Weed free over 8 years, but now I mainly use my indoor, so weeds growing last two years. Guessing 25% of surface is weeds/dry grasses right now. Cut, so short. Rode in it last couple of days, needs water, grooming. Once I water it, these parched invaders will go wild. Feed store said spray, then burn dead weeds with torch. Arena is full size court with space to gallop around the outside, and is fenced, so rather large area to cover. Borrow some goats? Whats the best short term solution and long term management plan?
There are many threads on this.
The quick, short answer was given to you by your feed store.
There are other alternatives but they are more expensive in terms of time and money.
Follow the KISS principle and you’ll do fine!
G.
Personally, I’m a fan of goats.
The goats would need to come with their own personal (hot looking) herdsman or watchdog. Lots of coyotes around. Coyotes will take down goats, right? Goat poop in my spotless but weed covered footing needs a special pooper scooper. Better than moose turds, right Bombproof?
Maybe borrow just a couple or get two of my own? Can goats be staked out on a long tether? They might climb through the three rail fence.
I’m not too excited about my weeding options so far. Isn’t there a long term weed killer that lasts a year or so?
Pramitol … After the burn down. It works in the soil to keep the weeds out.
I use Pasture Pro. It is a grazing safe herbicide. I am sure there are more efficient ways to do it, but my worthless goats won’t eat weeds and can escape most any form of containment. They would never stay in three rail fencing. Heck, we have the Priefert 6 rail panels for our goat pen with a 2*10" board around the bottom and they can still escape that.
Good thing they are cute.
[QUOTE=Color of Light;8242175]
The goats would need to come with their own personal (hot looking) herdsman or watchdog. Lots of coyotes around. Coyotes will take down goats, right? Goat poop in my spotless but weed covered footing needs a special pooper scooper. Better than moose turds, right Bombproof?
Maybe borrow just a couple or get two of my own? Can goats be staked out on a long tether? They might climb through the three rail fence.
I’m not too excited about my weeding options so far. Isn’t there a long term weed killer that lasts a year or so?[/QUOTE]
Goats can be staked out on a tether. If you have a couple of your own, you can put them out in the daytime and into a barn at night. I’ve never used goats in a riding arena, so TBH I didn’t think of the issue of picking up the pellets. If your footing is sand, it would be pretty easy; anything else might be problematic. I have used goats to clear weeds from my pasture. Much to my delight, the first thing they went after was the poison ivy.
[QUOTE=hosspuller;8242183]
Pramitol … After the burn down. It works in the soil to keep the weeds out.
http://www.cdms.net/LDat/ld44H002.pdf[/QUOTE]
this^^
For our outdoor arena (when it gets out of hand) I mow the grasses and weeds to about 4 inches tall and spray the hell out of them. Then when they get crispy I work the ground with our arena rake. When the weeds and grass are dead, they don’t ball up on the rake and cause issues. If I don’t mow it before killing it I still end up with ‘clogs’ in the arena rake sometimes.
Drag it - I use a spring harrow. Be sure not to till too deep because you will pull up the clay base (I sadly know this well). A combination of mowing and dragging would keep my sand arena looking great if did it regularly. Right now evil star thistle is creeping in. Mowing first keeps the harrow from getting filled with dead weeds.
