Pulling ragwort out of the ground is far less successful than digging it up by the roots. The intention of the activity is to remove it by the roots, but this rarely happens. As is often the case when removing ragwort by digging, the roots break off and leave the ends in the ground, which then start to regenerate withing several weeks. This is also the case when the ragwort plant is pulled up. What also tends to happen is that when the person pulls the plants, the stem breaks off at ground level and the root needs digging up anyway. Sometimes, at the end of the 2 year lifecycle of the Ragwort Plant, it is possible to remove the dead plant stock; but this only works due to the roots dying off anyway. So it's all a bit of a pig's ear!
This really isn't a safe method of getting rid of this plant.
This is the picture taken of a ragwort root dug up using a Ragwort Fork. The Ragwort Fork is designed to get right under the root, and it does. What is impossible to prevent is the breaking off of the root filaments. These remain in the ground and start growing again. It is almost impossible to see how pulling the root up by hand could do a more satifactory job than using the Ragwort Fork.
This gallery image is a little fuzzy. Click on it and you will see the crystal clear version. You can see quite clearly the squared off ends of the roots, and that means the other ends are still in the ground. And what happens next folks? That's right, they start to grow again and instead of one plant you could have 20 or more!
