OT, but how can I kill cactus ?

Just give some water softner salt a try on a test patch....if it kills the cactus then you can kill it all and then flush it out and regrow grass.

It's a LOT cheaper than RoundUp and so much less toxic!!!!

My wife loves the wild cactus patches, and won't let me kill them :-) At my property in Bonham, I have a few different varieties of wild cactus, this pic is the most common you find - it is Prickly Pear (or opuntia) and puts out bright yellow flowers. Another variety we have is called Cow's Tongue (that is the slang version of course), it looks like prickly pear, but is stretched out (like a cow's tongue) instead of round pads. Whe have an old parch of Cow's Tongue cactus that is over 50' in diameter with main stalks as big as my waist. Another variety is Walking Stick cactus, which puts out nice purple flowers and is more stick shapped like a lot of small sticks stuck together.

As has been said, if you cut it, each piece will grow into another plant. I hear you scrape the cactus at the ground with a flat shovel and throw the top in a burn pile. If this is done during a hot dry spell, the roots will die out as well.

My wife would kill me if she saw me typing this :-)

Good luck,
Dan

Soundguy

• basic cactus shapes

The most important thing is not to go over it with a bulldozer or shredder. Each separate paddle that comes off can grow into a whole new cactus. (That's why I wanted to be sure what kind it was.)

The roots can be very tenaceous. In general, if you have a whole lot of it, the best way to get rid of it is to burn the pasture. Given the state of Texas grasslands right now, you can't do that of course. The only other effective method I can find is herbicide application: Tordon 22K™ or Picloram. The link below has information about how to apply it and the pros and cons of various methods. The thing is, prickly pear has a very thick, waxy outer skin that keeps most herbicides OUT. So you have to do special things to use that method. The linked article explains more.

Dawn

• Prickly Pear control link

I got a chain saw with a long extension shaft and HEAVY welder type gloves, heavy jeans jacket and boots and etc etc. Started in on that durn thing cutting what I could reach, drag it out into a pile. Kept doing that and patching up cuts and scrathes on me!! Finally I had a big butt pile of it in one place, and TWO flat tires on the tractor..

I let it dry a week then poured kerosence all over it, piled old dead limbs and wood on it and set it off!!! Burned for hours it seemed like. Two or three days later, drug it all into another smaller pile and burned it again!!

Got a hole dug and shoved it all in and buried it.

Had to mow down a couple that came up next year and used round up on some others, but it is all gone now. That has been about 8 years.

Well, you asked!! :-)

Congratulations!!!! WOW!!!

Whew! --Dawn