HAALP! Foxtail/Hare's Barley taken over!

RedDirt Cowgirl · #1 05/02/12, 01:03 PM

Had bad practice on the place for some years that concentrated the foxtail and I'm at my wit's end. Searched up all over here, and the cardboard/mulch seems to be the best thing, but that's not possible for me now. AND the voles and gophers are stashing it away, they're exploding too.

Anybody mananged to manage this stuff?

cowbelle · #2 05/02/12, 04:12 PM

You just have to somehow cut the stalk before it opens up and goes to seed, and yes, that means it will resprout and need to be done again. Lots of mowing, - or sheep it off (has to be done early, before the seed head opens!!) Horrible stuff - I'm from central CA and have dealt with it for years. Has killed more than a few dogs or meant big vet bills, and can hurt other animals too. Gets in any orifice and keeps going forward. I had a goat dairy for years, and during an AI seminar, found foxtails in at the does' cervix - irritating to say the least and they wouldn't have bred if left there. I never would have known why they didn't breed.

Mow and spray, mow and spray,. or concentrate sheep on the patches with electric net fencing. But I suspect you are too late in the year for that.

farmerDale · #3 05/02/12, 06:09 PM

Spray glyphosate in the fall, and you will not have to deal with it again...

Paquebot · #4 05/02/12, 08:14 PM

Foxtail and hare barley are both annuals. Glyphosate would have to be applied in the spring and early summer, not fall.

Martin

farmerDale · #5 05/03/12, 08:41 AM

Here foxtail is a perennial clumping grass. Different weed, same name I suppose.

Paquebot · #6 05/03/12, 09:49 AM

The reason why foxtail is so hated is that a single head will have hundreds of seeds. If crowded in poor soil, it may mature at barely a foot tall or grow to 4' in rich soil. In desperation late in the season, it will head out at only 3 or 4 inches. Never had it at home until I began gardening in a community garden complex. I swear that it came home on my shoes.

Martin

GoldenCityMuse · #7 05/03/12, 10:20 AM

Slash & BURN! Do a lot of weedeating down to bare ground.

Paquebot · #8 05/03/12, 10:57 AM

The one redeeming thing about foxtail and hare barley is that they can be easily controlled in a garden. Shear them off once with a hoe and they are done. Bad part is that the seed in the soil will remain viable for years and the process starts all over the next week. In the local community gardens, newcomers look at the lovely prepared soil and figure that gardening is going to be easy. Just plant some seeds and come back later and harvest. One rain later and their plot is greener than their lawn at home and few signs of what was planted.

Martin

RedDirt Cowgirl · #9 05/03/12, 11:01 AM

Appreciate all you guys! We've been mowing with a bag, pulling, and planting competition, still the stuff out-competes. The cattle will not graze it off, and we have two half-acre yards/house gardens were it has really gotten bad. Every gopher and vole hole is stuffed with it, and do they love the mulched ground! Seeded vetch and clover, the stuff just infests it. At a certain point mowing sends it horizontal and the seed heads are flat to the ground. Tried a weed burner attack without much action either. ( I was lucky to catch a sign in my heeler, she had gotten one up her popo and it was operation time at the vets.)

Let others take warning, weed whacking was what sent us to this hell. Herbicides, here we come...

oregon woodsmok · #10 05/03/12, 05:33 PM

I've got cheat grass, not foxtail, but they cause the same issues. Roundup gets it. I've got a vendetta against it since is can seriously harm the dogs. It's war, no holds barred.

My ducks and geese will eat it when it first comes up. Mow it and it immediately sets brand new seed heads down next to the ground. Cutting it doesn't work. Digging it is difficult because t has a serious root system and doesn't want to let go.

RedDirt Cowgirl · #11 05/04/12, 11:53 AM

We watch like crazy for cheat grass, so far we've been lucky. (Tar weed we just pull in the early summer if it spots in) When you Roundup, do you try to plant something else?

farmerDale · #12 05/04/12, 12:57 PM

Roundup is more benign than most would have you believe. It is not soil active, so yes, you can replant anything you wish in that spot with no harm.

The thing about glyphosate, is that it translocates throughout the target plant, and kills it ALL, including the roots, which is why it is so effective. Once you have other stuff growing there, it will out compete the weeds, and one simple glyphosate app. can be effective for years, therefore.

In 2009, I sprayed a field I bought from some "organic" farmers, that was a filthy, wild, neglected mess from the typical organic mindset, and was very unproductive because crops could not compete. I gave it a reasonable shot of glyphosate, and since then, it has produced wonderfully, with little to no need for more herbicide applications, because now the crops can grow free of competition. The field in question was COVERED in dandelions, foxtail barley, Canada thistles, along with a myriad of annual weeds. Once you remove the weeds, and get crops growing, there is little chance for the weeds to become re-established.

Don't be shy, the glyphosate is not a soil sterilant, nor will it kill you, or harm your animals.

Best of luck!

oregon woodsmok · #13 05/04/12, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedDirt Cowgirl

We watch like crazy for cheat grass, so far we've been lucky.......... When you Roundup, do you try to plant something else?

Cheat grass doesn't like water. So I fight it in areas where I don't have any irrigation. Water is too expensive here to have everything irrigated and planted with a preferred plant.

There is also the problem that the seeds blow and I get wind coming from neighbors that don't do anything about weeds. There is no end to the battle. But my place is relatively clear of tumbleweed, knapweed, and cheat grass. I just keep after it.

I keep top seeding with orchard grass, and it has established a little bit. That has helped. It's drought resistant once it gets established.

Other weeds can be reduced simply by keeping them cut short so they can't go to seed. That doesn't work on the tumbleweed, knapweed, and cheat grass.

motdaugrnds · #14 05/05/12, 07:39 AM

glyphosate...glyphosate...trying to remember where I've seen that as it seems I've seen it on one of the items in my garden shed.

I don't use Round-Up. I use Gly-4; but will need to run out when weather permits and find out what is on the label. Gly-4 works like Round-up in that you spray what you are wanting to kill and within 2 weeks you see dynamic signs it is dying. (It takes time for this stuff to work its way down to the root system, which is where I want it if I'm using it on anything.) Also, I can plant anything I want in the same area after those plants have been killed off with this Gly-4 and what I plant grows nicely.

Question: Is what you'll are calling "Hares Barley" the same thing as Rabbit Tobacco? I've found a lot of this whitish/graish plant growing abundantly this year in my garden; and I've never seen it before. Not sure if it is useful or just what to do with it; so have done nothing as yet and it is already flowering. Wondering now if I shouldn't start being aggressive in killing it!

Paquebot · #15 05/05/12, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

Question: Is what you'll are calling "Hares Barley" the same thing as Rabbit Tobacco? I've found a lot of this whitish/graish plant growing abundantly this year in my garden; and I've never seen it before. Not sure if it is useful or just what to do with it; so have done nothing as yet and it is already flowering. Wondering now if I shouldn't start being aggressive in killing it!

Hare barley is a non-native annual grass which grows in tufts. As with foxtail, one seed this year may mean a thousand more plants next year.

In our community gardens, seems that a new grass shows up each year. Several years ago it was goose grass which would put even giant foxtail to shame. Luckily it was confined to 2 plots and no seeds were allowed to remain in the complex.

Martin