Ragwort - solid ground

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tda

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We have had very little rain so far this year , the ragwort is still growing, I don't think it is going to be easy to dig it up and I don't want to make big divots so would it be totally silly to just cut it off at ground level by hand?

I feel it will probably still grow and flower later in the year 🙈
What is everyone else doing?
 
I take a small hand held garden fork and its going through the hard ground, I'm on clay, so the ground is really baked hard, but its getting in enough that I can take it out by the roots.
 
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In 2022 and 2023 no-one on the yard offered to help dig, and didn't turn up when asked to do so. So I went round the entire field cutting off the flowering heads. Fast forward to 2024 and the field was a sea of yellow. Words were exchanged, and everyone finally got together to dig - we filled seven tonne bags off ten acres. If you can hang on until we have had a few days rain, it should be easier to dig out. We just use garden forks and try to get as much root as possible.
Also, from observation, the standing flower stems do not go to seed until the stem starts to wither. Then the stem folds in half and dumps the seeds in the grass. Cutting off the flower head means the plant grows more flowers :mad: Hate the stuff. And we are not exactly over run with Cinnabar Moths either!
 
At home we are not so bad this year but last year was terrible and I took to just hacking it off daily at ground level whilst I poo picked. Obviously as you say it grows back but does avoid thre possibility of them eating it, so solves the immediate issue.

My retired horse is my problem at the moment. He is on different ground so its actually fairly easy to pull, but there is SO much of it popping up I just can't keep on top of it.
 
I am fortunate to only have a very few plants every year. I have one now so it was sprayed and I will cut it off after a few days for the poison to absorb to the root but before it dies and becomes palatable.
 
Last year the farmer didn’t harvest the hay on our land and by the time we got home from months in Greece the ragwort was out of control and the ground like yours was rock hard. Over 2 days we cleared nearly 17 acres using a big mattock - but I tore my right shoulder cuff which has caused a lot of problems and pain.
 
i would cut the flowers off, if you dont want to pull it yet! some peoples fields at my yard have gone mental over the last few days! I'm really worried as I've spent the last 15 years pulling and pulling my field and this is the first year I've got on top of it! I don't want to go back to square 1 because others haven't managed to pull theirs before it seeds.
 
Also observed - ragwort has a sour, rank smell. As soon as we cleared an area, the horses moved in and started grazing. So potentially, we are losing grazing by letting the stuff remain. One of life's crosses we have to bear isn't it?
 
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Thanks all, in all my horse owning years (a lot!) It has never been this dry here. I do use ragforks, just don't want to dig holes, usually if the ground is softer you can gently lift the plant with the ragfork and tease the roots out.
Might try the salt trick
 
Depending on whether horses are in there at the same time or not - and how much you have - a little spot spray with some weedkiller and then cut it off low in a week or so's time. Then you will kill the root and it shouldn't grow back.

Clearly if your horses are in there at the same time - big no no to weed killer!

Salt is often recommended but it stays in the soil for ages and damages anything trying to grow back in that same spot
 
tda said:
We have had very little rain so far this year , the ragwort is still growing, I don't think it is going to be easy to dig it up and I don't want to make big divots so would it be totally silly to just cut it off at ground level by hand?

I feel it will probably still grow and flower later in the year 🙈
What is everyone else doing?
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Cut as close to soil as possible, pour tablespoons of salt, or household bleach onto sappy stump. But recognise if there really is a field full, loads of salt and bleach residue ain’t great for soil health.
spray earlier before flowering, enthusiastic digging after a downpour, just don’t let any more seeds disperse - whatever you do. Good luck
 
We have a fair bit on a 2 acre paddock, our neighbouring farmer just tops his when it flowers so we've been battling it all the time we've been here (18 yrs) might try salt on half and see if it works
We have used and abused the paddock so it's looking pretty rough anyway, hopefully less ponies by next spring so recovery program can start
 
Random, but have you just tried pulling it by hand of course wearing suitable gloves. I found where it’s so dry the roots seem to come out even when just pulled my hand. It may depend on the soil type.
 
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I'm on clay and just about managing to twizzle the ragfork in & get plants out without too much earth. My bugbear is no one is doing the neighbouring field and I can see yellow bobbing flowers on the plant.

I'd just break it off at ground level and get it out properly later when there's been some rain. I wouldn't ever salt the ground, it just poisons the soil. Or use bleach, let alone in a field where horses are grazing (?????).
 
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I'm pulling what I'm can, rag forking what I can't pull and prioritising the ones coming into flower. There doesn't seem to be as much as last year, but the rock hard ground is making the job just as painful. Getting worried now though that the damn stuff is drying up in the heat and dying before I get to it
 
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Surbie said:
I'm on clay and just about managing to twizzle the ragfork in & get plants out without too much earth. My bugbear is no one is doing the neighbouring field and I can see yellow bobbing flowers on the plant.

I'd just break it off at ground level and get it out properly later when there's been some rain. I wouldn't ever salt the ground, it just poisons the soil. Or use bleach, let alone in a field where horses are grazing (?????).
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Sneak in and chop their heads off
 
I was digging it out which is such hard work when the ground is like concreate but moved to a new paddock on Sunday and there was so much of it! I grabbed pair of rubber gloves and pulled it up, seemed to be a lot easier than digging it out and i mostly got the roots too apart from on a couple that were really stubborn.
 
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Digging out ragwort is not a waste of time if you do it year after year. I have many fields as I have cows and only a few ponies now. I do it with the rag fork every year and the fields I have been doing for many years only take me an hour or so now. Cutting of the stem , thats not going to remove the leaves which are also poisonous and of course invasive, cutting it just makes it smaller but more vigorous the following year. One of my neighbors has been topping his ragwort for years and now his field is thick with it, instead of grass. If I leave a hole after pulling or digging a big bit out I just go round with some grass seed. Spraying is good but you have to remove all the dead leaves later. It's hard work and no body ever wants to help me but it works. If I see any ragwort with the cinnabar caterpillar on it I leave it for them to do their work. I have 8 fields between 11 and two acres, and I start long before it flowers, I just have one corner of a 6 acre field to finish now and a three acre field that was bad when I took it on two years ago , I expect it will be a lot of work but the rest are all clear of it now
 
tda said:
We have had very little rain so far this year , the ragwort is still growing, I don't think it is going to be easy to dig it up and I don't want to make big divots so would it be totally silly to just cut it off at ground level by hand?

I feel it will probably still grow and flower later in the year 🙈
What is everyone else doing?
Click to expand...
i am ragworting as i dee poo, yes it leaves holes, but still doing about 20 plants a day
 
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I’ve removed gazillions of ragwort plants from the field I was allocated 2 years ago. A ragwort fork is a fabulous tool. Even works now when the clay ground is hard and cracked..in fact the plants have come up with just roots and no soil attached so haven’t got holes left behind.
 
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