Joined
·
3 Posts
We live in west central Florida and have a 1.2 acre yard. Been here for over 35 yards and never even tried to have a manicured golf course lawn so no re-sodding, seeding or irrigation $y$tem. We have grass in the font yard and around the house and scattered around the yard, but after all this time it's only what has survived. With that being said we still try to care for what we have. Over the last several years we have been getting plagued with Florida Pusley. This not-so-little terror can, with one plant, cover over a foot in diameter of yard and totally kill off anything unfortunately enough to be under its leaves.
![]()
Even when this invader only has a few leaves it can have a root system that is over half a foot long and looks like a scraggly carrot. Have tried to kill off this in the past with chemicals but anything that would kill this also killed everything else it touched. Only thing we've found to get rid of it is getting on your hands and knees and using a narrow hand spade, dig down near the center and pull up while prying with the spade. And to get about 400 square feet cleared yesterday it took me almost 7 hours in the sun and filled two large construction sized refuse bags that I can barely pick up.
Since I can hardly move today from the pain, I figured I'd see if anyone has some magical potion that will kill this and not my patchy grass or some tool that manages to pull the carrot from the ground without a lot of manual labor. Before you mention I have a Grandpa's Weed Puller and although it's a great concept and sort of works, you have to be perfectly over the center of the weed, which is often nowhere near the physical center of the plant, but since it has four tines often they just grab the dirt on the sides of the root. Have several other reputed weed pullers but not even come close. Many times there are smaller versions of the weed near the big ones so even pulling them out, unless you're face down near them you won't see them all.
Any and all help would be appreciated but ideas of using a flame thrower, while very entertaining and fun, really wouldn't produce the desired results.
Thanks in advance.
Even when this invader only has a few leaves it can have a root system that is over half a foot long and looks like a scraggly carrot. Have tried to kill off this in the past with chemicals but anything that would kill this also killed everything else it touched. Only thing we've found to get rid of it is getting on your hands and knees and using a narrow hand spade, dig down near the center and pull up while prying with the spade. And to get about 400 square feet cleared yesterday it took me almost 7 hours in the sun and filled two large construction sized refuse bags that I can barely pick up.
Since I can hardly move today from the pain, I figured I'd see if anyone has some magical potion that will kill this and not my patchy grass or some tool that manages to pull the carrot from the ground without a lot of manual labor. Before you mention I have a Grandpa's Weed Puller and although it's a great concept and sort of works, you have to be perfectly over the center of the weed, which is often nowhere near the physical center of the plant, but since it has four tines often they just grab the dirt on the sides of the root. Have several other reputed weed pullers but not even come close. Many times there are smaller versions of the weed near the big ones so even pulling them out, unless you're face down near them you won't see them all.
Any and all help would be appreciated but ideas of using a flame thrower, while very entertaining and fun, really wouldn't produce the desired results.
Thanks in advance.
