benelli-banger
Well-known member
how much to aerial spray a quarter section for thistle...a few grand? when is the best time to do this...late June? please refresh my poor memory...thanks! happy holidays...benelli banger
canadian thistle
- Thread starter benelli-banger
- Start date
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Nasty stuff. I'd much rather have musk or bind week than Canadian Thistle. I had it at Norton and my best advice is to nuke the hell out of it if you only have a little and make sure it never seeds. The seed lives in the soil for 20+ years and that'll be how long you're treating it minimum. We were using 2-4-D and Banvel in the spring and Telar in the fall, aerially applied. We were getting the best results from the fall ap of 1 oz of Telar. I think that the new best chemical is called Redeem, but don't hold me to that. I have no idea what the cost is. I was thinking we were spending about $35 an acre to spray the Telar. I'll look in my chemical file tomorrow and correct this if my memory is wrong.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
I will start with a disclaimer. I have been Canada Thistle free for almost 19 years. It took moving 250 miles to pull it off, but I "got er done"! Another disclaimer, I haven't used any of the three chemicals to follow, nor have I read their labels. But, the three modern chemicals for Canada Thistle are Redeem, Milestone, and WideMatch. I would call the Dow rep in your area and discuss these three options and see how they work and cost. You'll also have to check to see if their labeled for CRP. I am told that some of them greatly outperform the Telar and Banvel/2-4-D treatments that were the vogue when I was fighting the fight 20 years ago. By the way, I don't miss it!!!
This is the thistle advice I have been given from veterans of the thistle wars. Keep in mind that this is appropriate for the latitude and climate of southwest MN. Clip your thistles in July and again in late August or early September. The clipping helps exhauast their root reserves. Then spray them after the first frost. Thistles usually survive the first frost. The thistles will then pull the herbicide into their root system as they go winter dormant. The herbicides to use are copyralid (Stinger or Transline) or aminopyralid (Milestone). copyralid is safe around trees, aminopyralid IS NOT safe around trees.
In 2009 I got the two clippings done, but the first frost was October 10 and it dumped 4 inches of snow followed by another 4 inches 3 days later. THis snow covered the clipped thistles and top-killed the leaves--so no point in spraying as they would not be able to pull the herbicide down. This year, I did the two clippings again and waited for frost. Problem was we didn't get any frost to speak of until well into November, hence we decided it was too late. We feared that the thistles were already going fall dormant because their leaves were yellowing, so once again we did not get the herbicide applied.
A friend has told me that he has also had success with spring applications of Stinger, but I suspect that this primarily kills the top growth and maybe does not kill off the roots as well as a post frost application.
I think the local farm service company qouted us about $1300-1400 to apply Transline to 40 acres. If your thistles are only in isolated patches one could maybe spot spray them using an ATV rather spray the whole quarter section.
I would welcome any other advice here as our thistles remain untreated at present.
In 2009 I got the two clippings done, but the first frost was October 10 and it dumped 4 inches of snow followed by another 4 inches 3 days later. THis snow covered the clipped thistles and top-killed the leaves--so no point in spraying as they would not be able to pull the herbicide down. This year, I did the two clippings again and waited for frost. Problem was we didn't get any frost to speak of until well into November, hence we decided it was too late. We feared that the thistles were already going fall dormant because their leaves were yellowing, so once again we did not get the herbicide applied.
A friend has told me that he has also had success with spring applications of Stinger, but I suspect that this primarily kills the top growth and maybe does not kill off the roots as well as a post frost application.
I think the local farm service company qouted us about $1300-1400 to apply Transline to 40 acres. If your thistles are only in isolated patches one could maybe spot spray them using an ATV rather spray the whole quarter section.
I would welcome any other advice here as our thistles remain untreated at present.
captaincoot
Banned
If you don't have trees Milestones the way to go:thumbsup: If I remember right it won't kill trees. The trees won't have leaves for a year
UGUIDE
Active member
Grey Fox, since Milestone has a residual effect why mess with timing of frost. Spray Mid-Sept and forget about it. The more you put on the more residual. 7 OZ should do it.
BB, Milestone is a good cheap chemical for effective control of thistle. Plateau covers more weeds like foxtail and cheat.
BB, Milestone is a good cheap chemical for effective control of thistle. Plateau covers more weeds like foxtail and cheat.
benelli-banger
Well-known member
Thanks all for your help! Happy holidays!!!!
Milestone or Forefront(Milestone and 2-4D premixed) at roughly $15-$20 acre depending what rate you want to use, Depending how rough the land is a custom ground applicator will charge $5 to $8 dollars an acre, if the ground is to rough an airplane or Heli will cost you $8-$12 an acre. There is no better product on the market for Canada thistle then Milestone. Use the high rate and you can get up to 3 years of no thistles. I should add you could also use Chapperal if you want to get rid of buckbrush also. Chapperal is a WP that also contains the AI in Milestone. Cost is aprox the same.
Last edited:
It is important to remember that for canada thistle, control is a process not an event, and two important things to remember are:
it may take more than 1 herbicide application to get it rousted out even with clipping to stress it prior to application and
you need to get some desirable plant(s) established in there afterwards otherwise it will come back...
it may take more than 1 herbicide application to get it rousted out even with clipping to stress it prior to application and
you need to get some desirable plant(s) established in there afterwards otherwise it will come back...
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Mild Bill is right! The seed survives in the soil for up to 21 years. It is an annual effort to eradicate this weed. If you only have a small patch, be very diligent on your control efforts and do not let it spread and get a foot hold!! I was spending over $25,000 twice a year at Norton and still losing ground to the problem. Where it was established, it generally had 100% coverage if not sprayed.
birdman652001
New member
what he said. Milestone works great. On noxious weeds, its best to spray twice a year, spring and fall. July would be a bad time to spray. its the time where it seeds out and is not effective if sprayed.
Capperal works good too. lot of farmers use Milestone and there are handful of farmers use Capperal in their pastures or on grass around their food plots.
Milestone would kill thistles in an hour. Ive used tordon and 2-4D amine. works the same, but cost more and takes a day to kill perhaps two days at most.
Not quite sure where you are getting your timing information from, but for Canada thistle which is a perennial the two best times to spray it are fall and just when it is starting to flower out.
In the spring when it is starting rapid above ground growth is not a very good time to to the physiology of the plant at that time.
birdman652001
New member
it depends on the kind of chemical youre going to use. some are best effective from june to aug and takes a big down fall in the month of Sept. so again, since we were talking about Milestone, thats the best time to use milestone or even like tordon or 2-4D amine are other similar chemicals. really in theory, Thistles seed in around july area and even if it seeded out, whats the point of killing the thistle that is fully errected and seeded out? its dead, the next seed is your target now. now its a waiting game for the next seed to grow.
ive been spraying canadian and musket thistles since '99 in grasslands/crps ground and food plots. every year, july was our downfall month of spraying. Also knowing Aug is usually the hottest month, we dont spray after a temp of 98 degrees outside or the water and chemical will evaportate, then its no good. That then has to make us go re-spray which is a waste of OUR company money to spend to kill what the first kill should of happened. July is our downfall, Aug is all depends on the high of the day. We can go out in the morning before it gets too hot, we're usually home from spraying around 2pm since its getting to that peak of heat.
not ALL chemicals are effective on the months i stated. Even Altrazine works good in the fall say Oct/Nov or before the snow applied to grounds that are prepared for milo or corn in the folllowing spring planting. Altrazine will form a layer and freezes when it gets cold. when planting season arrives, we wont have to go out and spray altrazine putting us back behind schedule. so chemicals like that can tolerate cold and snow.
canada thistle and musk thistle are two different beasts when it comes to controlling them.
canada is a perennial, where by musk is a biennial.
So timing can be different on them, particularly in the spring.
Canada you want it just flowering, which would be early summer around here, or wait until fall.
musk has a different window in spring, get it before it bolts, or hit the first year rosettes in the fall.
typically once biennial thistles go into the bolt stage they become more difficult to control with herbicides due to the different physiology of the plant at that time.
In either case July and August are not ideal times as you indicate.
canada is a perennial, where by musk is a biennial.
So timing can be different on them, particularly in the spring.
Canada you want it just flowering, which would be early summer around here, or wait until fall.
musk has a different window in spring, get it before it bolts, or hit the first year rosettes in the fall.
typically once biennial thistles go into the bolt stage they become more difficult to control with herbicides due to the different physiology of the plant at that time.
In either case July and August are not ideal times as you indicate.