What's the stuff that kills plant life in ditches?
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Mrwurm
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Re: What\'s the stuff that kills plant life in ditches?
Mike, if you need something a bit more powerful than Roundup, I suggest a surfactant. These inexpensive additives really 'turbo-charge' herbicides. It works to break down the waxy coating on plants and really lets the herbicide sink in. Its sold by most of the hardware and garden centers around here, but you may not have ever noticed it if you did'nt know what it was. Here's a link to one such product.
Mike, if you need something a bit more powerful than Roundup, I suggest a surfactant. These inexpensive additives really 'turbo-charge' herbicides. It works to break down the waxy coating on plants and really lets the herbicide sink in. Its sold by most of the hardware and garden centers around here, but you may not have ever noticed it if you did'nt know what it was. Here's a link to one such product.
oliver28472
Veteran Member
Re: What\'s the stuff that kills plant life in ditches?
Some, if not all Roundup now has surfactant in it.
Some, if not all Roundup now has surfactant in it.
DaveRR
Member
Re: What\'s the stuff that kills plant life in ditches?
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( There are products you can buy designed to kill plant life and sterilize the ground that last for a season, than you do it again every year. Sometimes they don't make it a full year and you get certain weeds growing back again.
The good ole days of a legal plant killer that really works are long gone. Considering that you'll pay $10 to $40 a gallon for these products, it's kind of frustraiting.
There is a product that would be illegal to use, but it's readily available, darn near permanent and sells for around $2.50 a gallon. You probably have some in a five gallon can, especially if you have a tractor.
No need to go into detail here, since I know you wouldn't use anythign for somethng it's not intended for. Just an interesting method that some old timers used to use. Even the military has been known to clear brush with this product, but again, it woudl be illegal for you to use it in this manner.
Good luck with finding a product that will last.
Eddie
)</font>
I work for a state agency, and do emergency response for petroleum and hazmat spills.
Just last week I directed the cleanup of a property that had oil along both roadside ditches (about 150' of ditch, total). The responsible party claims that it wasn't deliberate, but at the very least it was due to poor housekeeping.
Anyway, we spent 2.5 days removing the contaminated water (which had to be hauled to a licenced treatment plant), digging out all the contaminated soil (which will have to be hauled to a permitted landfill, after the samples results come back from the lab), padding/booming the sheen that had migrated onto neighboring properties, and sampling a neighboring drinking water well. All for somewhere between 20-50 gallons of oil.
Trust me, you do not want to make a $20k mistake like this.
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( There are products you can buy designed to kill plant life and sterilize the ground that last for a season, than you do it again every year. Sometimes they don't make it a full year and you get certain weeds growing back again.
The good ole days of a legal plant killer that really works are long gone. Considering that you'll pay $10 to $40 a gallon for these products, it's kind of frustraiting.
There is a product that would be illegal to use, but it's readily available, darn near permanent and sells for around $2.50 a gallon. You probably have some in a five gallon can, especially if you have a tractor.
No need to go into detail here, since I know you wouldn't use anythign for somethng it's not intended for. Just an interesting method that some old timers used to use. Even the military has been known to clear brush with this product, but again, it woudl be illegal for you to use it in this manner.
Good luck with finding a product that will last.
Eddie
)</font>
I work for a state agency, and do emergency response for petroleum and hazmat spills.
Just last week I directed the cleanup of a property that had oil along both roadside ditches (about 150' of ditch, total). The responsible party claims that it wasn't deliberate, but at the very least it was due to poor housekeeping.
Anyway, we spent 2.5 days removing the contaminated water (which had to be hauled to a licenced treatment plant), digging out all the contaminated soil (which will have to be hauled to a permitted landfill, after the samples results come back from the lab), padding/booming the sheen that had migrated onto neighboring properties, and sampling a neighboring drinking water well. All for somewhere between 20-50 gallons of oil.
Trust me, you do not want to make a $20k mistake like this.
PineRidge
Super Member
Re: What\'s the stuff that kills plant life in ditches?
Jerry I have a bottle of surfactant that we were using with some pond chemicals. Do I just mix some of this with the Round-Up and then blast the weeds? A chemist I am not.....
Jerry I have a bottle of surfactant that we were using with some pond chemicals. Do I just mix some of this with the Round-Up and then blast the weeds? A chemist I am not.....
Re: What\'s the stuff that kills plant life in ditches?
Pineridge -
Not sure what surfactant you are using with your pond chemicals, but surfactants are usually application specific.
Basically there are 5 different groups of surfactants, each for specific applications
www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/crops/00559.html
Pineridge -
Not sure what surfactant you are using with your pond chemicals, but surfactants are usually application specific.
Basically there are 5 different groups of surfactants, each for specific applications
www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/crops/00559.html