Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

Yup, Yup... I ran a whole bunch of this sort of thing down out of the trees by running over the bottom portion with the mower deck. This and those danged green thorn vines.

Sorry about the TMI thing... it just wouldn't have been quite as humorous nor would it have been as genuine without it. And I hope I didn't go too far

Latestarter said:

This and those danged green thorn vines.

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Probably Green Briar. Goats may eat it down, I dunno, but it will grow back even if cut down. It is very difficult to get rid of. Shiny, waxy leaf makes it impervious to water based herbicides.
According to TAMU, the way to eradicate it is to mix a 25:75 ratio of Remedy Ultra herbicide and diesel and spot spray the foliage and stems with a 2 gal garden sprayer or backpack sprayer. Should get about a 85% kill rate after first application. Repeat as necessary. Remedy Ultra has no soil activity and no residual effect in soil, but the diesel will kill any grass droplets fall on. You can also use a crop oil, such as canola oil or even ordinary vegetable cooking oil instead of diesel. The oil acts as a penetrate to get into the waxy leaves. Water based spray will just run off the leaf and stems.

GreenBrier has a lot of energy stored in it's root system year 'round, and cutting it encourages more growth. You either have to just keep cutting it until the regrowth expends all the stored energy or spray it.

CntryBoy777 said:

View attachment 31645 ....This is eastern poison oak, it has 5 leaves and they are jagged around the edges.
View attachment 31646 ....This is poison ivy, its leaves are in triplets, and the 2 outer leaves look like mittens with a jagged middle leaf.
View attachment 31647 ....here they are growing together on an oak tree. Whether on the ground or up a tree they usually be around each other, along with sumac. Mainly in partial sun to full shade and is very prolific.

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That first one looks like Virginia Creeper? I have a lot of it here and it does grow alongside the poison ivy. It is supposed to cause a reaction to some people who handle it.

Could you kill off PO (either one ) with a flame thrower? I decided to get a Red Dragon for my birthday last month, haven't used it yet. Super high spot heat is supposed to do serious damage to the roots of plants. You don't flame the foliage, just let it die from lack of a healthy root. I don't THINK I have any PO so I can't test that for you. I think my first test will be on the colt's foot (when I get some time).

Wow! I have been too busy to get on BYH more than a few minutes at a time, lately, @Latestarter. I don't know why, but your thread doesn't seem to ever show up in my alerts. So, I only see it when I look at the active threads list.

Anyway, this morning I realized that I missed a lot of posts yesterday, and got caught up on your trials and tribulations. What a stitch!!! DH and I were laughing our heads off reading about all your poison ivy and mowing cedar woes.

Interesting thing, we realized while reading about your problems with poison ivy . . . Over the,years, we have both had problems,with poison ivy. Yet, since we have been here - mowing and cutting weeds, with lots of poison ivy, neither one of us has gotten that blister rash. I'm not sure why, but we are planning to take the girls, to browse on areas where we have poison ivy growing.

@Graybeard mentioned Tyvek overalls, to keep poison ivy oil off skin and I think it was @CntryBoy777, who suggested usIng them when working in areas, where there are ticks, chiggers (and even "fahr aints", for that matter). We have chiggers really bad, back in the pasture and into the woods. Chiggers are what drive both of us crazy most of the Summer!!!

We are planning to spread sulphur, to get rid of the chiggers. Does anyone know if the chiggers bother goats?

About 4 decades ago, my area was over run with what is known a seed ticks, because there was a high number of cattle free range in the county. I very much remember us having to sprinkle sulphur on our boots and jeans legs to try to keep them off, but it did little to help. They were horrible...you could actually see the tiny things moving up your legs in a dark cloud. Fortunately, when the county voted to end free range here, the seed ticks were diminished in numbers and then, when the fire ants moved in, they disappeared altogether.
(not sure if that was a good trade off or not but at least I can see the fire ant mounds and avoid them)

Be careful about broadcasting sulphur on your yard and pasture. It is often used to lower the pH in soils just as lime is used to raise pH.

http://www.grow-it-organically.com/changing-soil-ph.html

Just a thought . . . what if we mix the lime & sulphur? Or would the lime counter the effectiveness of the sulphur???

The article you reference, says sulphur doesn't change the pH quickly, and should be applied (dug into the soil) several times a season. We were planning to use a dry fertilizer spreader, set on the lowest setting, to spread our sulphur thinly. I believe it's a really fine powder, which can clog a spreader. So, we are planning to add course sand to the mix. Btw, we have 6" of loam over clay.

@Devonviolet IMHO, I think ya will be wasting your $$ with it, because chiggers will fall down on ya from trees above ya as the wind shakes the limbs. There are also oak tree mites that are very similar and itch like the dickens for a couple of wks. The best defense against them is keeping grass/weed height low, and if working in an overgrown area, as soon as ya come in strip...and put clothes in washer as ya head to the shower and wash off any that may be on ya. They will overnite in/on your shoes or boots too, so if ya can wear a different pair the next day. They are drawn to heat and dark colored clothes. Spraying with Off or Deet around pants legs, shoes, and sleeve cuffs will deter some, but not all. The "Old Timers" around these parts still use twine soaked in kerosene tied around the pants legs and shirt cuffs to ward them off.

greybeard said:

About 4 decades ago, my area was over run with what is known a seed ticks, because there was a high number of cattle free range in the county. I very much remember us having to sprinkle sulphur on our boots and jeans legs to try to keep them off, but it did little to help. They were horrible...you could actually see the tiny things moving up your legs in a dark cloud.

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Yikes! That must have seemed like a nightmare! Actually, now that you mention it, we might have some of those seed ticks around here. I have found some tiny, black ticks crawling on my legs & DH's arms. I wasn't sure if the might not be a nymph stage, of a regular tick. We have also found the big green ticks on the dogs.

I remember working out in the woods in North Carolina years ago when the ticks and chiggers were really bad. We had kerosene in a spray bottle and sprayed our pants legs and shoes/boots to keep them at bay. It worked as far as I recall. I remember walking along a shore line on the fresh water side of the outer banks and stopped to take in the view. When I looked down the ground was a moving brownish/red-burgundy colored carpet... It was chiggers and they had crawled up onto my sneakers and were crawling up my pants legs and inside my pants on my legs. I got out of there as fast as I could and drove home and got directly in the tub/shower fully dressed and man, did I learn a lesson from that! I scratched bites for weeks all the way up to my thighs.