Diluting glyphosate

[Martin Brown]

If you are not trolling then you are a perfect example of why industrial strength weedkillers should not be available to the general public.

[Tim Streater]

Glyphosate is soluble in water to 12gm/litre, so up to that concentration it shouldn't be necessary. What does it say on your bottle? For higher concs they must have something else there too but I don't have the necessary chemistry to comment.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Mark Allread formulated the question :

Yes, sorry - was thinking water 25 to 1 concentrate proportion.

That seemed to be the maximum the 360 leaflet suggested. Knowing better for next time, I will make it 1:40. I have around 2L remaining of my original dilution to make up 5L.

[Cursitor Doom]

Same here. My 360 comes in a container with a funny arrangement that enables you to measure off the required amount for a litre of water - and no instructions at all. But since I got it from an agricultural merchant they probably assumed I knew what I was doing (not entirely the case!) BTW, it's carcinogenic.

[harry]

You don't need anything like a 5:1 concentration. Various plant have different susceptibilities. You need to read the instructions carefully. Even they give stronger mixes than needed. The important thing is that the weed is growing strongly and there is no drought.

Eg, For grass (very susceptible) a 1% mix does the job. Stuff with waxy leaves needs more eg ivy, holly.

It takes a week before the effect becomes apparent in most cases. Once it's dried onto the plant, rain doesn't matter.

[Tim Streater]

What is, water?

[harry]

Yes there are better weedkillers available for special purposes.

Eg, "Pastor" which kills everything except grass. Used on pasture and lawns.

Also there are "pre-emergence weedkillers.

[NY]

Hardly surprising that it's carcinogenic, since it is designed to kill plants/weeds by promoting excessive, uncontrolled cell division - effectively cancer.

[Tim Streater]

Eh? I thought it worked by inhibiting production of three amino acids, therefore inhibiting plant growth.

[Andrew Gabriel]

If you eat something recently sprayed, it's rated about the same level of carcinogen as eating red meat, but less carcinogenic than eating ham or bacon.

[Huge]

Glyphosate is rated at the same level of carcinogenicity as ethanol which most people voluntarily consume in biologically significant quantities at frequent regular intervals.

(Responses of "I don't" will be ignored.)

[rick]

It has no effect on 'Mares tail' so far nothing tried has any effect. The normal comment is waxy surface prevents take up ... crush first ... tried that - no effect.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I had problems with brambles and mares tails. In the end upping the concentraion 10:1 and painting it on worked eventually

[Martin Brown]

Bruising it and using a higher than recommended concentration will get it eventually but you need a very concerted effort. Allow one tiny bit to see the sun untreated and you are back to square one.

You can pull them up with a decent amount of root but you will need to keep doing it for many years to take the vigour out of the deep roots.

Tactical nuclear weapons or move house are your main options...

[Thomas Prufer]

There is a method where such plants are injected, with a syringe. Don't know much about it, but google will turn that up...

Thomas prufer

[harry]

Mix the concentrate with paraffin instead of water.

[Andy Burns]

I've heard of that for Japanese knot weed ...

[Harry Bloomfield]

[critcher]

white vinegar seems to be a good alternative for most plants.

[Tim Streater]

Hum!

Before I'd ever heard of Japanese knotweed, I decided to have a shrub or two removed from a border and got someone to rotovate it. That's when I discovered that, instead of one JK plant, I now had a billion.

I dug up the rootball, and it filled a wheelbarrow just by itself. I also removed a lot of extra root. Burnt the lot.

Over the next seven (7) years, I had a lot of tiny JK plants coming up each year. Every time this happened, I sprayed with Roundup and they died. Eventually - eventually - no more came up.