I mix concentrated Ortho Weed B Gon (Plus Grabgrass Control) with water according to the label and use a 1-gallon handpump sprayer.
I suppose that it works, but I don't exactly see the spray "wetting" the leaves and stems of the stuff I'm spraying. Looks more like most of it beads up on the leaves and runs off.
I'm thinking that this stuff would be more effective if it "stuck" to the leaves, and I think that's only going to happen if the surface tension is reduced, possibly by pre-spraying the weeds with soapy water, or alternatively maybe adding soap in with the weed killer and water.
Does anyone have a clue regarding if the effectiveness of water-soluble weed killer is increased if a surface-tension reducing agent is used?
Hi, In this city chemical week killer wass banned few years ago. We use DW liquid+salt+vinegar to kill weeds and use arm strong power to physically remove weeds in our small city lot.
No way would I ever toxify my yard, I found that after a good rain it's pretty easy to pull out the weeds roots and all.
A number of years ago garlic mustard took over and after a good rain, those things came out with little effort and now that I've cleared the yard , no more than three or four return each year.
How big is your yard? How well do your neighbors keep theirs so seeds don't fly to your yard? Sometimes you need more than just pulling the weeds, though there are better methods than just chemicals.
Don't pre-spray, just add a small amount of surfacant to the weed killer. I can't tell you how much bu tI add about a cap full or two of liquid dish detergent to my 35 gallon spray tank with either 2,4-D or Rodeo/Roundup.
My landlord is concerned about trim weeds, mow the lawn. A couple year ago, I sprayed Roundup all around my trailer, right near the skirting. Left a dead zone. Which is OK with me, at least it's not weeds and doesn't cost me money when the landlord decides to send his guy out to trim my weeds. Far as I know, no children or animals were killed. Except the little boy who... no, probably not the cause.....
Terry Coombs used improper usenet message composition style by unnecessarily full-quoting:
I think you're confusing herbicides and insecticides.
Herbicides have no designed or documented effects directly on insects as far as I know, apart from reducing potential pollen sources from flowering weeds.
Good thing about Roundup and other products that only contain glyphostate and no other harmful chemicals is that it is almost harmless to people and animals with normal usage. You could probably drink small quanties and have almost no effect. Maybe like a good dose of Exlax. You would think somthing that would kill almost all plant life would be very dangerous to people, but turns out it is one of the safest chemical grass and weed killers.
Why do you have your line-length set to 50-odd characters instead of, say, 72?
Regarding roundup, the only place I use that is in my parkinglot at $dayjob and on the road in front of my house (in the cracks around the curbs) or on my driveway. There is no other place where spraying roundup in my yard wouldn't kill either grass or something that my SO would kill me for.
I buy Roundup in premixed 5-liter hand-pump sprayer:
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When it's all used up, I clean it with hot water, use some lacquer thinner to wipe away the painted-on label, and use it as a sprayer for Ortho weed-b-gon.
The Roundup I buy in that 5-liter ready-to-use sprayer contains:
Nothing else is listed. No other chemicals, no surfactants.
Could those "preservatives" function as surfactants?
According to this:
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================== Glyphosate is practically non-toxic to fish. However, Roundup was more toxic to fish than was glyphosate. An additive used in the Roundup formulation (modified tallow amine used as a surfactant) is apparently more toxic to fish than many common surfactants. For this reason, the formulation for use in aquatic situations (Rodeo) omits this ingredient. The surfactant is used to allow the compound to readily dissolve in solution and to keep the compound from balling up on the leaf surface. ===================
This is wikipedia's page for polyethoxylated tallow amine surfactants:
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=============== Roundup Pro is a formulation of glyphosate that contains a phosphate ester neutralized polyethoxylated tallow amine surfactant; as of 1997 there was no published information regarding the chemical differences between the surfactant in Roundup and Roundup Pro.
The polyethoxylated tallow amine used as a surfactant in Roundup is referred to in the literature as MON 0139 or polyoxyethyleneamine (POEA). Presumably, the Roundup surfactant is a derivative of tallow, a complex mixture of fat from the fatty tissue of cattle or sheep.
POEA is 15% of Roundup formulations and the phosphate ester neutralized polyethoxylated tallow amine surfactant is 14.5% of Roundup Pro.
Surfactants are generally required to be used with glyphosate to allow effective uptake of glyphosate, which is hydrophilic, across plant cuticles, which are hydrophobic, and reduces the amount of glyphosate washed off plants by rain. ===============
Does premixed Roundup available in the US contain surfactants?
I spray insecticidal soap on a few locust trees to kill aphids, and might start mixing it with Roundup and Weed-B-Gon as an experiment. This soap contains:
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