Noxious and invasive weed control

[windthrown]

OK, what weeds do you have to deal with and what do you spray them with or how to you remove them?

Here we was 4 main plants that we spray for in our forest stands and new planted areas: Blackberry, scotch broom, poison oak, and bull thistle (as well as scotch thistle). My methods for blackberries vary. On huge blackberry overgrown areas I use the tractor to mechanically remove them with a tooth bar bolted onto the bucket. The bigger they are, the easier they are to remove this way. Does not work on smaller infestations though. For small plants and regrowing bucket removed blackberry roots, we use Crossbow in spring for best results. In more sensitive stream areas we use a Garlon snip and dip method instead of spraying. This method uses a mix of one part Garlon to one part horticultural oil. Cut a blackberry vine anywhere and dip the ends into the mix. That is usually enough to kill the plant down to the roots.

For Scotch Brooms we use Garlon, but timing the spray is hard for these guys. I find that spring to mid summer is best. When they bloom they are easy to spot and spray. We use Crossbow or Garlon on Poison Oak, and spray it whenever we are target spraying blackberries or scotch broom. Finally I have found that Roundup works about the best for Bull and Scotch thistle... the thorny mothers from some other planet sent to invade Earth.

 

[bookerdog]

Blackberry, scotch broom, poison oak,

I used alot of chemical before, but now Im trying goats and its working real well.

 

[windthrown]

We tried goat here too, but they gurdled the trees and killed as many trees and shrubs that we planted as the PO, blackberry and brooms. Brooms are not supposed to be good for goats or sheep either. So we took them off the forest areas and back to the pastures. They do a great job keeping down the blackberries in the pastures though.

 

[Spotted Owl]

Our place isn't the scale of yours, but we spray a mix.

3 gal pack

1.5c Round Up
1.5c Crossbow
1c sticker if it looks like rain soon
1 cup powder laundry detergent w/ bleach whiteners


knock it all down in the fall/winter. When the spring growth starts spray 3 times 2 wks apart. Then spot spray every 4 weeks for a couple times. Once we got them down and started this, after a couple years we don't need the 4 wk sprays anymore.


Oh ya anyone got a stay of 2-4-D the are willing to part with ?


Owl

 

[bookerdog]

We tried goat here too, but they gurdled the trees and killed as many trees and shrubs that we planted as the PO, blackberry and brooms. Brooms are not supposed to be good for goats or sheep either. So we took them off the forest areas and back to the pastures. They do a great job keeping down the blackberries in the pastures though.

I haven't had a problem with them gurdling yet. I was told that keeping minerals for them will help with that problem. They seem to gurdle bark to get minerals. Brooms are suppose to throw does cycles off. We havn't seen that though. I would say that is might be the case if that was the only thing they have to eat.