# Best way to get rid of thistle?



## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Last year we mulched our garden with straw from the neighbor. Little did we know it had a LOT of thistle seed in it. Now I have thistle coming up all over the place. What is the best way of getting rid of it? 

Can I put down a thick layer of cardboard, then poke a hole where I want to plant, plant my vegie and then cover all this again with fresh straw? Will the cardboard be enough to kill out the thistle but yet allow the water to drain through? My thought is the cardboard will break down and be a mulch hopefully after the thistle is also dead. Other ideas? I really don't want to do the plastic weed barrier as it's a pain to pull back up to rototill.


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## mare (Aug 31, 2006)

if you find a good way to get rid of them let me know!!!! i resorted to using chemicals last year and every time i sprayed it seemed like twenty came up in the same spot. i am thinking the chemicals are out now with the bees too. i know alot of people who just cut them off and dump water in the stem, i have tried it and it doesnt seem to work and i have used vinegar on them without any affect. gasoline seems to kill them but i dont wanna do that cuz it cant be good for the soil or cheap.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Aggessive hoeing(so the seeds don't develop), Weed-B-Gone by Ortho with 2,4,D dabbed on each plant stem when it is growing actively in warm weather.

A growing thistle can outlive the darkness for awhile under the cardboard, it may travel until it finds the sun......And the thistle down seeds can travel by air from your neighor to your garden. It may not be from the straw.....

geo


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

The treatment depends majorly on the type of thistle. Let us know what type it is, and I will have a better idea of treatment. What works for one type can very well proliferate another species, so awareness of species is paramount


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I was fairly successful at suffocating thisles with a thick leaf mulch. I didn't mow the leaves, just raked them into the garden. Left them all winter and moved the from just the spots I wanted to plant. Any thistles that do come up are pulled and pulled and pulled. The leaves were huge sycamore leaves, the thistles canadian.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

I have a thistle battle raging here. Sheep's pen is packed with it. It was bad last year so this year I know it will be a nightmare.

I tried chems out of desperation but that killled all the weeds and I want the others.
I also hated using the chems to begin with.

This year I figured I will just hoe them out as they pop up.

I didnt have any issues when we had goats so I have 2 new goats that are for weed control. I know there are to many thistle for them now, but I hope between them and the hoe we will prevail!


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## MaineFarmMom (Dec 29, 2002)

Weeds tell the soil's story. Check the phosphorous.


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## adamtheha (Mar 14, 2007)

Cardboard will almost certainly block moisture into the soil. Half of cardboard is glue. A heavy mulch will supress them, as will a cover crop like buckwheat. Thistle don't like competition, but they love tilling, since it brings root fragments to the surface where they sprout again.
They also don't like very fertile soil. Cattle and goats can be trained to eat them too.
That being said, I think they spontaneously regenerate from nothing. You'll never be fully rid of them.


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Thanks everyone for your ideas and suggestions. I know it was in the straw we got. We ran short of straw and got some from this neighbor. The only area that grew thistles was where we put this bale. This ground is not the most fertile. It's very hard and doesn't even grow weeds all that great. We tried to hack at the weeds last year but the hoe just bounced off the surface without going very deep into the soil. Why we wanted to put the garden there is beyond me. We were debating whether or not to rototill before trying the deep mulch idea. Do you think the cardboard glue will be toxic to the soil or plants/vegies? I am now thinking of doing a deep mulch in the entire area but having raised beds to bring in better soil for the plants. Has anyone done lasagna gardens? I think it's an interesting idea but not sure how well it would work in the raised beds. Thoughts?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Cardboard will hurt neither your plants nor the thistles as they'd both love it. Nor can you pile enough mulch over thistles to stop them. And, creating a rich raised bed over them will make them twice as happy. Only way to kill them without any form of chemical is with a hoe, repeated 3 times a week until the roots have exhausted all reserve energy.

Martin


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## adamtheha (Mar 14, 2007)

I'm going to disagree about the cardboard, there's a reason people use it to kill grass, and mulch around perennials. I was wrong about the tilling, it seems that used to be the most efficient way to kill them in times past. It's true, once the roots run out of energy, the plants will die off.
Here's what a search revealed: (Caveat, I have tried none of these) Cutting the stems, and putting salt on the cut end should kill the roots as well.
Applying a slow acting herbicide directly to the plant. Fast acting ones will kill the top but not the root.
Thistles do hate shade, so they don't compete well. Soil fertility doesn't seem to matter much, these things can grow like nuts in almost any soil.

I have a ton of thistle, and I'm quite sure that rototilling will bring plenty of roots to the surface where they can sprout. I'll have to cultivate with a hoe this year. At years end I'll mulch heavily with wood chips.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

adamtheha said:


> I'm going to disagree about the cardboard, there's a reason people use it to kill grass, and mulch around perennials.


Thistles ain't like grass! You can set a bale of straw on top of a Canadian thistle plant and it will grow up through it. You can dump 5 yards of wood chips on top of it and it will grow through it. I have seen both!

Martin


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