YourValentine
Well-Known Member
Docks are a symptom of poor soil health - mainly compaction through over grazing. Their thick, tough root breaks through the soil compaction allowing them to out compete grasses/other plants by accessing water and nutrients other plants can't.
The long term solution is to improve the soil health so they have more competition while knocking them back regularly to reduve the energy stored in their tap root.
If you can cut/mow/chop them off at ground level as much as you can and rest 1/4 of your field at a time to give the grass a chance to establish and the soil a rest from being walked on.
You mentioned in the OP that you want to be there a long time, think of this as a 2-3year stratergy to improve the general health of your field.
Please dont spray. We are in a massive biodiversity collapse, insect numbers have dropped 70% in the last few decades, a significant contributing factor to the decline is the widespread liberal use of chemicals - herbicides & pesticides - on farms and in gardens, cities etc.
Spraying will kill them this year but they will be back next year. So you'll be spraying again, and it will eventually kill them off, but at what cost?
Better field management is the more sustainable long term solution. And while you are at livery you're hoping to make a long term commitment to that field so have the ability to plan long term.
The long term solution is to improve the soil health so they have more competition while knocking them back regularly to reduve the energy stored in their tap root.
If you can cut/mow/chop them off at ground level as much as you can and rest 1/4 of your field at a time to give the grass a chance to establish and the soil a rest from being walked on.
You mentioned in the OP that you want to be there a long time, think of this as a 2-3year stratergy to improve the general health of your field.
Please dont spray. We are in a massive biodiversity collapse, insect numbers have dropped 70% in the last few decades, a significant contributing factor to the decline is the widespread liberal use of chemicals - herbicides & pesticides - on farms and in gardens, cities etc.
Spraying will kill them this year but they will be back next year. So you'll be spraying again, and it will eventually kill them off, but at what cost?
Better field management is the more sustainable long term solution. And while you are at livery you're hoping to make a long term commitment to that field so have the ability to plan long term.
