How do you kill weeds in cement cracks?

[Stormin' Norman]

The old Roman trick to prevent anything from growing was to salt the land. However, that would be a pain in the ass and would probably do more damage to the concrete.

As you are pouring straight triox (bad, bad idea) into these gaps / cracks, it would seem you are not concerned about chemical contamination, if that is true, go buy a gallon of diesel fuel and pour it in the problem area. When I was a youngster, that is how we solved the issue you are describing. It's cheap, easy and not really great for the environment, but neither is what you are doing now.

It might take several treatments over a few weeks, but soon, you will not have weeds in the treated area,

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

ing more chemicals into the environment. It works by being absorbed into pl ant leaves and has no effect on emergence. You can spray an area with round up to kill weeds and seed it just a few days later.

I live in a 90+ year old neighborhood and some sidewalks are in worse shape than others and the city is slowly replacing those. Those older sidewalks have random cracks here and there and I will weed eat what I see springing up right down lever with the sidewalk. I have a large plastic bottle that I put the mixed Roundup in and then put a dishwashing detergent fliptop cap on this bottle so I direct a small stream of the weed killer on the whole crack. First time I did this I used one of those pump garden sprayers not realizing there was drift that day and ended up killing a lot of things that didn't need to be zapped.

Anyway, this treatment I do lasts until the next Spring.

ption through the leaves. Agree that it's effective, I don't have any probl em with it killing weeds in cracks either.

Head off to Home Depot and Lowe's and buy a bottle of Roundup that you will mix with water.

Just last week I treated a spot that was asphalt with a patch of weeds. It's free of whatever it was now. If weeds decide to try it again in that spot it will be next year before they reappear.

[trader_4]

ading more chemicals into the environment. It works by being absorbed into plant leaves and has no effect on emergence. You can spray an area with rou ndup to kill weeds and seed it just a few days later.

orption through the leaves. Agree that it's effective, I don't have any pro blem with it killing weeds in cracks either.

Why would you ever use a concentrate without diluting it? I have 2 gallons of glyphosate,50%,it will make hundreds of gallons. Or I could waste it an d just spray it on as is.

Maybe that assumption is faulty?

[Taxed and Spent]

My experience is that it does not degrade after many years. Even when being through a barn fire, but plastic jug untouched.

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

Same here, even mixed up and left outside over the winter it does not reduce it's potency.

[trader_4]

reading more chemicals into the environment. It works by being absorbed int o plant leaves and has no effect on emergence. You can spray an area with r oundup to kill weeds and seed it just a few days later.

bsorption through the leaves. Agree that it's effective, I don't have any p roblem with it killing weeds in cracks either.

lons of glyphosate,50%,it will make hundreds of gallons. Or I could waste i t and just spray it on as is.

I would agree that the products I have used don't seem to degrade either, b ut there are many kinds of products and we have no idea what he has, becaus e he hasn't said. Also in my experience the roundup and ground clear type of products are effective for weeds in cracks, so something is wrong.

[Don Wiss]

That could be a problem. You are supposed to spray the foliage. Not pour on the roots.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[clare]

Caulking all the seams in my 4 car driveway would take a lot of caulk, and it would look AWFULL - particularly when the caulk started letting go - - - -

[clare]

Try salt? ot oil?

[clare]

The only stuff we are allowed to use up here today doesn't hold a candle to what was available 30, or even 15 years ago for effectiveness. It MIGHT be safer.

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

Pouring a diluted solution works as well as spraying. See my post about sidewalk cracks.

[clare]

cutting the weeds first defeats Glsysophate herbicides like roundup. They need to be absorbed through the leaves. If your method works, it is getting on enough leaves to do the job.

[CRNG]

On Fri, 09 Jun 2017 22:24:10 -0400, [e-mail] wrote in

+1

[bob haller]

gasoline kills vegatation fast

[trader_4]

+1

[hubops]

Here's a web site reference - biut it only goes back to 1931 - - so it might not apply to your childhood ... :-)

John T.

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

But the effects do not last as long as a weed killer such as Roundup. For years I used gasoline for those cracks in my sidewalk with the weeds reappearing in about 4 months. One treatment with a weed killer last until the next year.

[trader_4]

Actually one of the advantages of Roundup is that it has no persistence. Yo u can spray it on an area to kill everything and plant seeds immediately. U sually the limiting factor is that you want to wait a week for the stuff to die before re-seeding. If you want to keep new plants from growing too, t here are other products, eg ground clear.

For years I used gasoline for those cracks in my

R

[clare]

Roundup only kills what is growing at the time. Within about 2 weeks it has deteriorated to 50% , and there is virtually no carryover after

2 months. With regular roundup you can reseed gras within 10 days.

[trader_4]

More confusion. With regular roundup, ie glyphosate, you can re-seed in just 3 days. And if you're using one of the long term roundup products, then it's blocking effect lasts many months.