Sow thistle: how to get rid of it on the site

Thistle is one of the most common weeds, found on many continents. Peculiarities weed To instantly fill vast territories is amazing.

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 quickly gains strength and a new plant will appear on the site. The question of how to get rid of thistle forever has worried farmers for many centuries. Gardeners are still looking for ways to grow thistles in their garden plots. To destroy it, most often you have to take a comprehensive approach.

Sow thistle - what kind of plant

Thistle is a tenacious plant. It belongs to the Astrov family. There are several types in nature:

  • garden;
  • field;
  • pink (rough).

All species except thistle are perennials. They have a powerful root system. The tap root, the central root, can go deep to a distance of up to one and a half meters in one summer. In plants that have overwintered more than one winter, the roots can reach four meters. It is clear that such plants are not afraid of drought and frost.

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 capable of producing 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 to see what a clearing overgrown with pink thistle looks like.

Thistle flowers, depending on the species, are yellow or pink. The inflorescence is a basket. All plants have spiny, triangle-shaped leaves and spiky stems. They are hollow inside. A white liquid appears on the cut of the stem or leaves. This is milky juice.

The weed blooms for a long time, 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 the harmful weed is seed or vegetative.

Attention! If even one flowering plant is not picked from the plot, the summer resident will provide himself with work for a long time.

How to get rid of a weed

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

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

Important! If you do not allow thistle to grow and produce buds, and the plant itself is constantly cut off, then the harm of the weed in the country can be minimized.

Gardeners should know that weeding every 14 days reduces the persistence of the root; after some time, the weed may disappear.

Among the methods of combating sow thistle are:

  • chemical, using herbicides;
  • agrotechnical or mechanical;
  • folk methods of combating thistle.

Chemistry to help gardeners

If the garden quickly becomes covered with green pests and there is no way to destroy them, you will have to get rid of weeds with the help of chemicals. Fortunately, today you can buy any herbicides in stores. The chemistry works flawlessly. But the chemical method leads to poisoning of the area; it is undesirable to plant cultivated plants in the year of treatment.

Once you get rid of a weed with the help of herbicides, you should not relax: the seeds may be brought in from a neighbor’s plot.

Advice! We get rid of the weed using chemical means forever only if no cultivated plants are planted in this place this year.

Agrotechnical methods

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

How can you get rid of sow thistle on your site forever, using agrotechnical techniques:

  1. The destruction of weeds can be achieved forever by digging up the earth, but not with a shovel, but with a pitchfork. They dig up the entire root without breaking it off. But it is not advisable to use a hoe or flat cutter to get rid of a malicious weed. You can chop the root into tiny pieces, which will soon sprout and a huge amount of young shoots will appear.
  2. How to deal with sow thistle without chemicals? In large areas it is difficult to defeat it; the plants bloom and again produce their own kind.In a small summer cottage, you can constantly pull out weeds and trim shoots, preventing the asot from becoming seeded.
  3. Green manure plants fight thistle well. These include all legumes, vetch, mustard, and lawn grass. The seeds of helper plants should be sown thickly. Thistle does not like compacted soil. Then the green manure is mowed and the area is covered with mulch. This can be non-woven dense material, sawdust, construction waste, cardboard and even newspapers. A high temperature is created under the shelter. First, the green mass rots, 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 beginning gardeners. The fact is that thanks to this vegetable you can rid your garden of thistle without using herbicides. The fact is that agricultural technology for caring for potatoes involves repeated tillage of the soil. By cutting off the green mass of the weed when loosening the soil and hilling up potatoes, summer residents reduce the vital activity of thistle.

The Lazy Way to Control Weeds:

Folk remedies

Gardeners are an inventive people. At all times, they invented methods of controlling weeds without using herbicides. It must be said that the results of their activities are always amazing. How to remove sow thistle and other weeds forever means that are available in every home:

  1. Back in the last century, American farmers used alcohol to combat green pests in their fields and gardens. Don't be surprised, but this is exactly the case. A month before planting, they treated the soil with ethyl alcohol. The Russians also used this method. Add 150 ml of vodka to a 10-liter bucket. Weeds begin to grow rapidly and are destroyed long before crops are planted.
  2. Baking soda is sprinkled on the areas where thistle grows. Under the influence of moisture, soda dissolves and “fights” weeds.
  3. Table salt at the rate of 1.5 kg per square should be sprinkled on the weeds. You can prepare an aqueous solution: dissolve 1 cup of salt in a liter of water and pour over the sow thistle.
  4. Vinegar essence with salt will also work a miracle. First, the weed is cut off, then the root is sprayed. The sow thistle in this place dies off forever.
Warning! Using well-known products when killing weeds, do the work carefully so as not to touch the cultivated plants.

Conclusion

So, you now know what sow thistle is and measures to combat it. 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 beginning gardeners. If anyone has their own methods of getting rid of weeds, including thistle, forever, you can share with other readers by leaving a comment.

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