|Canada Thistle Control - Free Green Solution|
STEP THREE - ADD LEAVES WITH SPORES TO NEW PLANTS IN FALL
Step 3. When daily temperatures average 64 F (18 C, usually from mid-September through mid-October), grind the now dried leaves with spores in a blender. Add about 1 teaspoon (0.5 to 1 gram) of ground leaves to the upper leaves of plants that have emerged in late summer and early fall. Mark, with flags or stakes, the plants that the leaves are added to and return to the flagged locations the following spring to observe newly emerged systemically diseased shoots. Repeat the process, as needed, with more plants the following fall. The thistle plants will gradually and inevitably die as the fungus, from the added leaves with spores, grows into and kills the thistle roots. A project using this approach was established with the Colorado (USA) Department of Agriculture in 2013. As of spring 2017, 200 geographically diverse sites with Canada thistle infestations had been treated, in Colorado, with ground leaves bearing telia of the fungus. More sites are targeted for treatment over the next several years.
Photo to the left shows Canada thistle plants emerging in late summer and early fall from plants that are dying after flowering in summer. Ground leaves with spores should be added to these newly emerging plants.
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