Thistle!

[NewFarmer]

I had thistle all over my lawn last year and as I have a young child I would like suggestions on removing it organically that don't include me going out everyday and digging it out again this summer!

Vanessa.

[Newt]

Hi Vanessa,

Horticultural vinegar works well on young thistle. You might be able to use household vinegar, but you would need to spray it on full strength and when the plants are very young. Be very careful when you spray as it's a non-selective herbicide and will kill or damage anything it gets on. Here's a couple of helpful sites about vinegar as an herbicide.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2002/020515.htm
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/weed.html

Newt

[NewFarmer]

thank you! that is very helpful to know - use vinegar to clean all the time so after the snow clears I'll go on the attack with my little spray bottle!!

what about grown plants? I've heard of burning but don't know how to do it.

[Newt]

Vanessa, you are so very welcome! There are flame weeders and radiant heat weeders that should be helpful for the more mature plants and other weeds. Personally I prefer the radiant heat as I think they are safer. I think there is only one company that sells the radiant heat weeders in the US if that's where you are located. Here's info on both.
Radiant Heat Weeders
Flame-Weeding: A Hot Alternative To Herbicides

It seems I read something about Canadian thistle and the difficulty of killing the mature plants. You might want to google terms such as:
thistle + flame weeder
thistle + radiant weeder
and so on.

I'd love to know if you find any useful info.
Newt