Ragwort

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Elf On A Shelf

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What sprays do you guys use to kill it?!?!?! I think I have tried every one on the market and every year it browns the leaves then the plant regenerates as new and I have to dig it up! Same with docks! Do I have some super mutated forms of these god damned plants!?!?!?! It's a really annoying running battle every year and I am getting seriously sick and fed up of it!

Last Sat/Sun I sprayed the docks and ragwort with Grazon Pro. 1/2 the docks are dead, the other half regenerating. The ragwort is mostly unchanged with a few brown tinged edges. I used a stronger solution than they recommend too!

Short of torching the whole place I am oit of ideas!
 
I use a mixture of salt, vinegar and washing up liquid! Doesn't work on docks but kills the ragwort. Think I saw it on twitter and decided it was worth a try.
Put the vinegar in a big bottle. Add as much salt as it will absorb (needs a few good shakes as you do it) then add a couple of inches of washing up liquid on top. It shouldn't fizz up if there is enough salt in it. Cash and carry or Chinese supermarket are the cheapest place. Then I put it into bottles with spray top and give the plants a good covering.
 
I had a real problem with ragwort that wasn't being touched by digging up, used combination of Hurler, Thrust and Activate-G in recommended proportions with a boom sprayer on the quad - was expensive but effective.
 
24D did my ragwort last year. I'm in the middle of trying to deal with docks myself. Dockstar, Eagle, Forefront and Pastor Pro are all supposed to work on mature/ established dock plants. 24D won't work for mature docks.

Dockstar only works for docks, so something like Pastor Pro is better if you have different weed species. It will do both docks and ragwort. I'm surprised Graxon Pro didn't do the job though ?

The thing is you need a CPH number to get the products I mentioned, as they are for agricultural use only.
 
We battled for years - dug it up, torched it, hand sprayed it. Always came back. Finally, three years ago, we started to have it professionally sprayed (with Thrust the first year, then Polo, then Thrust again last year). This year AT LAST we can see the impact - there is hardly any coming up when normally it would be thriving in this weather. The guy who sprayed it said that most fields can be moved onto a 2-3 year spraying rotation once the "big" problem is dealt with. Not cheap, but peace of mind!
 
I have land where it's not possible to use chemicals (SSSI, adjoining trout fishing on 2 sides). One year when it really got bad, I waited until the stuff was in full flower and mashed it with the topper. Of course I couldn't use the field for months, but it worked very well.
 
I've tried burning, topping, spraying etc and nothing works. I may have to ask the farmer nicely if he has the good stuff and can nip in when doing his crops if I shift the beasts.

I will try the vingar/salt/washing liquid on a small patch to see if it works on this demon stuff!
 
Sorry to thread jack but those who dig it up, how do you dispose of it?
I dug up half a black bin liners worth which is now sitting in my tack room. I don't have a garden incinerator or bonfire to burn it and we don't have a garden bin. I believe the tips are closed currently too, and I'm not sure if they were open if it's ok to take it there anyway?
 
I have used Barrier H for years. I spray the Ragwort and leave it for two weeks and then spray it again and leave it for two weeks. Once it has completely died off (down to the roots) I carefully dig it out put it in a heavy duty plastic bin liner so that i don't spread any seeds on the ground when I move it and then burn it. This has kept and Ragwort to a minimum. It is important to kill off and completely remove the roots as otherwise they will regenerate to form a new plant.
 
I use depitox, but stronger than recommended. found it great on docks too. I had one paddock last year that had loads of docks, this year hardly any.
 
Certain pasture weeds can indicate the mineral deficiencies and toxicities in the soil. High potassium and low nitrogen (due to grazing) is the primary imbalance commonly seen and accompanied by the usual stubborn buttercup, dock, ragwort.

so you can try doing a soil test and adjusting via fertilisation.

However, the massive impact is if the weeds were allowed to flower and spread their seeds - causing germination for years ahead. The pro-active approach is to always cut them just before flowering or just after you see flowers open....way before seed heads develop. This way, if done annually, youll ensure no new seeds are dropped onto the pasture, and the old seeds eventually lose their viability to germinate.
Its the long haul plan, but does work. IVe done this for 7 yrs now and have reduced weeds massively.

Salt works but bear in mind it’ll kill the grass too.
Where ever there is patchy grass, weeds tend to ‘fill the gaps’ and then easily take over, so a light combing over with a scarifier and over-seeding in spring helps thicken up the grass sward, and out-compete the weeds.
 
Elf On A Shelf said:
What sprays do you guys use to kill it?!?!?! I think I have tried every one on the market and every year it browns the leaves then the plant regenerates as new and I have to dig it up! Same with docks! Do I have some super mutated forms of these god damned plants!?!?!?! It's a really annoying running battle every year and I am getting seriously sick and fed up of it!

Last Sat/Sun I sprayed the docks and ragwort with Grazon Pro. 1/2 the docks are dead, the other half regenerating. The ragwort is mostly unchanged with a few brown tinged edges. I used a stronger solution than they recommend too!

Short of torching the whole place I am oit of ideas!
Click to expand...

I have been out of ponies and horses for many years now, and no longer have to deal with ragwort, docks and thistles etc. What I used to do was chop off at ground level with a sharp spade and put a teaspoonfull of salt on the remaining bit, you do need to do it before they get too big and go to seed though, otherwise obviously, they will reseed. Also its best done when its not going to rain for a few days to give it a better chance to work. Make sure you remove all the chopped off ragwort as it is palatable when it is dead, and anything else with a seedhead. This way you are avoiding spraying chemicals and having to keep off them off the ground for some considerable time. However buttercups are a nightmare when they take over and they need spraying with with something strong, can't remember what we used at the time though, buttercups can cause buttercup poisoning which can make them really ill. They say in the gardening world, 1 years seeds, 7 years weeds, so keep at it and eventually you will get there !
 
Butterbear said:
Weed burners are a thing...
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I find them totally useless, what are you using?



Glyphosate doesnt work on my dock, they just grow again. For two years now I've chopped off immature seed heads at ground level .... seems to be working slowly.

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Finally after a 10 year struggle I had the ragwort sprayed the professional that did it says three years should see the fields clear and then be able to do it every 2 or 3 years
 
I'm not using one. We have a bit of a dock issue but touch wood ragwort isn't an issue. I have no idea if weed burners work, have just heard of people using them. When I've had issues before I've always dug it up and burnt it. Not much help really, sorry! ?
 
chaps89 said:
Sorry to thread jack but those who dig it up, how do you dispose of it?
I dug up half a black bin liners worth which is now sitting in my tack room. I don't have a garden incinerator or bonfire to burn it and we don't have a garden bin. I believe the tips are closed currently too, and I'm not sure if they were open if it's ok to take it there anyway?
Click to expand...

We have pulled tonnes of the stuff over the years (one field is hard by a motorway embankment, so seeds blow in from there, no matter what). We remove it from the field and put it in a huge heap. We are lucky that we have somewhere to do that, but it composts down perfectly well. The only issue we had one year is that a huge colony of wasps moved in, and we didn't realise until one of us stood on the heap to help add to it.
 
scruffyponies said:
We have pulled tonnes of the stuff over the years (one field is hard by a motorway embankment, so seeds blow in from there, no matter what). We remove it from the field and put it in a huge heap. We are lucky that we have somewhere to do that, but it composts down perfectly well. The only issue we had one year is that a huge colony of wasps moved in, and we didn't realise until one of us stood on the heap to help add to it.
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???

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Here, docks and ragwort are part of the ‘noxious weed’ title and legislation making it law for landowners to have to try to eradicate them. Yet as scruffyponies said, if the council dont bother upholding their own laws, and seeds from these weeds that line the roads and embankments blow into our fields, its like fighting a losing battle.

Does the uk agri dept. Have noxious weeds legislation?
 
Sheep! After many years of struggling with a terrible ragwort infeststion, spraying, pulling... we finally got sheep and within a year there isn't a single piece that grows in our field anymore
 
That's true, ragwort all around the sheep fields here but none in them. They eat the young rosettes. They don't live long enough for it to kill them, think. Maybe they metabolize it a bit differently too.


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