horsenettle question
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1982vett
Well-known member
About the biggest I've seen are the size of cherry tomatoes.
BC
Well-known member
Horsenettle is a tough weed to kill. According to Dr. Baumann with Texas AgriLife Extension Service, need to apply herbicide with at least 20 gallons water to acre (get it good and wet).
Horse nettle with lemon size fruit sounds more like Tropical Soda Apple. Now that is bad stuff and the extension system will help you spray for that. Take a plant to your county extension agent today. Tropical Soda Apple is BAD stuff.new_guy":uqgh7j75 said:
novatech
Well-known member
I have that stuff all over. Where I sprayed with Grazon only a few came back the following year.
kenojoe
Well-known member
I just finished clipping my back pasture and noticed I seem to have a good bit of horse nettle this year. Whats the best way to get rid of it? What time of year is best to spray it? Seems like its always something. One year the ironweed is bad then its thistle then its nettle. I get one thing under control and something else pops up. I guess when the guy next door is growing a weed patch its bound to happen.
Grazon will knock it down, or without a license 2-4,d. With 2-4,d you'l get more of the cursed things sprouting back up. It's a 2 year plant so killing the obvious ones now won;t really help for next year. That's why spraying works so well on them. Ones they start to flower they're really hard to kill, early spring is best.
1982vett
Well-known member
Horsenettle Managementin West Virginia Pastures and Hayfields http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/ipm/weeds/horsenettle.pdf
ga. prime
Well-known member
I've eaten a few maypops in my time. The seeds have a nice twang when the fruit starts to yellow, kind of like pomegranite. The rind is tasteless at all stages. Gulf Frittilary caterpillars like to feed on maypop leaves. Maypops are fun for kids to throw at each other. I haven't seen a bad side to maypops.
ga. prime
Well-known member
What's the cost/ac on the Grazon horsenettle rate?
novatech
Well-known member
I used at at the rate of 2 pints per acre. The plants were about 4 to 6 inches tall. A 2 1/2 gallon jug will do 10 acres. at what ever price you can buy it at. I think I paid about $80.00 for the 2 1/2 gallon.
ga. prime
Well-known member
$8/ac. Very reasonable.
Spraying will get rid of the horsenettle. But it does not correct reason the nettle was there in the first place.
Kind of like developing drugs to fight cancer. I'd rather know how to prevent it, than go through the pain of fighting it.
Kind of like developing drugs to fight cancer. I'd rather know how to prevent it, than go through the pain of fighting it.
ga. prime
Well-known member
I'm open to new ideas, bluestem. Why was the horsenettle there and how do you correct and/or prevent it? I always had the notion that it spreads by mainly by birds and animals which are pretty much incorrectible. To a lesser extent spread by farm machinery which is correctible.
MrBilly
Well-known member
You must try to eradicate the plants before they develop the berries which have thousands of seeds in them. Once the berry devlopes on the plant, you must remove them by hand, or you will have more and more plants the following year. Prevention means getting them early, and yearly, for many years so that the seed bank in the soil is finally reduced. It is not a one shot deal, it takes persistent spraying. We are now in the spot spraying phase of our effort to rid the place of this nasty weed. It is a much improved situation, but we arn't there, probably never will be. I'm about the try teaching the cows to eat horsenettle using the technique described in the Grassfarmer paper.
Billy
Billy
Not knowing your soil, I will give you some ideas and things to look for. Low Ca,P. High K and Mg. Ca and Mg may be out of balance. Soil may be sandy with low organic matter. First thing I would do is improve the organic matter. High organic matter can over come other deficiencies or buffer them. How would I do it? I would use my cattle. Use MIG or mob grazing. Second choice would be poultry litter. Plant clover this fall. Over all you are improving the soil health, which will also reflect in herd health. My thoughts on this, if it has stickers or leaves a rash its natures way of saying KEEP OUT Land under repair.ga. prime":2yh7zsnb said:
MrBilly
Well-known member
Bluestem":1o0mime0 said:
I WOULD NOT plant clover until you have the horsenettle under control - I've done that and paid dearly for it. Every herbicide that will kill or control the nettle will kill the clover. I have used MIG for 8 years and it doesn't get rid of the nettle, cows are too smart to eat that stuff unless they have been trained to eat it and I am not sure that works either. I have not seen any studies of Mob grazing that truly documents the effect of the practice on the nettle population - no testimonials, I want to see a simple controlled study. Should be very easy.
Billy
