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cactus and mesquite
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Author:  gbynum10 [ Sun Jul 30, 2006 12:10 pm ]
Post subject:  cactus and mesquite

we have about 500 acres south of Hamilton and are trying to control the mesquite and cactus both are out of control. What's the organic solution?

Author:  Pamzilla1 [ Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:04 pm ]
Post subject: 

Those plants are there because it is arid and the soil is poor. They will come back unless you increase the health of the soil. I think you can spray cactus with molasses. Mesquite you have some choices. Large trees can be bulldozed, small trees can be shredded with a tractor but both will probably be back in five years. Some range research has been done that recommends letting a few mequites grow large. Apparetly, large trees keep the small one from growing.

BTW, against our organic enthusiasm we have used nasty chemicals on ours with limited luck. Just too many and they grow to fast to spray.

Good luck.

Author:  user_48634 [ Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:38 pm ]
Post subject: 

If you let the litter collect around the cactus, there will come a bug called cochineal. It looks like a white tuft of cotton stuck to the plant. That's the disguise. If you grab it and squeeze, your fingers will turn blood red. Anyway, these little things will kill the cactus for you but you have to have litter up around the cactus. If you have the litter but not the bug, go looking for it to transplant some to your land.

As for mesquite, you might be able to control young plants with goats. You can control the big ones with a tree eater. That's a machine that they drive up to the tree and it literally chews the tree into mulch in about 30 seconds. It's the world's biggest chipper/shredder all-in-one mounted on the front of a dozer. Here are some links

http://www.treeshears.com/vortex/

http://www.cedareater.com/viewdemo.htm

http://www.yellowdogservices.com/comingsoon.html

Author:  Robert D Bard [ Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:44 am ]
Post subject:  cactus and mesquite

You must get on an organic program to improve
soil if you want get rid of these problems. I like
the shredding of the trees (probably expensive)
becasue material will build the humus back into the
soil as it rots. The goats are a good idea but I just got rid
of 55 of these little creatures and I can say I hated
them. (if it is possible my wife hated them more
than I did) This was two years of h___ on our
part. I will take small cows any time.
Robert D Bard

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