdock was for the pain. We gathered leaves, removed the central vein, and then dried them. We then put the leaves in hot water until the green color began to ooze out and then cut the leave to the shape of the wound. I then blotted out the water and smear the top surface with the cream and applied this to the wound. After the second treatment my partner threw away his pain pills. Nine days after the treatment hair was growing in some of the wound. The plastic surgeon who was monitoring all this because he was sure he would end up doing the skin grafts anyway, was amazed and assured me that we "got lucky" but the burdock was really amazing. My partner said that he could feel it pulling when it was laid on the wound and if it was placed on healthy skin for very long, it would pull so hard that it bruised the skin. The pain relief was incredible.

The cows in this area eat a lot of the canadian thistle. Nothing else to eat at times. If you mow them off, at the right stage of wilt, cows will eat them.

Go to “on pasture.com”, they have a free newsletter ( they do ask for support) on all sorts of grazing problems/solutions. One of the solutions they have is teaching cows to eat canadian thistle. In one of their new letters there is tables on food value of plants and canadian thistle ranks right up there with alfalfa.

I haven’t tried this as i only found this site last winter, I would recommend this site to anyone grazing any stock.

Jerry Hicks, good to hear of the benefits of burdock on damaged skin. Burdock has a great many medicinal uses. I have a book around here somewhere that speaks to that. The roots are beneficial also. Of course, we curse the "weed" when the burrs tangle in our livestock tails and manes but they are quite easy to remove when one thinks "take the hair out of the burr" and not "take the burr out of the hair." Thank you for your helpful responses.

I read up a little on Asparagus this weekend. John Seymour recommends putting some salt on it but he doesn't say how much. He says that asparagus is a beach growing plant originally and that is why it benefits from salt. He says if you can get it, some applying some sea weed is good. I may dust mine with some of my kelp that I supplement the stock with and see what it does.

For Burdock just move some sheep or goats into the area. There won't be a leaf in sight when they get done.

Burdock root contains digitalis. My late MIL used to drink burdock tea AND take digitalis pills. Darn near killed her until her doc figured out she was about triple dosing herself. Always remember that herbs are MEDICINES. They may be pretty mild compared to whatever you get from your doc, but it's still a medicine.

Thistles seam so mild. Leafy spurge is our villain is this area. Not much works long term, nothing kills it (nothing verified). Nora I would sure come help on 160 ac if you would help on 3500 ac. LOL It is a big task no matter how many ac. I am thinking that I am going to try to get the cattle to eat it. Have been told that you can train cows to eat the spurge first by applying something that the cattle like (corn syrup) to the spurge. I have tried water and molasses and they do eat it. I was told that if you get your cattle started (3-4 years) that they will eat it without the molasses or corn syrup. I have been told that it works on thistles also. But you have to do it early, before the plant gets woody. Goats work but if you have 600 ac pastures you have to herd the goats to each spot every day. We have done this and it works, but just don’t have the kids around to babysit the goats.



Jim