Sow thistle: how to get rid of the site

Thistle is one of the most common weeds found on many continents. Features of the weed instantly fill vast areas can only be amazed.

This weed has similarities with wheatgrass, so simply pulling the weed out of the ground is not enough. The piece of root remaining in the ground is quickly gaining strength and a new plant will appear on the site. The question of how to get rid of thistle forever has been worrying farmers for many centuries. Gardeners are still looking for ways to get thistle out in the garden. To destroy it, most often you have to approach it comprehensively.

Sow thistle – what kind of plant

Thistle is a hardy plant. It belongs to the Astrov family. In nature, there are several types:

• garden;
• field;
• pink (rough).

All species, except for garden sow thistle, are perennials. They have a strong root system. The core, central root in one summer can go to a depth of up to one and a half meters. In plants that have overwintered more than one winter, the roots can reach four meters. It is clear that drought and frost are not terrible for such plants.

In addition, the weed has well-developed lateral roots, located close to the surface of the earth and occupying a large area.

Each lateral root has a bud that can give a viable shoot. If you do not get rid of the weed in a timely manner, after a short period of time a whole plantation will appear. Look at the photo, what a glade overgrown with pink thistle looks like.

Sow thistle flowers, depending on the species, are yellow or pink. Inflorescence – basket. All plants have spiky triangular leaves and spiky stems. They are hollow inside. A white liquid appears on the cut of the stem or leaves. This is milky juice.

Weed flowering is long, almost all summer and until mid-autumn. Within a month, brown or dark yellow seeds with a fluffy tuft are formed in place of the buds. They are carried by the wind to a great distance from the mother bush. The method of propagation of a malicious weed is seed or vegetative.

How to get rid of a weed

Since the weed is tenacious, this also applies to pink thistle, it can instantly capture vast territories, which is why the fight against this thistle in the country or in the garden should be uncompromising.

Many gardeners are interested in whether it is possible to get rid of sow thistle in their summer cottage forever. To destroy the weed, you need to act comprehensively, using all known methods of dealing with it.

Gardeners should be aware that weeding every 14 days reduces the resistance of the root, after some time the weed may disappear.

Among the methods of dealing with thistle can be distinguished:

• chemical, with the use of herbicides;
• agrotechnical or mechanical;
• folk ways to deal with thistle.

Chemistry to help gardeners

If the garden is quickly covered with green pests and you can’t destroy them, you will have to get rid of weeds with the help of chemicals. Fortunately, today in stores you can buy any herbicides. The chemistry works flawlessly. But the chemical method leads to poisoning of the site; it is undesirable to plant cultivated plants in the year of treatment.

Having got rid of the weed with the help of herbicides, you should not relax: the seeds can be brought from the neighboring plot.

Agrotechnical methods

The rapid spread of thistle is associated with a decrease in cultivated areas. Great attention was paid to weed control on collective farms and state farms. The fields were treated with herbicides, and then let fallow, during the summer it was plowed several times. In this way, they got rid of the unwanted neighborhood of weeds. In addition, large areas were occupied by wheat, and the weed cannot get along with it.

How can you get rid of thistle on the site forever, using agricultural practices:

1. The destruction of weeds can be achieved forever by digging the earth, but not with a shovel, but with a pitchfork. They dig up the whole root, while it does not break off. But it is undesirable to use a chopper or flat cutter to get rid of a malicious weed. You can chop the root into tiny pieces, which will soon sprout, a huge amount of young growth will appear.
2. How to deal with thistle without chemistry? It is difficult to defeat it on large areas, the plants bloom and again produce their own kind. In a small summer cottage, you can constantly weed out weeds, cut shoots, preventing asot from seeding.

   

3. Green manure plants fight well with thistle. These include all legumes, vetch, mustard, lawn grass. You need to sow the seeds of helper plants densely. Thistle does not like compacted soil. Then the green manure is mowed and the area is covered with mulch. It can be non-woven dense material, sawdust, construction debris, cardboard and even newspapers. Under the shelter, a high temperature is created. First, the green mass overheats, followed by the roots of the weeds. Mulching is not removed until spring.
4. The question of how to destroy weeds on potatoes forever worries many novice gardeners. The fact is that thanks to this vegetable, you can rid the garden of sow thistle without using herbicides. The fact is that the agricultural technology of potato care involves repeated tillage. By cutting off the green mass of the weed while loosening the soil and hilling potatoes, gardeners reduce the vital activity of thistle.

The lazy way to deal with weeds:

Folk remedies

Gardeners are resourceful people. At all times they invented methods of weed control without using herbicides. I must say that the results of their work are always amazing. How to remove thistle and other weeds forever with the means that are in every home:

1. American farmers in the last century used alcohol to control green pests of fields and gardens. Don’t be surprised, but that’s exactly what it is. A month before planting, they treated the soil with ethyl alcohol. The s also took advantage of this method. Add 10 ml of vodka to a 150-liter bucket. Weeds begin to grow rapidly, they are destroyed long before the sowing of cultivated plants.
2. Sprinkle baking soda on places where sow thistle grows. Under the action of moisture, soda dissolves, “fights” weeds.

   

3. Table salt at the rate of 1,5 kg per square, you need to sprinkle weeds. You can prepare an aqueous solution: dissolve 1 cup of salt in a liter of water and pour thistle.
4. Vinegar essence with salt will also work wonders. First, the weed is cut, then the root is sprayed. Sow thistle in this place dies off forever.

Conclusion

So, what is sow thistle and measures to combat it, you now know. Of course, it is impossible to cover everything in one article. You yourself, our dear gardeners and gardeners, understand that we have only talked about the most popular methods.

We hope that the article will be useful especially for beginner gardeners. If someone has their own ways to get rid of weeds, including thistle, forever, you can share with other readers by leaving a comment.