Buttercups

Hi everyone so many posts about buttercups this year. It’s mow and mulch or use weedkillers such as Thrust or Envy or pick them out by hand. You could try Resolva or Barrier H if you are looking for something more organic and expensive but I can’t speak for their efficacy. I’ve never known anything like it this year for the critters. I have them for the first time in five years ! So their appearance everywhere I find truly astonishing. The other point I’d like to add is that applying lime will only work if your ph is a certain way. Remember buttercups thrive in low fertility soil and that soil can be acid or alkaline. There is an odd belief going around everywhere seemingly, that buttercups and weeds thrive in acidic soil and you can get rid by applying lime. Nooooooooo! Buttercups and weeds thrive in low fertility, low nitrogen soil, which can also be alkaline. If you add lime you will be affecting the ph. You might need to apply sulphur which is the opposite in terms of lowering and raising ph. Or your ph may be perfect and you will ruin it or end up with a chequerboard of uneven ph patches through the field, that no bugger can manage. Please get your ph tested before you apply any chemical compounds. it costs very little for a soil analysis kit .... Remember weeds won’t thrive in High fertility soils. Concentrate on improving that and your grass will outcompete your weeds and remember some weeds are good. Also don’t buy fertiliser from the feed shop just because it says it’s safe for horses. Its composition might not be right for your land. Buttercups also grow in compacted and thus heavily waterlogged soil, nitrogen deficient (keep spreading fertiliser, folks) and (some evidence for) calcium deficient soil so do a search on compaction. Above all, remember the type of soil you have, whether clay or sandy, peaty or boggy is no indicator of the acidity or alkalinity of your soil. Only a ph test can tell you that. So lime may not be the answer. if your land is of low fertility you’d be wanting to make it more fertile by adding nitrogen either in the form of muck or bagged products .. but then you’d have to have a soil test to get your P and K right according to your soil and match it to your bagged product. Also bagged stuff contains nitrates which effects soil life. Muck improves soil structure and the P and K is relatively low. Remember if you pluck buttercup by hand any bit of the plant you leave behind will regenerate. What is clear is that you can’t leave them because as they scramble across the ground they put down new roots. I spot spray them so that I never get into the circle of blanket spraying and I use Thrust or Envy. One other thing, having a fair amount of clover in your pasture will keep them at bay as clover fixes nitrogen, its not hugely awful to have clover but you don’t want too much of it for neds because as we all know it’s high sugar and calorific , so swings and roundabouts ....