North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mark wessel <growyourown@earthlink.net>]

Doreen,
     Are you referring to black niger? If so, it is not a true thistle and 
doesn't resemble one. It is in the same family of plants. The daisy family or 
asteraceae. I believe the genus is Guizotia. If allowed to grow and has a 
long enough season to flower it will reseed profusely. 
    Could you have been feeding a different seed that is labeled thistle. 
Sometimes it may be safflower. If that is the case, I don't think they spread 
in the garden. An annual which has a hard time reseeding or overwinter its 
seeds.
    The other possibility is that your seed was contaminated with a true 
thistle.  If it is the canada thistle, roundup would be a good option. The 
more you allow it to grow before spraying, the better the herbicide will 
work. Do not pull.
    Send a picture off list. I love weeds. I am also interested in weeds 
which come up around bird feeders.

Mark


On Jun 29, 2011, at 8:56 PM, Doreen Howard wrote:

> A squirrel chewed open the thistle sock I put out for the gold finch, and 
> thistles have popped up everywhere.  I've pulled, dug and even resorted to 
> Round-Up.  I am desperate.  Is there any way to kill this prickly creatures 
> of invasiveness?
> Doreen
> 
> Doreen G. Howard
> gardendiva@charter.net
> http://www.desperategardens.net
> Read my blog at The Old Farmers Almanac site:
> http://www.almanac.com/gardening/blog 
> 
> __________________
> nafex mailing list 
> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or find out more 
> about the list here:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
> NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/