Docks leaves

G

greyhorse535

Active Member
Joined
28 May 2014
Messages
30
Visit site
There are loads in my feild and my horse seems to like eating them if they are poisonous how do I get rid of them?:rolleyes:

*dock* not docks haha
 
No they are not poisonous - the best thing to do is either spot spray, or mow/strim the b**gers down!

I have an old petrol mower and routinely mow my weeds down - less come back the following year and no need to worry about keeping the horses of the paddocks due to chemicals.
 
I wish ours them, we currently have about 30% of our land covered in them! We tried spot treating with not much difference (dont think solution mix was strong enough) never had a problem on this scale till last year. Petrol strimmers scare me so i think i may go at them with some kitchen scissors when i get a spare month!
 
Keep cutting them down and they will give up! When I first got my land it was infested with docks having been set aside. We just kept topping them and now have hardly any.

And, no, they're not poisonous but they are very bitter which is why most horses won't eat them.
 
Slightly Foxed said:
Keep cutting them down and they will give up! When I first got my land it was infested with docks having been set aside. We just kept topping them and now have hardly any.

And, no, they're not poisonous but they are very bitter which is why most horses won't eat them.
Click to expand...

I root the one on my paddocks with a ragwort fork. Just wait until the ground is wet. You can get the long root out like this. Do this before the go to seed
 
It's a very good ( or bad ) year for docks .
For the first time in 25 years I have had to spray one of my fields we did some work on the septic tank soak away last summer and the disrupted patch is a lawn of docks .
We sprayed with broadshot last Saturday and they look very poorly .
I will mow them off and collect them .
 
I sprayed a patch of docks with Grazon 90 and they haven't come back in three years. I do strim a patch in front of my field shelter but they keep growing and come back every year.
 
You're lucky that your horse eats them. Only one of mine will touch them, and they'll all eat pretty much everything else. As others have said, you can mow them out easily. How many do you see in lawns?

Rather than lift them with a rag fork, which is hard work, due to the length of the tap root, you can wait for them to start to bolt, when they'll pull from damp soil very easily, as the root has gone (starch has been used to feed the growth).
 
if you're spot spraying, try adding a little washing up liquid to the solution, it helps break down the 'greasy' coating that docks seem to have on their leaves and lets the weed killer in.
 
i make sure i cut any that have grown before they go too seed. i also weed kill that seems to get any smaller ones and year on year there are less and less.
 
Ibblebibble said:
if you're spot spraying, try adding a little washing up liquid to the solution, it helps break down the 'greasy' coating that docks seem to have on their leaves and lets the weed killer in.
Click to expand...
That's a good tip, ours have been very resistant to any products we've put on them. My ponies don't eat them but there are things called Dock Beetles which do. Unfortunately we don't get those round here very often. We've tried persistent cutting but they still came back, so I have been digging them up, one by one. I have been doing this for ages and am finally seeing a difference. There is part of the field which is awful to dig in as there is a lot of buried rubble so can't get the fork in. I will try spraying with the washing up liquid/poison combo and see if that works down there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top