Getting Rid of Prickly Pear in Central Texas

[Tim Tucker]

Thanks for the feedback from everyone. Not sure exactly what method I'm going to use, but will probably be a combination of using a hand shovel on small plants, and a chemical (Surmont) on bigger ones. I don't have a tractor at this point, and won't have $ for one for a while, so I will have to wait on using a FEL. Figure I can let the chemicals work while I cut cedar, clean up oaks, etc...Looking for a four wheeler with a tank on it and long hoses where I can park it and walk a pretty large area. I'm planning on taking photos, and documenting results. I'll let everyone know how it goes in the hope that it might help someone else.

Thanks again for the comments.

 

[jamesn]

ever tried prickly pear jelly? tastes great

 

[Carykong]

Tim, I admire your fortitude but I am compelled to say that you cannot manage or make any significant progress with a hand shovel and a tank of chemicals when 90 acres are concerned.

 

[kfvintx]

With decent soil and recent rains it's not too difficult using shovel. Most of what I'm concerned about is in coastal hay field so didn't really want to use FEL just to dig up smaller plants. Filled up loader in about 1 hour.

 

[two_bit_score]

With decent soil and recent rains it's not too difficult using shovel. Most of what I'm concerned about is in coastal hay field so didn't really want to use FEL just to dig up smaller plants. Filled up loader in about 1 hour.

That's a good bucket load. How many more you got to go?


.

 

[kfvintx]

That's a good bucket load. How many more you got to go?
.

Way too many :laughing: Probably will fill another 7 or so from the hay fields and areas needing removal. I will take great joy in watching them burn

 

[DeeDubya]

I'm about to start clearing a 6 acre lot of which at least half is covered with pears. The hill country rock makes it difficult if not impossible to cut them off with a bucket. I've got a 6' rake now attached to my FEL which I intend to use to push them into piles. The rake should work well enough in the rock and a pitch fork works great for picking up the loose leaves. They seem to rot quickly when piled up.

 

[DeeDubya]

I know this is an old thread to revive but I wish I could go back 3 years when I last posted and tell myself that physical removal is time consuming and expensive. I even bought an $800 rock bucket, but while it works for rocks, does not work well to root out the nopalitos because they can regenerate from a tiny piece. So, long story short, I have experimented with several herbicides of which Remedy Ultra has turned out to work the best for my needs. I finally ran across a recipe that seemed at first to be too expensive but if you figure in labor it's not too bad. It's a mix of 1qt Remedy ($90/gal) to 3qts diesel. Yes, that's a quart not ounces. So a gal of mix will cost you $25. At first I sprayed all the pads as the recipe said but learned that's a waste and not at all necessary. I sprayed about two acres with their suggestion and sure enough the pear were dead and melting down within 2 months. But I also tried spraying just the lower stalk and lower pads on a few as Remedy is meant to be used on mesquite, etc. It works as well on the pear. Really couldn't tell any difference between those I covered completely and those where I sprayed only the stalks and lower pads. It's still not cheap but it's fast and I got results which is what I like. I can't see waiting 2 years to get results as is warned in many of the water mix recipes with Tordon 22K or Surmount. This is spot spraying and on a still day there is virtually no risk of killing other plants so I don't have a problem with the Remedy/diesel mix. I do recommend against using a fine mist spray to conserve because it is more likely to drift that a courser spray. Also, use an all plastic sprayer. Diesel and the galvanized sprayers don't get along too well.
If you want to kill prickly pear, this will do it.

 

[two_bit_score]

Sounds good. Thanks for updating us!

 

[yellowdogsvc]

messing with cactus is never fun. I don't like using heavy duty chemicals so I use a tilt bucket on a skid steer and when i had a 12" wide stump bucket, that worked good too. In dirt, the tilt bucket makes it easy to get the whole plant. In rock, it's a lot more difficult. One of things I've done in rocky areas is use a small excavator with a thumb. I'll dig holes around the rock and get down past the caliche. Sometimes it takes awhile to bust through the rock but after I get some deep holes, I dig entire plants, rocks and all, up with the excavator and bury the lot. If I want to get every ear, I use a helper with a pitch fork or a shovel. This has worked on a smaller scale 1/2 acre at a time but the tilt bucket worked great on large acreage when the ground wasn't extremely rocky.