My pasture is capeweed heaven. I would prefer not to spray though I will if I can't get ride of it otherwise. Has anyone had experience at removing it. There is too much to hoe. I was thinking of trying slaying. Wondering whether to slay high or low. Next door's cattle seem to keep his in check. It is still there but not rampant. Unless Someone comes with ideas that have worked for them I will experiment with patches slaying some high & some low.
Try dolomite great soil conditioner for your horse if nothing else , 250grams per square metre if you want to trial it small scale . Two and a half tonne per hectare (same thing) , the dolomite will probably thin them out a fair bit . If you can keep mowing the flowers off you will reduce the numbers of plants dramatically I used to do this in an area where I used to practice hitting golf balls so I could find them again , worked really well . Don't need a high power mower as you just wang the flowers off the top , might have to redo 3 times through the spring
Thanks for that info. Good to know just taking the flowers off is a help. That shouldn't be too hard.
around here we have various infestations of weeds that we'd like to replace with other plants. i look at their removal as a long term project where i might only control their spread and reduce a few square meters each season. as time goes on the population declines as i apply selective pressure, but the main thing is to have some other more desireable plant nearby that takes up the space. i use buckwheat, alfalfa, trefoil, strawberries, clovers, turnips, radishes, beans, peas, sunflowers, soy beans (edamame), i.e. things that grow tall enough to give the weeds a challenge. buckwheat is great as it grows quickly and has large leaves.
I've found cape weed is just a normal and expected part of the cycle of unhealthy soils around my place. In the pasture that's cell grazed, I don't have any, yet around the house which is still subsoil/clay because we're still building, cape weed thrives right up to the edges of the foundations. It only comes up in the nurtured garden soil here & there, and I chip it out, but seriously its not any where near the 95% coverage we get on the clay soil.
G'day Terra, I'm only just starting to investigate organic capeweed control as spraying it year in, year out is not working. This year the whole world seems to be covered in it (my world anyway). What time of year is best for an application of lime (dolomite) and is a comprehensive soil test worthwhile to see what other minerals may be deficient? One of my concerns is it's in horse paddocks, but is also widespread, even where the salvation Jane has been fairly well controlled.
A soil test is always worth while Apply products like dolomite just before the start of your wet season or anytime your irrigating Have a look at "Pat Coleby" books she has them on horses and goats ect Best book ive seen on grazing paddocks is her book "Natural Farming a practical guide" lots of detail. Capeweed is a pain it takes over on sour soils and becomes dominant even ripping will make a difference it allows the grasses to get going and compete better Capeweed is there for a reason , sour soil , compacted , mineral imbalance all these are common in horse paddocks If you want to get any results from spraying you need lots of sheep and use the spray graze technique but this only reduces seed set and allows other plants to get going it will be back next year . Your on to it look for the reason its there get Pats books and get started .