These are my worst weeds!

Cute little girl in cowboy boots, Monica, but those are mean looking thistles.

Here's the thistle that gets into one of my gardens. If you really want to look for the name of your critter, you can start by typing in thistles and click "common name" on the USDA site.

They aren't my worse weed, I'd leave that honor to bindweed.

If the thistles show up amongst the flowers - I spay them with Round-up. In the veggie garden, I go after them with the dandelion tool. And no, I'll never get rid of them because they are growing undisturbed not far from the garden. I just can't kill them everywhere and those seeds drift with the breeze.

Steve
 
Another method you may want to try is bagging the flowers so that when they go to seed they will not be dispersed. Thistle seed is sold as Wild Finch food (I buy, not cheap what is these days) so you may have a cottage industry growing in your backyard. Unfortunately thistle comes in annual, biannual & perennial but just getting the seed under control can help tremendously.

Another upside is their deep tap root is great for pulling up trace elements deep in the ground. So yet another method is to cut it back to the ground, exposing the root & applying a liberal amount of salt. The salt will kill the root & it can decompose in place aerating the ground and help disperse said trace elements closer to the surface where other plants can access.

The only other thing I can think of saying is.....ouch! Those look nasty!
 
Thanks for the info. I have been digging them up, trying to get the whole taproot if possible. Your way with the salt sounds MUCH easier!!

Yes! They hurt greatly! I have to wear leather gloves and even then sometimes the thorns poke through. I have gotten to where I use clippers to pick them up, preferrably by the root. The whole stalk also has the stickers. And, in the summer the stalkes are covered with ants and aphids!

What a mess.

I did not know that about the finches. No wonder why we have sooo many around here. Now that I have them more or less under control, I might be able to bag the heads. I used to do that with many of my garden plants to collect seed.

Monica
 
FYI
The thistle you buy for birds is Niger and comes from Africa. Because it is an imported seed it is heat treated to destroy the germination ability. At least that is what the lady at the bird store tells me. I tried to grow it as an experiment and none sprouted.
Lisa
 
This thread is 2 years old!

And, I just went back and discovered there wasn't a link to my thistle . . .

Here it is: Carduus pycnocephalus

Yeah, we blame it on Italy around here.

Steve
 
digitS'- thank you!! that is exactly what we have! I have not had much time between storms this winter/spring to go looking for these. Hopefullu soon I will, before they start hardily for the season.

Thank you ,

Monica
 
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