[Market-farming] organic thistle control

Chuck Evans mongotrout at mchsi.com
Tue Apr 14 18:56:16 EDT 2009


You might want to look at this 
http://attra.ncat.org/new_pubs/attra-pub/thistlecontrol.html?id=Pennsylvania 
We had these weevils take up residence last year, and they killed almost all 
of our thistles.  I hope that they come back next year.  The only problem is 
that you need to leave the live thistles in the field for the weevils to eat 
in order to carry over more of the friendly bugs for next year.  If you dig 
or otherwise kill the thistle plants the weevils will disappear.  I have 
seen the weevils for sale on line, but cant remember where.

********************************
We have one field with a tremendous thistle problem and low organic matter.

I applied heavy amounts of compost this week based on the weeds denote 
imbalance principle.

We also have a spader that can till 10 inches deep.

Any suggestions for strategy?  Thanks,

Scott


Scott Breneman
Farm Manager

Goodwilll at Homefields Farm
PO Box 38
150 Letort Rd
Millersville, PA  17551 




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