Bracken

[glasshouse]

View attachment 883712.

If I spray this with roundup now will it do anything? It's at chest height.

Yes
Or crush it

 

[Hilly]

Yes
Or crush it

Crushing takes about a 10 year

 

[TripleSix]

Is it not better to wait until it's just starting to die off to get the active into the roots?

 

[glasshouse]

Is it not better to wait until it's just starting to die off to get the active into the roots?

No

 

[Hilly]

July is the month for spraying bracken.

 

[Nithsdale]

View attachment 883712.

If I spray this with roundup now will it do anything? It's at chest height.

Is it not better to wait until it's just starting to die off to get the active into the roots?

July is the month for spraying bracken.

@Hilly is right.

Bracken is best sprayed/weedwiped late July or very early August at the latest. To give a proper kill you must do it in this window, as the plant is going past for the year and drawing its sap back down into the root system. Leave it as late as possible, but before the ferns start to go brown or falling to the ground.

If you time it wrong (go too early), you will kill what's growing but you will not kill the roots/fronds in the ground and it will come back thinner next year.

 

[glasshouse]

July might be wet, get it sprayed now

 

[Hilly]

July might be wet, get it sprayed now

Just grow back again nxt year, if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly.

 

[PhilipB]

Thanks for all the advice.

July is usually a month that has plenty of jobs to be done.

I was working off the principle that sometimes it's better to do a job when it suits you rather than risk it never getting done at all.

 

[glasshouse]

Thanks for all the advice.

July is usually a month that has plenty of jobs to be done.

I was working off the principle that sometimes it's better to do a job when it suits you rather than risk it never getting done at all.

Yes

 

[Paulg4]

Is there any way to control bracken in hedges?

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Is there any way to control bracken in hedges?

Not any more! You could have used Asulox up to last year.
However, there is a very faint hope that you may be able to. I've abstracted this update from the Bracken Control Group website;

'The additional application for an Emergency Authorisation, which was submitted in early April, is being processed by the Chemicals Regulation Division of HSE. The application provides additional information to support the case for re-instatement of ground-based application of Asulam, and for the width of the buffer zone to protect surface water bodies to remain at 50m.

It is unlikely that the application will be submitted for scrutiny of the Expert Committee on Pesticides before the beginning of June. Therefore, if any amendments are agreed, details will not be known until the middle of next month, at the earliest. As the EA approval allows application of Asulam from 1st July, the timing is tight, but if some changes to the restrictions in the current approval are agreed, it is hoped that they can be made full use of to help with the control of bracken.

A further update will be issued, as soon as there is any news.'

 

[Hilly]

Thanks for all the advice.

July is usually a month that has plenty of jobs to be done.

I was working off the principle that sometimes it's better to do a job when it suits you rather than risk it never getting done at all.

Aye lash on waste your money , lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink.

 

[Hilly]

Is there any way to control bracken in hedges?

Glypho

 

[Agrivator]

Bracken is such a contentious but serious UK-wide issue that there should be a national eradication programme. A string of contractors should be available to eradicate bracken free of charge from any site at the request of the land manager.
And no environmental body should be involved, because they will do everything in their power to stimey or, at best, overcomplicate any such scheme.

And in the meantime, the same contractors should be available to assist farmers and gamekeepers in controlled burning of hill vegetation, together with the establishment of small plots of grass/herb/clover reseeds. Those measures, alongwith effective predator control, would result in a significant increase in all types of upland and moorland birds.

 

[Guleesh]

Bracken is such a contentious but serious UK-wide issue that there should be a national eradication programme. A string of contractors should be available to eradicate bracken free of charge from any site at the request of the land manager.
And no environmental body should be involved, because they will do everything in their power to stimey or, at best, overcomplicate any such scheme.

And in the meantime, the same contractors should be available to assist farmers and gamekeepers in controlled burning of hill vegetation, together with the establishment of small plots of grass/herb/clover reseeds. Those measures, alongwith effective predator control, would result in a significant increase in all types of upland and moorland birds.

I think you've found a great solution there, but those contractors should also be made available to do all my hill gathering and fank work, shear my sheep and also lamb them - free of charge.

I of course should be allowed to keep my land that I've allowed to be over-run with bracken, keep any money I make from any improvements carried out and work done, oh and keep claiming subs as well.

Maybe some extra £££s for the increase in wild birds too?

The best thing about your idea is that these contractors will work free of charge so won't cost the taxpayer anything.

 

[Agrivator]

I think you've found a great solution there, but those contractors should also be made available to do all my hill gathering and fank work, shear my sheep and also lamb them - free of charge.

I of course should be allowed to keep my land that I've allowed to be over-run with bracken, keep any money I make from any improvements carried out and work done, oh and keep claiming subs as well.

Maybe some extra £££s for the increase in wild birds too?

The best thing about your idea is that these contractors will work free of charge so won't cost the taxpayer anything.

Do you have anything constructive to say about bracken and its control? You've probably never heard about Warag, and the devastation caused to Allen motor scythes in a former eradication programme. That was before the bearded sandalised environmentalists started to interfere into agricultural matters.

Bracken is a very harmful plant. It's spores are carcinogenic, it harbours ticks,it is poisonous to livestock, it interferes with gatherings, it prevents strucken sheep being found, and it is spreading at an alarming rate. The only benefit is that it used to be used for thatching, bedding and fuel. It may also have contributed to the discovery and production of glass, but those uses have long since been superceded.

 

[Guleesh]

Do you have anything constructive to say about bracken and its control?

No, It's already been covered earlier in the thread.

I simply wished to offer my support to your constructive post on bracken control - a realistic, workable and affordable proposal of a national eradication programme, with thrown in free muirburn and reseeding.

 

[Jerry]

I’ve just been gifted some rough grazing nextdoor. Not a big area but useful enough.

But 30% of it is riddled with bracken.

I have had to top round the outside to run electric fence as post and wire is dubious around much of it.

Grass is tough and waist high in much of it. No good for cutting.

I can graze with sheep or cattle.

My sheep do eat bracken in the hedge bottoms. Never seen any ill effects.

Never seen cattle touch it.

I would prefer to graze with cattle to try and tread all the crap into the ground to Clean it up a bit.

But worried there’s too much bracken there and cattle will take it causing issues??

 

[Optimus]

I’ve just been gifted some rough grazing nextdoor. Not a big area but useful enough.

But 30% of it is riddled with bracken.

I have had to top round the outside to run electric fence as post and wire is dubious around much of it.

Grass is tough and waist high in much of it. No good for cutting.

I can graze with sheep or cattle.

My sheep do eat bracken in the hedge bottoms. Never seen any ill effects.

Never seen cattle touch it.

I would prefer to graze with cattle to try and tread all the crap into the ground to Clean it up a bit.

But worried there’s too much bracken there and cattle will take it causing issues??


View attachment 884115

Cattle do eat bracken especially at this time of year when its just coming up.but its not good for them had a couple die over the years from it.