Tansy Ragwort

[5minpins]

I need some suggestions as to the best over the counter spray to kill ragwort. I have this small pasture that suddenly grew up a bunch between mowing. my property was neglected for many years before I bought it and they let the locoweed grow along with blackberrys and other brush. I just walked it this week and its now growing everywhere. I try to mow fairly regular as I havent had any critters up on that pasture. I live in washington state, the western half and I get a lot of rain. would be great to kill the ragwort AND the damn blackberries too.

 

[dun]

I would use Grazon. Hopefully that would also affect the seed bank. Didn;t realize it was considered a noxious weed, just a pain in the butt.
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/lands/weeds/ragwort.htm

 

[5minpins]

thats the very page I used to confirm what it was. the tansy ragwort is also called locoweed and it will kill your horse. most dont eat it on purpose but I read that its a bit like heroine to a horse and after they eat it they will eat it again and it is fatal. not a chance I need to take for horses or cows.
please keep in mind that I really have never used herbicides except on my lawn, so Grazon can be bought fairly easy? one should wear a mask and gloves when handling it? how long after spraying before I can safely turn livestock out? I dont really mean to sound so ignorant here but better safe than sorry. hopefully it works on blackberry too... Im losing the war here and need some backup to arrive! ha!

 

[dun]

Grazon is a restricted use herbicie because of the chemical that provides the residual affect. 2,4-d will work but doesn;t do anythign about the seed bank sprouting. Won;t work on blackberrys, very little will. Blackberrys can only be really affectively killed while they are blooming. I use another restricted use heribice for them, but one of the OTC brush killers may work on the berrys.

 

[5minpins]

well crud I dont have a license to buy that stuff, not that I could find anywhere around here to get it anyway. I am pretty much restricted to what the big box stores sell. lowes and home crepot. Asplundh (tree company) told me to get some Garlon. Cant just buy that either. I think I will call the county on monday and ask them what they recommend and see if they will also help irradicate it. they have some laws that if you have that and the thistles you are required to control them to prevent the spread. never know maybe they will give me a hand and spray them for me. thanks for the advice Dun.

 

[5minpins]

aaaaaaah ok, if Roundup will kill it, that is the route I will go, its not such a big pasture that I cant walk grids and spray by hand. they are really easy to spot right now so I better get on it. ya know, my dad is a licensed herbicide sprayer for the state. I could have asked him but he would have told me the oppsosite...lol as in if I said the sky was blue he would say nope its pink really!! I might be able to have him buy the grazon and help me without to much arguement... maybe.... :|

 

[1982vett]

http://foragesoftexas.tamu.edu/labels/milestone.pdf
Milestone is labled for ragwort. I believe it is unrestricted. Read the lable.

Roundup will kill everything, grass included.

After the blackberrys have dropped their fruit, hit them with Remedy.

Talk with your local county agent anyway, someone local might have better insight than someone like me that is half a country away.

 

[5minpins]

Angus Brangus (I love that name by the way) I know he is looking out for me, always! but dang he can argue the pants right off John McCenroe!
I have small acreage, and I will have to hand spray as I dont have a 3 point tank sprayer, I may be able to borrow one from a guy up the road today, I just used his 3 point rototiller and I am amazed anyone has ever used a push one ever! talk about fast! ha!
tank sprayer would be much nicer to use as then I could get the Burdock in my lower pasture.
Vette, I will call the county tomorrow, I will ask them about everything you guys have mentioned. the grass up there is so thick already but that ragwort seems to have a way to push thru it. I think its just fescue grass. nothing that was planted on purpose.

 

[Dave]

WeedMaster (24D) is available over the counter and it will kill Tansy. In fact it is what they recommend using. If you keep a healthy vigorously growing pasture the grass will out compete the Tansy. It needs bare soil that sunlight gets to. Crossbow which also can be bought over the counter will kill blackberries (it will kill Tansy too). Spray blackberries in the first two weeks of September for the best kill. Also if you are only spraying a small area, try spraying as late in the evening as possible.

 

[5minpins]

thanks Dave, you know about the danng blackberries around here if you live in this state....

 

[5minpins]

nope, lol no problem at all with either one of them. do you want to come up and get some blackberries to make some? I will give ya a push down the slope and when you get to the bottom we can just scrape the berries and juice off ya and make some ok? *snerk* I will take some pics for you when I get back from okc. they are viscious around here, they take over whole buildings in a matter of days. they are like Kudzu vine in the south, and them silly fish that jump at the sound of a boat motor. they are extremely hard to kill. pigs or poison but an excavator does good too.

 

[Alan]

I'm with Dave, Crossbow is the way to go, it really knocks the blackberries in the head. Gets thistle very well also. Roundup, I found was a very short term dent, but didn't get the root system. I found Crossbow got Tansey okay, but I ended out walking pasture with a shovel and digging them out, you can't pull them out, the root always breaks off and they grow back. Like spraying, blackberries and tansey came back every year, but in far, far fewer numbers. a few years ago I had about 100 I dug up, the next year maybe 20, last year about 5 or 6.... the same with blackberries/thistles and spraying.

My two cents,
Alan

 

[Alan]

5m, you gotta problem with blackberry pie or blackbery wine??? ;-)

Not a whole lot better than warm blackberry pie and ice cream. Here in the wet part of the NW, blackberries well grow a foot a day during the growing season, they use their roots, as well as vines and seeds to spread. Very hard to control, their vines will grow in a tangle mess 10 foot tall and cover acre in no time. If left uncontrolled, the next year they have covered a few acres. When we bought our place , the first pasture I recovered was a five acre piece that I used a 35 HP tractor and 5 ft bush hog on, the blackberries were still 2 or 3 feet over my head and would stop the fwd tractor (make the wheels spin in spot) because they were so thick. Yes, I love blackberries on a august day off the vine, or with a scoop of ice cream, but we have a few patches I control for that purpose.... or I drive a half mile to the mass of blackberries on the side of the road. They are good eating and a real pain in the....

Alan

 

[5minpins]

ok I bought Crossbow and a 15 gallon sprayer to go on the back of the Quad. I went thru some threads and found a link to dow and read the directions and indications but most of it seems to be aimed at 100 gallon mixes and spraying by the acre. I am going to have to spot spray the tansey and then ride the fence lines and spray the blackberrys. when is the best time to spray? morning? and not when it is going to rain? its been raining here forever and my grass grew over a foot while I was in Oklahoma... anyway I will figure out the ratio for 15 gallons and put on a bio suit and go at the weeds as soon as it stops raining lol.

 

[Alan]

ok I bought Crossbow and a 15 gallon sprayer to go on the back of the Quad. I went thru some threads and found a link to dow and read the directions and indications but most of it seems to be aimed at 100 gallon mixes and spraying by the acre. I am going to have to spot spray the tansey and then ride the fence lines and spray the blackberrys. when is the best time to spray? morning? and not when it is going to rain? its been raining here forever and my grass grew over a foot while I was in Oklahoma... anyway I will figure out the ratio for 15 gallons and put on a bio suit and go at the weeds as soon as it stops raining lol.

Morning or evening is the best time to spray, no rain for 24 hours. Seems to me that the mixture is 2 TBS per gallon, but you want to double check. You can also get an enhancer to mix in also that breaks down the "waxey" coating on the blackberry leaves and is a lot more effective in the speed of the kill. Let me know how it works on the tansy, I have never had much luck with it on the tansy, it will make the top bend over and look bad, but it still flowers and goes through the complete cycle. That's why I walk pastures witha shovel.

Alan

 

[SusanLynne]

I'm probably late in posting this, but hopeful someone will find this useful. I've owned my property for 5 years now and have had problems with tansy, buttercups, and blackberries, not to mention other weeds. I went to Sno County Extention office and got advice to use crossbow. I've found it very effective in killing the weeds, but not the grass. I use the mixture for buttercups, which is higher concentrate than the mixture for tansy. You have to hit the tansy prior to it turning to seed. Once the seeds hit the ground the can germinate for seven years, so it is important that the tansy doesn't turn to seed. They have yellow flowers. You can cut the tops off and then spray, which I've done if I'm late in spraying. After five years I am finally starting to see improvement. Don't pull or mow them or it could cause more growth. Also, if you have horses on the pasture, do not let them back on the sprayed pasture for at least six to eight weeks. Most horse won't eat tansy, but once tansy starts to die it will becomes more edible to horses. That is why you shouldn't have horses on the pasture until the tansy is dead and nontoxic, about six to eight weeks.

 

[Dave]

I should have written this before. Tansy is a bi-annual. The first year it is a small plant that is referred to as a rosette. It isn't real noticeable. The second year it grow erect and goes to seed. The best way to control it is if you can spray the rosette in the fall. That way you don't have a plant that can go to seed. Once they flower in that second year you really need to remove that plant. At that point spraying or cutting wont help because the flower will form seeds. The seeds of tansy ragwort are very viable and will last up to 25 years. All they need is bare soil and sunlight. There are tow pretty good biological controls. Cinabar moth will lay its eggs on tansy. The resulting catipillars will eat the flowers and vegetation from the mature plant. And there is a flea beettle which during the winter burrows into the roots of the plant in the rosette stage. This kills the plant.