I clear yellow star thistle off of nature areas and have found that using compost piles to manage seed dispersal to be very effective. I hand pull the plants and I find a place that is well shaded and place my compost pile there. Yellow star thistle will not grow in shade so any viable seed on the surface of my compost pile will not germinate. It takes a couple of years for the compost pile to disappear. I use this same compost pile process for Italian thistle and Sicilian thistle. Italian thistle will grow weak stemmed plants in shade so I usually do have some Italian thistle seedlings the following spring if I had flowers on the plants. I get back to those compost piles in early spring and pull any Italian thistle seedlings before they flower.
Super informative. These things have been bolting up in my back yard around my kids play equipment, and they're absolutely BRUTAL.
I clear yellow star thistle off of nature areas and have found that using compost piles to manage seed dispersal to be very effective. I hand pull the plants and I find a place that is well shaded and place my compost pile there. Yellow star thistle will not grow in shade so any viable seed on the surface of my compost pile will not germinate. It takes a couple of years for the compost pile to disappear.
I use this same compost pile process for Italian thistle and Sicilian thistle. Italian thistle will grow weak stemmed plants in shade so I usually do have some Italian thistle seedlings the following spring if I had flowers on the plants. I get back to those compost piles in early spring and pull any Italian thistle seedlings before they flower.
What if I don’t want to spray my pasture?
Great video. Can you put out a video on the Oystershell scale that is killing all of Park Citys Aspen Trees? Its approaching epidemic stage here?
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the plant has a lot of health benefits