Author Topic: Nettles and spray (Read 2732 times)

Bramham Wiltshire Horns · « **on:** June 28, 2016, 10:13:41 am »

on the plot i have there are quiet a few nettles
what is a good way of dealing with them
would the sheep eat them or are they poisonous
can you recommend anything to kill them off
thanks

twizzel · « **Reply #1 on:** June 28, 2016, 10:46:06 am »

Sheep don't eat nettles I don't think, at least ours don't. you would need a license to spray now both with knapsack and quad/tractor mounted sprayer. Best bet is to find a local farmer with the correct tickets who can advise and spray it for you.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #2 on:** June 28, 2016, 11:23:31 am »

Nettles are very nutritious. Sheep and cattle will eat them once they're cut. So if you can strim, top or scythe them, you save on using chemicals and provide good food to your sheep.

Fleecewife · « **Reply #3 on:** June 28, 2016, 11:40:28 am »

As Sally says, nettles are full of nutrition. We find our sheep don't eat them when they (the nettles) are young, but they eat them later in the year. Nettles are also the food plant of tortoiseshell butterfly larvae.

However, you can have too much of a good thing. We never spray chemicals, and where we have nettles we don't want, we mow them, with an ordinary lawn mower, frequently. If the problem is nettles under hedges and in awkward to reach places, as opposed to open pasture, then they are scythed as a temporary measure, but in the long term you can only wait for the tree cover to shade them out.

If, when you say 'on the plot' you mean a veg garden, then there's nothing you can do other than digging out every last root (they extend a long way, and are yellow ). Make sure you never let them seed, and hoe off any germinating seedlings before they get established. Don't put nettles on the compost heap unless you are sure they have not set seed. You can make a lovely, if decidedly stinky, liquid feed with a high nitrogen content, from soaked nettles - complements comfrey feed which is high in potassium.

Foobar · « **Reply #4 on:** June 28, 2016, 11:55:49 am »

Pull them out after its been raining (when ground is softer), then leave them to wilt and put them in with your sheep. The sheep will eat some of them once wilted. Keep doing that and you will soon get rid of them.

Bramham Wiltshire Horns · « **Reply #5 on:** June 28, 2016, 01:15:29 pm »

thanks for the advice much appreciated

its in the feild the sheep are going in, would this be same with thistles

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #6 on:** June 28, 2016, 01:46:45 pm »

Yes, they'll eat cut thistles too, and repeated cutting will wear out the thistles.

For most effective cutting, cut the thistles when they are full in flower, just before they set seed.

Bramham Wiltshire Horns · « **Reply #7 on:** June 28, 2016, 02:30:08 pm »

brilliant thankyou

Timothy5 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 28, 2016, 06:07:19 pm »

My sheep will eat nettles, brambles, and even nibble bracken, if I cut it down with the brush cutter. I use a metal blade on my strimmer, a whip won't last 5 minutes, I slice them all down, and the sheep do the rest. Keep cutting, and eventually the weeds give up and grass takes over. If you want to spray, Clinic is O.K., but don't graze, or if you have money to burn you can use Grazon, but it is a wicked price, although they say you can continue to graze your animals. I'm not sure if that is a good idea.