# Thistle



## Sparkey (Jan 15, 2015)

I have several large patches of Canadian Thistle that came up in a new stand of timothy and alfalfa. What herbicide is best to kill them. Located in Western PA.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Sparkey said:


> I have several large patches of Canadian Thistle that came up in a new stand of timothy and alfalfa. What herbicide is best to kill them. Located in Western PA.


Regards, Mike

http://www.btny.purdue.edu/pubs/ws/canadathistle/CanadaThistle.html


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## Fireman355 (Aug 15, 2013)

2,4 d with a little Remedy added to it, works for me.


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

Fireman355 said:


> 2,4 d with a little Remedy added to it, works for me.


Can you put that on alfalfa?


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Bonfire said:


> Can you put that on alfalfa?


Always been my understanding that its a no.

Had a property that we bought next door to us a long time ago, the previous BTo left the place infested with canadian thistle, sprayed it with 2-4d every year for about five years to get rid of it. After spraying we kept all wheel traffic off it for two weeks.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

The best control that has worked for me is cutting them with the hay. Cut when the thistles are in bud or just blooming. Over about two years it has killed over95% of them. Or at least now the hay can choke them out.


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## PaCustomBaler (Nov 29, 2010)

2,4-DB is the only thing I know if you have alfalfa or clover in the stand. 2 pints/acre. A good surfactant helps.

You can spray it now, but will only kill the shoots. But at least you'll have it out of your hay. You'll still need to come through in the fall to hit it again in order for it to take hold in the roots. Good luck.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

hog987 said:


> The best control that has worked for me is cutting them with the hay. Cut when the thistles are in bud or just blooming. Over about two years it has killed over95% of them. Or at least now the hay can choke them out.


That really is the way to go if you can cut the thistles at the appropriate stage. However, here, that requires an aggressive cutting schedule usually only reserved for pure alfalfa stands. Timothy/alfalfa isn't likely to be cut frequently enough to eridicate them, though it will still probably provide some level of control.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

PaCustomBaler said:


> 2,4-DB is the only thing I know if you have alfalfa or clover in the stand. 2 pints/acre. A good surfactant helps.
> 
> You can spray it now, but will only kill the shoots. But at least you'll have it out of your hay. You'll still need to come through in the fall to hit it again in order for it to take hold in the roots. Good luck.


Agree--2,4DB on alfalfa. But I take a pair of welders gloves, machete and large plastic bag and chop them out.

Ralph


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> Agree--2,4DB on alfalfa. But I take a pair of welders gloves, machete and large plastic bag and chop them out.
> 
> Ralph


And there you go, never even heard of 2-4db, we always just tried to cut early as possible then baled that patch dead last and left it in the fencerow or woods.

One year we did use a weed wiper on them as they are taller than the hay most of the time.


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## PaCustomBaler (Nov 29, 2010)

mlappin said:


> And there you go, never even heard of 2-4db, we always just tried to cut early as possible then baled that patch dead last and left it in the fencerow or woods.
> 
> One year we did use a weed wiper on them as they are taller than the hay most of the time.


A good friend of mine runs 1000 hd of sheep on hill ground, and uses one of those weed wipers on thistle patches in his pastures, because it's higher like you said.

He uses a weed wiper because he doesn't want to clover killed, and said a mix of 2,4-D and Dicamba does a pretty successful job on the thistle.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

I have never had great luck with 2,4db on tough weeds...I just spot spray cross bow...

I now have an infestation of thistle due to the hippy neighbor who doesn't mow his retention pond bank joining my field...Thanks a lot "neighbor"...


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## rajela (Feb 15, 2014)

I just spot spray with 24D amine....


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

The thistles will always be standing there no matter if you kill them or not. So it's cheaper just to cut them with the hay and then they won't come back the second cutting. 
You need to spray them before they get a stalk on them


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

PaMike said:


> I have never had great luck with 2,4db on tough weeds...


db only works well very early in the season when plants are two inches or less tall.

Regards, Mike


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## Fireman355 (Aug 15, 2013)

We keep a hand sprayer loaded with Round Up or Eraser in back of the mule, if we are out riding fence lines or checking for calves and see a thistle or something else we don't want around we hit with the sprayer, By starting early in the year we are able to prevent them from making it out of what we call the "pancake mode", this is when they are flat on the ground and have not developed a stem yet,


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## shortrow (Feb 21, 2012)

rjmoses said:


> Agree--2,4DB on alfalfa. But I take a pair of welders gloves, machete and large plastic bag and chop them out.
> 
> Ralph


I have done the same thing with a tobacco knife. However, never pull them out for they will multiply horribly. Ask me how I know.


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