How To Get The Sow Thistle Out Of The Plot?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Sow thistle is a very annoying and terribly annoying plant, because many summer residents have to actively fight with it throughout the warm season. And the impressive resistance of this weed to almost any conditions significantly complicates the fight - the sow thistle is not only endowed with powerful rhizomes that can easily extract the lion's share of nutrients from the soil, but also easily take root even on not particularly fertile soils! One thing is certain - if you do not start a timely fight against this weed, the yield indicators will drop significantly

Mechanical methods of struggle

Even if in the fight against thistle it is planned to resort to the help of folk remedies and herbicides, it will still not be possible to do without mechanical removal. However, this is not so scary, because this method is not only very effective and extremely simple, but also does not require absolutely any material costs! Ideally, mechanical methods of control are resorted to immediately, as soon as it gets warmer - as a rule, during this period the weed has not yet had time to take root thoroughly.

If the area is relatively small, you can take the time and try to remove all the sow thistle sprouts by hand - the young sprouts are very easily removed from the soil along with the roots! But as the sowthrow matures, its roots begin to gradually coarse and go deep enough into the soil, and in this case, attempts to remove the harmful weed will no longer be crowned with success!

As for large areas, in this case it will be more expedient to dig up the soil. Digging is carried out both in the spring, before starting to plant cultivated plants, and with the onset of autumn, after the entire crop has been harvested. In the process of digging, small roots will regularly appear on the soil surface - they must be immediately removed and burned. At the same time, it is advisable to dig as deeply as possible - this approach allows you to get rid of a much larger number of roots, because an impressive part of them goes very deep into the ground. By the way, during digging, it will not be difficult to get rid of not only sow thistle, but also a number of other weeds!

But to loosen the soil at the end of its digging is categorically not recommended, because in this case you can easily grind the roots, thereby spreading the harmful weed over an even larger area.

Biological way

Sow thistles cannot stand the neighborhood with annual dahlias - with such a neighborhood, it quickly weakens and gradually disappears from the site. So after removing the sprouts of sow thistle mechanically, it makes sense to plant dahlias around the site! Planting green manure - mustard, sugar beet, etc. will be no less effective.

Helper chemicals

A wide variety of herbicides also help to fight weeds. Preparations made on the basis of glyphosate ("Tornado", "Roundup", as well as their analogs) are especially suitable for the fight against thistle. As a rule, when using herbicides, spraying is carried out on the vegetative parts of the plants. And since this kind of drugs can affect not only weeds, but also garden crops, it is best to resort to their help in early spring, about a couple of weeks before you start planting seedlings. If there is an urgent need to use herbicides during the growing season, the plantings must be well covered with a film, making sure that not a single drop of the drug gets on them.

It will not be superfluous when using herbicides and observing some safety measures: it is better for the summer resident himself to put on gloves, a special protective suit and a respirator, in addition, it is advisable to spray the drug in calm dry weather. And, of course, it is imperative to provide reliable protection to the aerial parts of cultivated plants growing in the garden, since the active substances of herbicides easily penetrate first into the leaves of plants, and then, after a while, reach their roots.

You can use for treatments and a syringe or a brush - with their help, the drug is carefully applied to the stems and leaves of a sow thistle, or injections are made directly into the stems of a harmful weed.

Traditional methods

They are resorted to no less often than to the help of vaunted herbicides. Especially often summer residents spray the green mass of an annoying weed with kerosene (of course, before planting cultivated plants!) Or use the method of pruning young shoots and stems. Also, if during the flowering period of the sow thistle you work hard to break all its stems, the weed will dry out after a while, which in turn will prevent the spread of its seeds over the site.

Without a doubt, timely soil preparation, combined with manual overgrowth removal and the use of herbicides or traditional methods, is great to get rid of the annoying sow thistle!