What to do with ragwort?

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Abacus

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I have one field which has a ridiculous amount of ragwort rosettes growing. I pulled all the tall shoots through spring and summer and walked the land religiously but these rosettes seem to have appeared in the last couple of months. What is the best long term approach to getting rid of them? Presumably spraying now wouldn't work as the growing season has ended? I would love to use the field as it has a shelter, for my two that live out, but as there's not much grass any more I am worried they might actually eat it if I just leave it there.

I only acquired the land in February this year, and I know it was empty for a year previously, so it had at least 1 year of ragwort setting seed etc (prior to that I know the old tenants who probably did try to keep on top of it).

Thanks for any help!
 
We use depitox, we usually spray 2 yrs out of 3 and in between during the summer if any comes into flower we just take the heads of so it can't seed.
Having tried pulling it in the past when there was 1000's of rosette plants I would NEVER pull again. The only other thing I do is cut the tops off any large plants going into winter.
 
I sympathise as I have a similar problem
I cleared all the small seedlings and rosettes in April and since June I have been digging constantly during the week and weekends. I have finally cleared all bar some along the fence line but I will dig it this week as they wont eat it as there is grass.
I have never seen so much though.
Next year I will spray if it starts to come through again. You can get barrier h which doesn't need a certificate.
 
I have the same problem, I sprayed with Depitox, which worked really well. The bit that wasn't so badly affected I put three sheep on and pulled the bigger plants. As its a biannual I now have seed that germinated last year that is now big enough to dig up, but walking it yesterday I also have small seedlings that have germinated this year, on the non sheep grazed part.
Thinking whether to spray it all off and start again, its much abused pasture, and put some stronger growing grass, then cut it for hay. I think reality I will have to pay to have it sprayed. Its a b****.
 
Spray, in spring, with something like MCPA (Spear) or one of the ones showing at least 3 on here

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If you spray now, although there are enough leaves for the spray to get into I don't think they are growing strongly enough to absorb it properly. If you want to dig some up because for example you can't shut the land off, put some salt in the hole left behind and that will kill any residual roots.
 
Abacus said:
I have one field which has a ridiculous amount of ragwort rosettes growing. I pulled all the tall shoots through spring and summer and walked the land religiously but these rosettes seem to have appeared in the last couple of months. What is the best long term approach to getting rid of them? Presumably spraying now wouldn't work as the growing season has ended? I would love to use the field as it has a shelter, for my two that live out, but as there's not much grass any more I am worried they might actually eat it if I just leave it there.

I only acquired the land in February this year, and I know it was empty for a year previously, so it had at least 1 year of ragwort setting seed etc (prior to that I know the old tenants who probably did try to keep on top of it).

Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...


Dig them up and burn them or put the pulled up plants on the muck heap. If you do it every day you will get on top of them, you sure will
 
TYSSANDI said:
Dig them up and burn them or put the pulled up plants on the muck heap. If you do it every day you will get on top of them, you sure will
Click to expand...

I pulled rag in less than 1 acre section of our field for at least 4hrs a day for 2-3 months, plants as thin as matchsticks were flowering and if just 1/4 inch root is left behind there is another plant ready to haunt you.
I'm not certain, it's a while since I checked but I seem to remember according to DEFRA rag shouldn't be put on a muck heap.
 
Thanks all for the helpful suggestions. I really think there is too much to pull, and it's a field of over 3 acres so quite an area to try and manage. Might just have to abandon it until spring, although it would have been useful.

I don't think the field is reseeded from next door as the farmer next door sprays everything religiously (perhaps too much) and the neighbouring pony fields are well kept. I guess this one was just left alone for too long.

I think you aren't supposed to put whole plants on a muck heap as the seeds can still be dispersed. You are meant to wilt or burn them and relatively small quantities can be bagged and put in domestic waste. I would guess if it's just the rosette without seeds, it won't harm to leave it in a pile to wilt, and them out it on the muck heap.
 
I wish you patience and loads of good luck but it can be beaten (sort of).

Because of the amount of time it takes for the plants to rot after spraying we found that cutting and collecting the cuttings 2-3 weeks after spraying works really well though we do keep our horses off for 4-6 weeks not the two recommended as this gives the grass a chance to spread and fill in the gaps left my the dead weeds.

I'm sure lots have people have different ways of dealing with the problem but that has worked for us after digging up over 20 half full 1 ton builders bags of rag and the massive clumps of soil that clung to the roots.
 
I feel your pain! I hand pulled all I could see and burned it one night over the summer last year. We had loads of it, hardly any comes back now. Not tried spraying it before but have heard good things.
 
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