Thistles, Thistles Everywhere!!

[Sedona]

Would you please give me your advice on how to best get rid of thistles. These are not the Canadian variety. These have single stalks.

[Kasota]

Are these in a yard or a pasture or?

My best thistle killers were Scottish Highland Cattle. They loved the stuff and cleared several pastures that were all overgrown when I first bought my old farm. There was plenty of grass - but they would loved the thistles. Munched down scraggly brush that had grown up, too. Turned them into nice pretty pastures...

[rambler]

Some critters will eat up the softer thistles. Depends what else they have to eat, and which critters.

If you aren't organic minded, many good broadleaf sprays work well on the softer thistles. Depends where they are growing, what other species of plants are growing there. Milestone, 2,4D, stinger, several dicomba products, Grazeon, and many others. Depends what other plants you have, near trees, near water, in a grass pasture, or what.....

I hear vinegar and salt kill them, tho personally I find those treatments worse for your soil long term than a good herbicide.

We would have to know where, what your personal rules are, and so forth to really help. More info....

Paul

[MO_cows]

We had the best luck with digging them up before they set seed. A shovel with a long skinny blade, a wheelbarrow and some time. We jumped on them as soon as they showed up.

[Raeven]

It really depends on the type of thistle you're dealing with. If a Bull thistle, then the easiest thing to do is to lop off the seed heads before you see purple. They are biennials, so after two years, they'll be gone. You want to keep on top of them, though, because they'll keep throwing out seed heads for as long as they can. I usually leave them until JUST before the purple is about to show, then lop away. Make a second trip through a couple weeks later. No more thistles.

[idigbeets]

I've had good luck burying them via moldboard plow... and what Raeven does, topping them in flower.

[7thswan]

Can you burn?

[highlands]

Our pigs eat them down to the ground and then dig up the roots and eat that. The result is while we used to have a lot of thistles they're now virtually all gone from our pasture areas. The pigs also love burdock which cause no end of trouble with sheep wool.

[JoePa]

Go around and spray them with Round Up- if there are animals in the pasture - then dig them up with a shovel - keep doing it -