Thistle-puller

That would be me.  In early July we had An Inspector Calls to assess the bio-diversity of our traditional hay meadow. He was looking for 'indicative species' for such habitats - pretty much any dicot which is not an alien invasive: hay rattle Rhinanthus minor, lady's bedstraw Galium verum, tormentil Potentila erecta, stichwort Stellaria spp., self-heal Prunella vulgaris, yarrow Achillea millefolium, spotted orchid Dactylorhiza maculata. If a threshold number of such species can be found, then the score is 10/10 and everyone is happy except the purveyors of perennial ryegrass Lolium perenne seed.

Actually its a bit more complicated than that. Take thistles: Cirsium dissectum meadow thistle is Good but creeping thistle Cirsium arvensis is a scourge and should be destroyed before it takes over the world. Inspector showed us that creeping thistle (like a lot of weed species) has a shallow root and can be easily pulled. The base of the stalk is spike-free, so you don't need gloves. If a given thistle does not pull up easily revealing a taproot, then it's probably not Cirsium arvensis and y'shoulda left it alone in the first place. It also looks like creeping thistle is on the gallop through the brash left by me processing storm-fallen trees:

You can't scythe them out but pulling works nicely - if you're respectful of the nettles.  In any case, I was able to pull a whole barrow full o' thistles [R] in about 30 minutes. Satisfying and maybe not wholly futile. We are mercifully free of ragwort = buachalán Senecio vulgaris another most undesirable weed species in pasture. Go pull some buachs was a dreaded instruction for idle farm-children back in the day . . . I wish Gdau.I and Gdau.II lived a bit closer to the farrrm . . . we have kid-gloves.

In the Spring, we got Sean and his MF135 mini-tractor to mow two passes round the headlands of the hay-meadow fields chopping back the encroaching brambles and bushes and bringing the 'meadow' that much nearer the field walls. On a 3 hectare field that is increasing 'productivity' by about 2%. When I went thistle pulling the day after inspection, it seemed like mowing might have cleared some thatch to give some thistle seeds their start in life. It's all very well pulling thistles from the base in grassland, but less so in the weedy edges where nettles share the condominium: a brush with Urtica dioecia in the face can be, shall we say, bracing.

Inspector admitted that pulling thistles is great for the abs but maybe a bit much for an ould chap. Imagine if I burst a blood vessel down the fields while straining at Cirsium and wasn't found for three days? The ravens would have started work. He offered another solution in ThistlEx. A highly toxic pyridine dicot-selective weed-killer. It's sold as a concentrated solution of Triclopyr (3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinyloxyacetic acid) and Clopyralid (3,6-dichloro-2-pyridinecarboxylic acid). Dilute as per instructions, fill a 1 litre spray bottle, and give a blast to each plant. These pyridines act as plant hormone analogs: they induce a huge wonky growth spurt and then the plant withers and dies. Harmless to grass and biodegrades in the sun after a few days - what could possibly go wrong? [hint: not a lot of sun in Ireland; plenty rain; Triclopyr is poisonous to fish, Clopyralid not so much; the ester bond is key]