Rural Life Bridgetown
Weed and Pest Control
Taking action on weed and pest control is in your interest, the interest of your property and of your
community. In fact, it is mandatory that you act to control certain declared weeds.
There is a wealth of information to help you, people to guide you, and if you don’t feel confident or
have the time to act yourself there will be contractors with all the necessary equipment that you can
hire to do the control work for you.
Three Bits of Information About Weeds
1. This may be for temperate conditions in Northern Hemisphere, but shows that
weeds can be useful as indicators of soil conditions:
Low pH - Plantain, Sorrel, Red clover, Bracken
High pH - Wild pansy
Just right - Chickweed
High in nutrients - Chickweed, Sow thistle
High in Nitrogen - Stinging nettle, Fat hen
Declining fertility - Weeds that flower summer and autumn
Low in Nitrogen - Clover, Vetch
Dry soil - Pig weed
Poor drainage - Buttercups, Dock
Well aerated and moist - Chickweed
High in Humus - Chickweed, Fat hen, Dandelion
2. The Other Side of Weeds - Nutrition Matters - Nutri-Tech Solutions
http://blog.nutri-tech.com.au/the-other-side-of-weeds/
3. Nicole Masters speaking at a Boyup Brook workshop in February 2017:
3.1 Weeds are bio accumulators. Use tissue sampling to see what they are
accumulating. Apply to the soil the mineral that the weed(s) is/are accumulating
most, and in time the weed will disappear.
3.2 Squeeze / crush the juice out of dying plants of a weed species. The juice will
contain the specific microbes of decay for that species. Dilute this juice in water
and spray on living weeds of the same species and you will have a species-
specific biological herbicide. (The dilution may be a question of trial and error.
Any findings would be gratefully received.)