Content
Weeds, growing in summer cottages and personal plots, cause a lot of trouble for gardeners and vegetable gardeners. You have to spend a lot of time removing them, but they appear again. It is especially difficult to get rid of weeds that have a powerful root system. They survive frosts and droughts safely, unlike cultivated plants.
One of the most annoying and difficult to remove is the sow thistle. What needs to be done to rid the earth of a harmful plant, what ways to achieve its destruction. All these questions concern not only beginners, but also experienced gardeners.
Kinds
There are several types of asot in nature. They are mostly perennials (except for garden plants):
- field;
- garden;
- pink (rough).
The photo shows a flowering sow thistle.
In this photo the sow thistle is pink.
According to gardeners, these are the most tenacious weeds, so getting rid of them is not so easy.
Botanical properties
Sow thistle is a grass, annual, 50-120 cm high. But in one season it develops a powerful root system, the central root goes deep. It is quite difficult to pull out thistle due to the fragility of the root. Even from a small piece of root a new plant soon appears.Thistle has a straight, smooth stem that is hollow inside. At the break of the stem you can see milky juice oozing out.
The hard leaves are arranged alternately. Compared to rose thistle and field thistle, they are not so prickly.
The leaves are pinnately dissected or pinnately lobed. You can recognize sow thistle by its light yellow flowers collected in a basket. They are quite large, 35 cm in diameter. Flowering begins in early summer and continues until frost. Sometimes thistle flowers are confused with dandelion flowers.
In place of the bud, a fruit with seeds resembling a tuft is formed. The first seeds ripen in early July.
This tenacious weed grows not only in the garden, but also in the country and in the garden. Favorite places:
- vacant lots;
- fields abandoned and uncultivated for a number of years;
- valleys of rivers and lakes.
The plant likes fertilized soils, but does not neglect slightly saline and dry areas. The weed adapts to any conditions.
Is sow thistle useful or harmful on the site?
Why is sow thistle dangerous in the garden?
Having seen thistle on the site, gardeners and gardeners begin to come up with ways to destroy it. Tall plants with powerful roots cause damage to cultivated plantings in the garden:
- Firstly, thistle grows very quickly, and if it is not destroyed in a timely manner, it will occupy a large area of the garden or vegetable garden.
- Secondly, fast-growing thistle needs a lot of water and nutrients.The weed will simply draw out all the juices from the ground, causing the garden plantings to be left without nutrition. There is no need to wait for the harvest.
- Thirdly, the sow thistle, if it is not harvested, manages to “scatter” the seeds on the site.
What is the benefit
Thistle is a useful plant, which not every person knows about. The medicinal properties of the plant have not yet been fully studied, but sow thistle contains many useful substances:
- vitamin C;
- carotene;
- fatty oils;
- alkaloids;
- inulin;
- choline;
- tartaric acid;
- bitterness.
Benefits of thistle:
- Rural residents feed the weed to animals.
- The proximity of thistle to cultivated plants saves the garden from aphids.
- Using weed as mulch enriches the soil with minerals.
- The young leaves of the plant are an excellent ingredient for making tea, salads, and cabbage soup. The roots of the plant are also boiled; they are not inferior in value to Jerusalem artichoke.
- The medicinal properties of the weed have been known for a long time. Medicinal decoctions and infusions can be prepared from all parts of the plant, as they have medicinal properties.
- If the sow thistle grew in a strawberry patch, the berries will be fragrant and sweet.
Beneficial features:
But despite the benefits, there is no need to propagate the weed in the garden. How to get rid of thistle in the garden is not an idle question.
Fighting methods
How to destroy sow thistle on your site? You can use different methods:
- mechanical;
- chemical;
- folk remedies.
Many gardeners believe that by getting rid of overgrown plants in their garden, they can forget about the weed forever. But this opinion is incorrect, since garden weed reproduces by seeds, and they can always be carried by the wind from a neighboring plot or field.
Mechanical destruction
When thistle appears on your site, you need to take measures to destroy it.
It is best to chop the weed and use it as mulch (green manure) or send it to the compost heap.
Many novice gardeners are interested in how to remove thistle from the garden?
Let's try to understand this issue:
- You need to start when the plants are still small. Its root is still weak and easy to pull out. Weeding of garden weeds should be done regularly.
- You cannot chop the plant with a shovel. If the gardener removed the above-ground part, and chopped the root into particles and left it in the ground, then the sow thistle will begin to grow with renewed vigor.
- There is no point in trying to pull out the weed by the roots, because the underground part remains. The best way to do the job is to use a flat cutter to cut the plant below the surface of the ground. The top soil can be mulched or covered with film or a piece of roofing felt. This is the case if nothing grows on the site.
- After harvesting, the soil is dug to a greater depth and the roots of the sow thistle are removed.
Let's remove both the tops and the roots:
Traditional methods
The fight against thistle in the garden can be carried out not only by mechanical methods, but also by folk methods. Traditional methods are more gentle. There are many options, but these folk remedies are used most often.
- Spraying with kerosene. The plant is cut and the root is filled with kerosene. This work can be carried out in an area where there are no cultivated plants.
- If you have Merry Guys flowers, you can plant them around the beds. The weed will never settle near them.
- How to fight thistle with the help of plants? Green manure is planted in an area that is too clogged.When they grow up, they need to be covered and left until next spring. Over the summer, all weeds will die, and at the same time the soil will be enriched with nutrients from rotted grass.
- There is another effective folk remedy: trample down the weeds and cover them with cardboard, roofing felt, and garbage. There will be nothing left of the weeds.
Chemical attack
It often happens that a plot of land was purchased that previously belonged to careless owners. Neither mechanical methods nor folk remedies are helpful here. We get rid of weeds using chemicals.
Today you can purchase various products, including herbicides:
- Tornado;
- Hurricane.
The preparations can be used in areas left fallow or on paths. Cultivated plants must be covered during processing, otherwise they will burn.
Conclusion
Despite the benefits of thistle, its medicinal and healing properties, it should not be left in the garden. Fight him in every possible way. After all, one plant produces many brown seeds with fluffy tufts. They are able to fly great distances from the mother bush.
In the fall, after digging the ridges and removing the sow thistle root, do not loosen the soil. Let the seeds remain on the surface. They cannot tolerate low temperatures and die. Keep the area clean, and then the harvest will be pleasing.
