Ragwort

[ellejordan76]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a tough solution to spray on ragwort on grazing land (horses). I've been told that depitox 500 won't work on its own and it is best mixed with agritox. Does this sound right to you knowledgeable crew??? If not, what would you recommend?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Spray the whole field with roundup ,put Italian Ryegrsss on spray it again in two years then reseed it
That's what an expert adviser told a friend to do

 

[farmbrew]

The trouble is if you spray it ragwort becomes palatable to horses.
I have had good results with Thrust but religious digging over the years by my other half is keeping it manageable

 

[ellejordan76]

The trouble is if you spray it ragwort becomes palatable to horses.
I have had good results with Thrust but religious digging over the years by my other half is keeping it manageable

The plan was to section that part of the paddock off to spray and then go back to digging as there's too much at the moment. Started looking at sprays that would work and not kill the grass but that's when it got complicated!!

 

[BRB John]

Sheep....
Or pull it out by hand
Or spray it and leave for minimum 2 weeks before grazing.

Forefront will kill it.
I think even the likes of galgone it grazeon will also kill it.

 

[ellejordan76]

I've gone for a Thrust with Hurler combination and a silent prayer!!

 

[In the pit]

Forefront will wipe it out and you can graze 7 days after spraying

 

[David1968]

Forefront will wipe it out and you can graze 7 days after spraying

7 days for the chemical maybe. Might take longer for the ragwort to be safe though.

 

[HarryB97]

To late to spray it now it’s about to flower, needs to be done in the spring.

 

[BAF]

Digging ragwort oh I don't miss those days! We must have pulled tons of the stiff over the years as kids!

 

[Boysground]

Forefront comes with issues. Definitely not allowed in a knapsack. All sorts of grazing/cutting restrictions after as the active has killed crops when it’s been in manure spread on susceptible crops (usually gardens) fairly sure it’s not allowed on ground where horses graze.

Bg

 

[steveR]

Used to do many acres of pony paddocks.... the field spraying was the easy part

2,4D does the job, preferably at rosette stage. If spraying late (at clients request!) there were two follow up actions, One, pull the plants as they died, Two, flail top and really pulverise the stems and leave to disappear in hot weather. Latter required a longer "rest" period of several weeks.

Had one field that was dreadful after a nearby road improvement scheme led to an explosion of the stuff. Sprayed and then I mowed it, and the stalks were collected and composted. Nightmare field,. Sprayed twice more to get it controllable by hand pulling.

 

[ringi]

Spray the whole field with roundup ,put Italian Ryegrsss on spray it again in two years then reseed it
That's what an expert adviser told a friend to do

May work if also give the ryegrass a lot of costly fertilizer so it grows much faster then the ragwort. Also cut to prevent seeding. But roundup will not give close to a 100% long term kill of ragwort.

 

[steveR]

May work if also give the ryegrass a lot of costly fertilizer so it grows much faster then the ragwort. But roundup will not give close to a 100% long term kill of ragwort.

Needs the magical properties of 2,4D, aka Kyleo. Or allegedly, some do a DIY.

 

[ringi]

Needs the magical properties of 2,4D, aka Kyleo. Or allegedly, some do a DIY.

But 2,4D also kills clover, so practically then need fertilizer so the grass can take over.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

We had a girl with horses next to ours who left her bit of the 5ac field in a right mess. She just let her horses graze round it and left it to go to seed and then took her horses elsewhere.

If it is in with our horses we pull it with a proper ragfork as soon as we spot it.

If it is in the rest of the field I go round once a fortnight with a spot sprayer with glypho. This is fine at the rosette stage, but after April the grass has grown up so you can't find the ragwort.

There will be rosettes I've missed which will flower (this year or next). Pulling big plants out of long grass is a pain, so I might just cut any flowers off before they go to seed.

In an ideal world there would be some sheep to rotate round the bit where the horses aren't.

 

[steveR]

But 2,4D also kills clover, so practically then need fertilizer so the grass can take over.

Weedwipe then. Also works quite well, slow and steady, with rwo passes.

 

[organic]

As someone said earlier sheep can do a good job if grazed quite tight in late winter/early spring.

 

[nails]

Mrs. Tree at Knepp says Ragwort is not a problem and is wonderful.