Dam Weeds

[tatom]

I think this has come up before but I cant find it. Im over run by the weed called "my a laap". Its the one with purple flowers and lots of needles. They get pretty thick and take over everything. Ive got rid of them on 3 rai, by pulling them out by the roots, one by one, by hand! This has to be done in the rainy season when the ground is soft, or the roots wont come out.

I have another 3 rai field that is loaded with them but I dont have the energy to tackle that by hand. I tried plowing them in, and burning doesnt work either. The locals tell me to use poison (seems thats thier answer to everything), but I dont want to do that.

Any sugestions?

[BambinA]

i dont know how to get rid it

but just want some people know what is this plant

ไมยราบ Mai ya rab

Scientific name: Mimosa pudica L.

Common name: Sensitive plant, Touch-me-not, Action plant

There are 4 species of this plant in LOS

1 )ไมยราบธรรมดา Mai ya rab tum ma da (Mimosa pudica)

2 )ไมยราบยักษ์ Mai ya rab yak (Mimosa pigra)

3 )และไมยราบเลื้อย Mai ya rab leaoy (Mimosa invisa)

4 )ไมยราบไร้หนาม Mai ya rab rai nham (Mimosa invisa inermis)

(2) and (3) are invasive alien species

[RamdomChances]

To be honest spraying them is probably the best bet.

[chownah]

What do you want to do with these fields...besides killing the my a lap?

To control weeds without spraying you need to plow...wait 2 weeks for the plants to die...you'll probably kill 80 to 90% with the first plowing...plow again...wait 2 weeks again....THEN...assuming you've plowed effectively you will have killed all of the growing plants....the few remaining you can kill manually. If there are too many then you probably didn't do a good job of plowing so repeat one more time...wait 2 weeks....THEN...you will have killed all the plants and the few remaining you can remove by hand. THEN....you need to plant something that will grow and cover the ground...what you plant depends on what you want to do with the land...corn...soybeans...grass for grazing...etc. If the ground is left bare then the weeds will almost assuredly grow back because there are naturally lots of weed seeds in the soil since they've been living there and making seeds for a number of years probably and plowing creates a "free for all" and whatever seeds are there will have no competition and will grow really well...so...you need to plant something that can compete well and you need to keep your eye out for the weed and pull it up by hand when it sprouts....if you do this very thoroughly you can completely eliminate it.....on the other hand it does harbor nitrogen fixing bacteria on its roots so it does give the benefit of enriching your soil.....but there are other plants that do this just as well (and even better) and that don't have the nasty thorns.

There is another way....place a thick layer of mulch on the weeds....this works well for small areas....rice straw works well for this....but its mostly impossible to heavily mulch large areas.

Perseverence furthers.

Edit: I just thought of another way to control weeds....grow rice. The water kept in the rice fields kills the weeds and some of their seeds too.....one of the main reasons for keeping water in the fields constantly is to control weeds

Chownah

[bannork]

Myarab is a complete bastard. I hate it vehemently, once established it's extremely hard to eradicate. There's about 2 rai of our land where I've pulled it up wearing thick gloves, dug it up,I must have burnt tons over the last few years ; but it always comes back as it can grow in rocks, mud or whatever soil. And it spreads so fast.

But I've noticed buffaloes eat it, not so cows generally, though our bull would chomp his way through it.

I don't want to use weedkiller so I'm going to follow my wife's advice namely, cover it with landfill and then plant ruzzi, and at the emergence of any new mayarab, remove it instantly.

Chownah's advice about ploughing sounds good but mayarab is so persistent I've got the feeling you're going to have to keep a very close eye on any re-emerging.

Ours took hold because a brother-in-law used our land for 2 years but didn't grow rice on 2 rai where it spread like wildfire.

[boppia]

The locals at my wife's hometown call it PeeMop. I use it to describe corruption and Thaksin, myself. I do what you do with it - pull it out when I can and burn it immediately. To get rid of it you must fight it with zero tolerance. But if your neighbours don't join in the fight the weed will surely creep back. So, burn, burn, burn, baby. Get rid of the evil that is plaguing you.

[tatom]

All good replys, thanks. I use the land for grazing cows and I would like to have nothing but grass there. Never had any water buffaloes there, but of course they wouldnt eat the roots, so it would just grow back. I think Ill try plowing it in several times and see if that works. If not, maybe Ill go back to pulling by hand, what the heck, I havent got any plans for the next couple of years!

I read a newspaper article awhile back about many farmers planting grass instead of rice in Issan. Said you can harvest grass year round every 6 weeks. I noticed at the local grain store, they now sell grass seed. One, looks like normal seed and the other is a large seed and the grass is called "jumbo". That must be the one I see sold in bundles at the cattle auction. I would be interested to know if anyone uses grass seed and which they prefer.

Speaking of grass, I dont care for the Thai custom of having dirt all around the house, so Ive let the grass grow, pulled all the weeds and kept it mowed. The neighbors mentioned how nice it looks and after telling them its also convienient, (no dust or mud), they all have lawns instead of dirt.

I used to go to the Temple every day to tend to the trees and gardens. I had noticed one section of the temple grounds looked pretty bad, all grown up and neglected. So, I spent about 6 weeks clearing garbage and brush. The grass had grown in really well and it looked great. Then one day, as I arrived at the temple, I saw all the old ladies out with thier shovels digging up the grass and burning it! I guess they thought they were doing me a favor by getting rid of all that nasty grass. I didnt get mad, its thier country and thier customs, so mai pen lai. My wife got a kick out of it when I told her.

[Fosa]

tatom

Have you thought about pigs ? I used them to clear land in UK - very effective. 1 pig can churn 20m by 20m patch over in a couple of weeks (if damp). Used electric fence to keep them contained. Never seen one here but you could probably rig up a system using a car battery . Once the pig has 'snouted' the wire a couple of times it leaves well alone! and you can turn off the power thus saving battery! In fact when you move the fence it takes them a few days to cross that line into pastures new! Smaller patches get 'done over' more efficiently than larger ones where they tend to pick and choose.

Before you invest in a swine, I'd suggest you give some myarab roots to your nearest pet pig and see if it eats them! If it dies, myarab is toxic to pigs!! However, in my experience pigs can eat just about anything! They'll need some sort of shelter from the sun (corrugated tin u-bent on wooden frame ?) and preferably a mud hole for wallowing. Good luck!

Fosa

PS Think about the BBQ!

[chownah]

The pig idea might be good but be advised that the dirt here has alot more pathogens that will infect a pig than the dirt in the UK has. I know very little about pigs though so I might be wrong.

Tatom,

If you just graze cows then there should be no problem with this weed. It isn't poisonous and is actually probably nutritious although they probably don't eat much of it. It does fix nitrogen in the soil so it is beneficial in that respect. I have some of it in an area where cows graze and I don't worry about it too much...I do go out with a hoe and dig out any thick infestations so the grass can do better but I don't spend alot of time doing this...I dig out the weed at a time of the year when the grass is growing well so that the grass will quickly fill in where the weed was taken out. The only time I got a really bad infestation of the stuff was when I plowed and then just left the dirt bare and didn't plant anything for ground cover. Because it was growing there before the seeds were already in the soil and it grew in really thick....so beware of plowing unless you know something about planting grass or else it might come back thicker than before.

Chownah

[Maizefarmer]

Mayarab

1) Plough +/-5cm “cross-cut” with a disc (ask your local tractor driver what “cross-cut” means – and if its on a slope – make sure its done properly or you going to loose a lot of top soil )

2) Wait 7-10 days and plant your crop.

3) Wait for the myarap to emerge – give about 5 days for some leaf structure to establish.

4) Go down to the local agricultural store and get some “Roundup” (its not cheap).

5) Mix it and get your “gopher” to go round and spray all the emerged Myarap (which so long as there is moisture in the soil, it will have emerged by now and have a leaf structure).

There will still be Myarap in the soil but its growth will be stunted severly by the crop coverage and its not going to be a problem for that crop. But if you are not growing a crop then obviously this wont work.

You wont find this on the internet – it comes from real life experience.

Tim

[chownah]

Tatom,

Around here (I live in the north, not in Isaan) people don't like having vegetation around thier houses because it harbors mosquitos and leaches. Keeping a lawn cut fairly short eliminates the mosquito habitat but we still get leaches...but not that many...and they are the small ones...and only at certain times of the year...like right now. Thinking about a leach latching on to you is much worse than the reality. I get them fairly regularly and applying a pinch of salt instantly makes them let go...then to be sure they are dead you need to cut them in half....cause they are tuff little buggers....if you step on one that you have just removed from your body you can make their meal of you blood squirt out (of mouth?..or the other end?)...and then they will crawl away seemingly unharmed...to kill them for sure you need to cut them in half!!..or keep putting salt on them until they dissolve completely.

Chownah

P.S. Getting a leach doesn't hurt...no pain at all. I never know I've got one until I go shower after working. If you tried to just pull one off it might hurt but I don't know because I've never tried to do that....you just put a pinch of salt on them and they instantly let go and fall off by themselves. You will bleed for quite awhile after they are off but not profusely....their saliva contains an anticoagulant that keeps you from clotting and shortening thier meal.

Chownah

[plachon]

The locals at my wife's hometown call it PeeMop. I use it to describe corruption and Thaksin, myself. I do what you do with it - pull it out when I can and burn it immediately. To get rid of it you must fight it with zero tolerance. But if your neighbours don't join in the fight the weed will surely creep back. So, burn, burn, burn, baby. Get rid of the evil that is plaguing you.

Unfortunately, with mai arab yak, burning is noit a good idea. In fact, it positively thrives in newly burnt areas, out competing everything else to dominate, as it is an ultimate pioneer plant. When the floods go down, it is usually one of the first seeds to germinate and soon covers those river banks choking out everything else in its path. The seeds seem to float down rivers and settle in the mud when they go down in Oct/Nov.

Spraying herbicide works but is a bit of a drastic measure, with possible undesirable effects on other plants or animals. I favour a combination of physical removal where possible and long term control by tree planting. It hates shade and loves sun, so fast growing shady trees are best. Rain trees are pretty effective, but fruit trees like mangos & jackfruit are slightly more tasty alternatives. Goats also apparently can graze it when it is in the young soft stages.