Can I just check with the experts please?

Our little community is basically a small hamlet of hall etc and 5 houses (cricket club of course.)
We have had a kill on sight regime on Caltrop for about 4 serious years and have it down to one strip of roadside and one small yard (1/4acre) reoccurring.

Rains been coming and going of late and the caltrops up and having a go at flowering...rain brings it on again and again
So
I been spraying it with Roundup (as per the pak) combined with Allies (as per) and Hortico Bindii(JoJo) spray (which was provided by shire)

anyone wish to comment ....I personally detest these little locally called 'bindiis' .....I call them 'cats-heads' or just plain 'Caltrop' ....nasty device a caltrop.

nearly got rid of them .....and hopefully in the future we only need watch for what's brought in the gate.
Some of these weeds are nasty hey?

any help/advise will be greatfully appreciated ....I'm sick of the damn things!

I've got a few patches of horehound Ant that have just had their yearly bath
When we came here in 80 the place was a mass of them....I think the seasons have sorted them more than myself.
In the early days it was easy as I used Seed Spray ....you could tell where you'd been .....trouble was the stuff causes tics :rolleyes:
Miss it though ...all these new brews seem gutless by comparison ...and me six fingered kids ain't bad on the banjo besides

what people don't do anything for just a please anymore.

ignorant lot!

Very funny arnoldnut, giggle. Great to see that someone else actually know's the real common name of caltrop and not bindiis (sigh). Spray early in the season with a mixture of Kamba M & Stomp (Pendimethalon) which is a Pre-Emergent and again just before xmas, then again late in the season with MCPA. the biggest problem with you is this, you do it right, neighbours won't. very frustrating eh?

Couch is very susceptible to a product called Fusillade II. A turf product and expensive.
I know you farmers don't like it but by crikey, the toughest and most attractive lawn turf available for our climate...

That Caltrop is horrible stuff. It's re-appeared in teh back paddock at my parents' place and I fear it's a matter of time before it appears here. It's scary, the thorny balls go straight through my crocs.

I'm slowly winning against the Horehound, but at this time of year I just pull out anything that's seeding, and wait for the tender new plants so I can nuke them.

The Pattos is rearing up again!!! so I'm planning to head out with a tank of MCPA today (it's not going to reach 30, allegedly) and see what effect it has. I have new pale green rosettes, and the leaves are lifting already. I can't believe it.

I must say, apart from the Pattos, my weed programs are showing their effects. Areas that were seas of weeds are now pretty clear, and the grass is having a go. Verbascum is really on the ropes, the metsulferon hammered that.

Couch has taken over my mother's farm and is wrecking her no-spray program because the "predator" (some kind of mite, I think) needs flowers and couch doesn't have any. I'm eyeing the Couch with interest because I have a lot of bare ground where nothing but weeds will grow, and it's green... family shriek with horror when I wonder about ripping a bit of theirs up and trying it here, but I'm still thinking of trying some, maybe down away from the house. I bet it wouldn't grow.

Do roos eat couch?

Yep, roo's eat couch. At 1 of our local golf courses, they come down the hill and graze on the santa ana (Hybrid Couch)fairways.

That's good to know, thanks Simmosturf. My family have good riversilt soil, but I'm on acid hydrophobic shale and it's a whole different story. there's tufts of poa tussock and bare ground in between. i might pull up some rhizomes secretly and transplant them out at my place, maybe down the hill away from the house and garden, and see what happens.

I did notice, on some bad ground I tried to establish a dryland grass mix (fail, waiting til autumn to try again ,but the wire weed loves it), there is a few little stalks of Couch that no one's noticed yet. It was either in with the seed mix, or brought from the family farm.

it's green, and it covers the ground. It is welcome!

In weed news, I went out on the weekend with a 50 litre drag-tank with a battery pump (wow) and nuked the Pattos which was growing like a good lettuce crop.

Used a medium strength MCPA brew. It was mid-high 20s, and I just broadsprayed as there were tiny seedlings of it in amongust the grass coming up, as well as flat rosettes, and rosettes where the leaves were lifting up like lettuce.

Amazing stuff MCPA, within a day you coudl see the leaves contorting, and now they're going very yellow, I can see what I did and what I still have to do. I hit some thistles too, as I figure weeds like company.

It has an even more dramatic effect on Mustard Weed, the leaves soften and the stalks go all contorted within hours. The 50 litre tank is a bit of work to drag around on a steep pitch, but being able to coat the ground is so effective in this situation.

wireweed! argh. Is there anything that will kill it, that won't kill grass? I think glyphosate is rated for it, but it kills the precious grass, too. It's taking over around the house.

Amazed at the huge grass growth here. I cannot remember when it has been so active. Mainly some kind of wallaby grass, but everything's moving.

I've no idea what wireweeds are like, but may i suggest boiling water/steam. Some spray packs can take it i imagine.

If the stems are accessible you can spot-kill with discrimination.

Hey Ant i have been using this website www.pestgenie.com.au/ for quite a while now and it seems fairly useful for finding out what chemicals to use in certain situations!
Good luck

I have tried pestgenie a few times but must be using it wrong as I get nil results in my searches. I'll go have another try...

Kamba M Ant and use a surfactant. Works everytime. In future, get it early.

Good! I've got some Kamba M, don't use it much as it attacks tree roots (apparently) but the Wireweed is colonising open areas. Yep, it's seeding everywhere, horrible stuff. Surfactant... is that wetting agent? I usually use that with everything, seems to help.

Yes mate, it is wetting agent. The dicamba in Kamba M is known to upset roses so I am very careful with it. There is another product that I use called Broadside. 3 active constituents are MCPA, Dicamba, and Bromoxinyl and gives you a broader scope of weeds controlled. And not expensive. Last time I bought a 20lt drum, it cost me about $280. I happen to love the stuff.

Broadside, I'll note that down. I am a huge fan of MCPA at the moment, using it a lot. I can SEE the benefit, the pattos and other rubbish is disappearing, and the native grasses are thriving.

I haven't looked up Kamba's specifics yet, but does it leave grass alone?

I figure the wireweed will take a few seasons to fully control. It came from the family farm, probably lodged in cracks in the kubota.

Kamba M's active constituents are Dicamba and MCPA and is selective on broadleaf weeds (dicotyledons - 2 emerging leaves on germination) only so no, will not damage grasses (Monocotyledons - single emerging leaf on germination) I hope this helps mate...

Thanks for that. I can never make sense of this broadleaf vs grass thing, blowed if I know how the poison knows the difference. I'm going to get some Broadside, read up on it and it looks the goods. Family could use it too, Wireweed is rampant down there.

This stuff will solve a lot of problems!