Controlling Thistle

[Britesea]

There does seem to be a lot that is good about thistle. I'm wondering if ALL thistles are edible like the Canada thistle? It sort of sounded like it.

 

[elwood]

When i was a teenager my gf had 3 acres next to us. It was entirely full of thistles. It took us 3 years to eradicate them. All by shovel.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It took us 3 years to eradicate them. All by shovel.

That's dedication...

 

[Britesea]

What a guy will do for a girl when he's young....

 

[Lazy Gardener]

In this case, I'm betting gf was Grand Father!!!

 

[tortoise]

http://greyduckgarlic.com/women-vs-weeds.html

Thank you @Beekissed !!! DS12 pulled a wheelbarrow full of thistle. DH chopped them with a weedwhacker in a barrel. Fed to ewes with cracked corn on top. First feed last night. I am hopeful!

 

[flowerbug]

Thank you @Beekissed !!! DS12 pulled a wheelbarrow full of thistle. DH chopped them with a weedwhacker in a barrel. Fed to ewes with cracked corn on top. First feed last night. I am hopeful!

interesting! how did it work out?

we have it around here. i dig it up and get out as much of the roots as possible and eventually that does take care of it in that spot until new seeds are brought in.

sow-thistle is harder to get rid of, but we've kept at it.

 

[tortoise]

We were not successful training sheep to eat thistle. Unlike the situation in the video, our pasture is to large and too good for the sheep to eat thistles. We are considering mob grazing the worst thistle pasture, but IDK if that will be enough.

More digging.

 

[Britesea]

found this... apparently the ubiquitous tumbleweed is edible, as is every true thistle (there are some plants with thistle as a common name that are not edible).

The Edible & Poisonous Tumbleweed: Russian Thistle – Salsola Tragus | SBCSentinel

sbcsentinel.com

 

[Hinotori]

You pick tumbleweed when it's small and green before the spikes harden. Then you can saute it or treat it like asparagus.

It's ok. Nothing I was going to raise or get cravings for. It was considered an emergency food for the poor when my grandparents were young.

It's one of the plants we covered in Biology 2 in my highschool since we had so much of the stuff. I decided I'd collect and try everything we covered that I could pick on the school property. The middle/high school owns about 80 acres of semi-arid desert and riparian area by the river.