Weed Control Questions

[beersngars]

Not sure if this is the right place but here goes. What will kill ALL weeds and briars for a long period of time? I would like to do all my trails (in woods) and driveway. Tried Round-Up, deisel, gas, ect with little success. Thinking of tring some brine water. Any thoughts?

 

[jsborn]

Try this ..You may have to have a permit or licence but it will work.

Spike® 20P herbicide

 

[Z-Michigan]

Round-up should work for a while. Did you spray enough and was it prepared with really clean water?

Your comments about trying diesel and gas are scary to me, seeing as how I like to drink my groundwater.

 

[beersngars]

Round-up should work for a while. Did you spray enough and was it prepared with really clean water?

Your comments about trying diesel and gas are scary to me, seeing as how I like to drink my groundwater.

The Round-Up didn't touch the briars so I tried spraying them with deisel and gas to kill it then hoped the Round-Up would keep it dead. That program didn't produce great results. My brother in-law is in the oil patch biz and he says brine will do the trick but may kill trees if too much is used. That scares me.

 

[Grrrr]

There was a post similar to this a couple of weeks ago. The original poster was asking how to control weeds on his gravel and whether there were any home made remedies.

I decided I would do a little experimentation on whether any of the home remedies work.

Salt Water
This is supposed to kill plants. I took a big bag of dishwasher salt and put a lot of it in a 5 gallon bucket. Then in a watering can and watered all the weeds that grow along the edge of our drive.

1 Week later they are still there but seem off colour. They might die or they might recover. Dunno yet but it is not quick.

Piles of Salt
I tried putting small handfulls of the same salt as above sprinkled over individual weeds. This did work well and they have died off. But it took a lot of salt and took a while to put the salt on the weeds.

Bleach
This kills plants of instantly. I did a very small area and they shrivelled up quickly. It might work well with salt water as well.

Vinegar
This does nothing. Even pure vinegar on a weed will not get rid of it. It just gets ill for a while and recovers. Useless

Hot Water
This didn't really work either. Nothing happened apart from the weed shrivelling up a bit and it was unconvenient to do.

Alcohol
This works well I used some cleaning thing based on methanol and the weeds shrivelled right up.

Diesel
This works as well as alcaohol. Oil does the same. Gas didn't work so well, I think it evaporated.

You could try some bleach on your briars and they should go away

(But I didn't tell you to do that )

 

[Oleozz]

There are sprays that will kill weeds and brush for awhile but they usually come back in time. There are generic forms of RoundUp that work well but the best I've found for multiflura rose and poison ivy is RoundUp Brush and Weed Killer. I used atrazine and gromaxine (a burndown spray combo for no-till) for poison ivy this spring and was sure I had killed it and now it looks as green and healthy as can be.

 

[beersngars]

I have heard local farmers talk about Spike. I'll look into it. The Round-Up I used came from Lowes. It was mixed a little strong, but got expensive and lacked results.

Grrrr, the gas and deisel methods were best when mixed. Same results as you on evaporation. A 50/50 mix worked best. Be sure not to fire up a smoke in the area for a while.

 

[NFA Fun]

Round-UP is a non-selective enzyme inhibitor herbicide. Basically, it kills everything is comes in contact with.

A few things to keep in mind. DO NOT mix it "strong" It will end up burning the foliage and not killing the plant. Only irritating the plant and making it grow back stronger.

At the time of application, you will need a warm day and a time of the year when the plant is actively growing. If the plant is not taking in nutrients, it will not take in the RU.

If you are still unsure, a call to your local cooperative extension office will point you in the right direction.

 

[jsborn]

Roundup also just works when taken in by foliage it does nothing to the seeds in the ground that have not germinated yet thus the apparent regrowth.
Spike and others of the like actually work through ground sterilization of a type which means nothing will grow on the soil for some time after application.

I would also recommend you contacting you local county extension service if you have one they are a wealth of very valuable local information.

 

[diyDave]

Roundup only kills actively growing green foliage. Doesn't work well in a drought or on brush with chlorophyll in the stem, such as greenbrier. Spike is able to leach into soil, if it rains hard, can wash into unintended areas, and kill desirable trees or shrubs. I would suggest that you look up Sahara herbicide from Dow. With all herbicides, FOLLOW LABEL INSTRUCTIONS- a little more may do more harm than you think, both to the environment and you.