Ragwort update

Fri 6 Jul 2018, 23:54

The greatest danger from ragwort is its toxicity to grazing animals, especially horses, particularly after cutting and drying as is the case with hay produced from an infested field. Animals will normally avoid growing ragwort plants, and only after cutting and drying do they present a really large risk
As far as I remember, ragwort is not toxic merely from skin contact by we humans but that is something worth checking for yourself in more detail.
See ragwort.org.uk/

Fri 6 Jul 2018, 18:42

Jenny, bit confused - thought the point about ragwort was its toxicity (skin contact for humans?) so grazers were at risk too.

Fri 6 Jul 2018, 17:27

Professor Michael Crawley of Imperial College is a world expert on the control of ragwort. I found the following point in his book: Plant Ecology (2nd Edition 1997) extremely interesting as it is quite counter intuitive:

"Ragwort control is sometimes attempted by hand-pulling of the flowering stems. This removes the tap root but leaves a ring of five to ten broken lateral roots in the soil, each of which is capable of sprouting a new vegetative bud that will form a rosette in the following year. The result of this human herbivory, therefore , is to increase ragwort density five to tenfold, rather than to reduce it, as intended."

Fri 6 Jul 2018, 07:11

You should remove it because that's how it spreads. Seeds taken by the wind.

Fri 6 Jul 2018, 05:36

Thanks Liz for making the point about the cinnabar moth. And for those who notice ragwort in their gardens, there's no need to be vexed or, unless you also have grazing animals (horses, cattle, goats etc), to remove it.

Sat 30 Jun 2018, 16:34 (last edited on Mon 2 Jul 2018, 08:35)

For those of you who took an interest in the control of ragwort on the Southill Solar, I'm providing below the latest government guidance. But I thought you might be interested to know that ragwort is food for the beautiful Cinnabar Moth and we have discovered hundreds gracing some of our plants so we are leaving enough to ensure that they thrive - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar_moth

You can control ragwort using a combination of:

spraying or weed wiping the plants with chemicals (known as 'herbicides')
removing live, dead or dying plants by pulling or digging them out
cutting plants back to prevent the dispersal of seeds
burning plants using a spot burner
managing livestock so that they do not overgraze and create bare areas where ragwort can become established