Common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, and hemp dogbane, Apocynum cannabinum are closely related plants in the same family. They are often confused with each other as they share many similarities with each other when young and grow in similar locations. Although the two look similar, there are some simple way to tell them apart.

I do quite a few videos like this and they are some of my most popular. Let me know what you think of this one.

Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks, Anthony

I have both in my hayfields. I look the other way with milkweed, but the dogbane is poisonous and will kill animals that eat it, so not good when you are trying to sell hay.

Best control I've found to date is pasturegard. Only thing I've found that goes down into the roots to kill the mothership.

HayDay - milkweed is toxic too. I don't cut or sell hay so both get a pass on my place - unless they start to form a monoculture and then they get thinned out.

I have common and butterfly milk weed. I leave half the Femara un mowed after the early spring mowing just for the July through September local weeds. Now I do have a thistle patch about 1/2 acre or so getting out of hand. I need to get rid of it and plant it with a white clover.

Providence Farm - the invasive thistles will spread fast! The native thistles are not near as aggressive.

It got purple flowers. The golden finches and wind help spread it. I mowed and tilled the area and planted sunflowers there last year. It came back with a vengeance. I made conditions right for the seeds apparently.

Providence Farm - invasive thistles love disturbance so no surprised they took off. Most of the thistles - invasive and native have purple flowers. There are some exceptions.

While milkweed can be toxic, rangeland tours here always point out that milkweed blossoms are many time the first thing cattle will feed on when turned into new pasture.

Tray - interesting. If the flowers taste like they smell they are probably very sweet. I think the toxicity of milkweed comes down to the dose. I know deer will browse them when young, but they are eating a ton of other stuff too, not just the milkweeds. Of course deer can devour pokeweed with zero ill effects, so there digestive system is quite a bit different than domestic stock.

Thanks everyone who took the time to check out the video! I appreciate it!

And thank you for producing those. You have knowledge about a lot of things some of us don't. Doesn't take much time or effort to learn from your stuff.

So is spraying the only to get rid if thistles if so what spray and what's the best time of year and method to attack them. I didn't mind leaving some and enjoy all the gold finch they bring in but it's now popping up in other places the bursa are planting it.

I really need to get serious and plant large sections of plants to increase honey production.

Providence Farm - talk to your NRCS or Extension office about the thistles. Some counties have cost shares for getting rid of them. Honey production in the east is mostly based on tree nectar flows - tulip poplar, black locust, and some of the prunus species - sourwood and tupelo in some localized areas. The bees make all of our honey here in central KY in a couple of weeks off of poplar and locust, more than I really wan to deal with most years. It is wat easier and makes more economic sense to put the bees where they can make honey than it does to try and plant and create a honey flow.

I have some patches of Dogbane on our farm we just bought last summer. I need to figure out a way of controlling it. I dont mind a little of it, but it is border line becoming a monoculture in areas. Kind of dissapointed that my state wildlife guy didnt seem more concerned about it or suggest I knock it back hard before planting those same areas in a native forb mix this past Spring. I think it is going to be far more difficult to control now than it would have been before the seeding without damaging the plants I want.

NEYotetrapper - once other things get going it will hamper the dogbane. It is a pioneer species and loves disturbance and open areas. Once they start to fill in with other perennials it doesn't do as well. The most aggressive patch on my place is next to where I mow a path behind the house, it pops up all over that path. The patch it is spreading from is fairly contained and has plenty of other forbs growing in them.

I tried a number of ways to knock out the dogbane out back, and the best so far is Pasturegard. Had a bad patch and treatment last summer knocked out about 90% of it. Problem for me is dogbane spreads underground and is part of a larger organism, like black locust or aspen. I've been controlling mine, but neighbors do not, so hard to knock it out clean.

I knocked out my canadian thistle with spot treatments of 2-4 D in a garden sprayer.

When did you spray it? When it was short and earlier in the season? I would think a late summer, early fall spray might get a better kill when it pulls the chemical into the roots more. That way I could maybe keep the chemical on top of the Dogbane "canopy" and maybe it would translocate out into the fringes. Sparing anything that is under it. It is literally so thick in a few spots though that it has pretty well shaded out everything underneath it. When we burned last Spring there wasnt enought duff in the heavy Dogbane patches to carry the fire.

Have both in our pastures. They are hardly worth worrying about compared to our sericea lespedesia and cedars. Johnson grass, multi flora rose,hemlock,sumac, thistles, seems there's always a noxious battle. Some mentioned were introduced by our state dept