Docks and rotavating

[guernseydonkey]

Rotovating a field with docks in is like broadcasting dock seed , you will get a hell of a crop of docks the following year ....

 

[Kevtherev]

Need to be cultivated to pull them up to dry then rake them off somehow.

 

[steveR]

I think this may make them worse, if you chop a root into three and replant them they will all regrow. I'm finding pulling them the only answer, try doing 20 minutes every evening, I use an old buckrake Tyne.

Ragfork I wonder??

I spot treat small areas with a hand spayer!

 

[Kevtherev]

Ragfork I wonder??

I spot treat small areas with a hand spayer!

Used to be an old tool here called a podger for thistles etc
Long tube with half pipe on end sharpened to a blade.
Useful when walking round stock to take a few boar thistles out.

 

[steveR]

Used to be an old tool here called a podger for thistles etc
Long tube with half pipe on end sharpened to a blade.
Useful when walking round stock to take a few boar thistles out.

Late Uncle had one, and called it a "spud". On a thin broom stale, so nice and light, and could be used as a walking stick.

I made him a new one when he broke the original!

 

[Laurence]

Yes I have, I wouldn't do it to docks though.

Where you create conditions for dock, you have dock - it's that simple

the harder you come down on them, the longer you have them around, and I also wouldn't use my electric weeder on them because that big deep root is pretty vital - that's why they are there

What’s your electric welder [mention]Kiwi Pete [/mention]

 

[Kiwi Pete]

What’s your electric welder [mention]Kiwi Pete [/mention]

I made an ultra-dangerous device a couple of years ago, for zapping things. Basically if you imagine a metal gate lying down but about a foot off the ground, with 39kV between it and the ground chains
Worked well, but I feared something bad would happen so it is no more, still have the massive transformer somewhere as a spot weeder is on the cards.

 

[michael N123]

Thought organic just meant you are only allowed to spray at night?

And put the fert in the slurry tank when it’s mixing

 

[michael N123]

Why not plow it

 

[davidroberts30]

Organic farm near here ran a destoner over the field to lift all the roots out!!

 

[Barleycorn]

We use a homemade Kvik harrow, a cultivator with a rotor on the back that pulls up couch and docks and leaves them on the surface to die, needs a dry time to use it ideally, but very effective when you get it right.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Yeah choose a dry time.

Just doing them once is no good either.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Anybody get on well rotavating to destroy docks? Getting more and more docks in our leys and being organic obviously cant spray and even if i could i dont think i would want to with high clover %s we have.

Do you feed / supply many minerals to the stock? We used to, and they ignored pretty much everything other than grass... and then the dosatron cracked under frost (it was inside the dairy too, that year cost thousands in damages) and while they were on just plain water the cows pretty much ate everything, thistles, docks, ragwort even.

Not saying that's the solution to your problem, but once you are in the middle of the season, try ramping back the mineral supply to the herd and see if you see a change in their grazing habits.

One of the things we do is try to have "a constant state of spring growth" and nothing bothers about eating 'weeds' on a fast round because they don't learn to. Josh went from the typical kiwi 21 day spring round to a 33 day minimum round when I showed up and it made a massive difference to a lot of things, including the weed population and how well they milked into the dry part of the year (laughing at this, because Southland doesn't know what dry actually is)

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yeah choose a dry time.

Just doing them once is no good either.

Their roots go down feet in the right conditions, anyone who digs out a foot of taproot is kidding themself, and the same with spraying - the top dies off before it gets to the bulk of the rootmass

 

[Sharpy]

You need dock beetles, we had a field that was always bad for docks, always had loads of these wee iridescent insects on the mower, one year we must have cut just as the population went critical and they ate all the dock roots, there were only holes left!