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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

We had a whole slew of Canadian and a couple of other thistles at one place 
we had.  The folks who owned the place before us had a dairy.  Cattle are 
great spreaders of thistle seed.  However, the horses liked to eat the 
flowers and within a couple of years we had no thistles.

Star thistles on the other hand are a major problem as they are deadly for 
horses.  We are currently removing star thistle from our place.  We've 
cleared 6 acres so far.  Patience and pray the back doesn't give out and 
we'll get rid of the rest of it!

Got rid of the scotch broom, the Russian pea and the pampus grass ~~sigh~~ 
I'm tired <g>

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gloria Morris" <gloriamorris59 AT gmail.com>


> One person's weed is another's useful herb.
>
> snip<.
>
> Back in Illinois, I did battle with Canadian thistle and won. We bought 30
> acres of land with a serious infestation of Canadian thistle that had 
> almost
> completely overtaken pasture and alfalfa fields. Brush hogging was not
> enough to control it. I ended up spraying the individual plants with 
> vinegar
> to kill them, as that way I had minimal kill of the desired grasses, and 
> the
> grasses quickly filled in the spots where the thistle had been. It took a
> long time to spray the whole 30 acres by hand (OMG did it take 
> time!!!!!!!),
> but the results were outstanding. Where the thistle wasn't invasive, I
> imagine that many folks would appreciate the plant in smaller colonies.