Nothing chemical is going to work forever. Don't suppose we will get sodium chlorate back post-brexit, that was a pretty good combination of price, effectiveness, and longevity.
I should have pointed out earlier that tarmac is another alternative to concrete......
So buy the strong stuff and dilute it.
Sodium Chlorate is a very powerful oxidising agent - strong enough to make bombs with.
Copper sulphate isn't.
Spray diesel in the cracks.
In my youth, I did make some explosives based on the then freely-available kill-all sodium chlorate. I also used it in a fuel in a home-made Guy Faukes rocket.
Without Googling to check, I believe that, these days, sodium chlorate weedkiller is considerably adulterated with something (NaCl?) that prevents it from exploding.
I think it's just poisonous (if you take enough of it).
Untreated, my grass gets infested with moss, and up till 20 years ago, you used to be able to get large (25kg) bags of straight ferrous sulphate (no fancy fertiliser additives) for about ?8 from certain garden centres and hardware shops. Then apparently the EU stepped in with some H&S rules (probably risk of a hernia when lifting), and these days you only buy, over-the-counter, small expensive packs of it. I think you can buy large bags for agricultural purposes, and also that some horticultural clubs etc can still get it in bulk. I also think you can get large bags online - but at a vastly inflated cost.
In an emergency, moss doesn't like WD40.
Don't you think his van has already tried that?
Whilst ferrous sulphate is very effective against moss, you don't need to if it's an area you're trying to kill all vegetation, as it is also killed by weedkillers. Ferrous sulphate will stain paths, and will also stain carpets when you walk it into the house.
Lots of salt ?
Really?
The use of anything which affects plant growth (other than as a fertiliser) is prohibited under EU law unless it has been tested for quality. safety, and efficacy and licensed for that purpose.
Whether anyone has ever been prosecuted for unapproved use of anything under those circumstances I have no idea!
The use of anything which affects plant growth (other than as a fertiliser) is prohibited under EU law unless it has been tested for quality. safety, and efficacy and licensed for that purpose.
Whether anyone has ever been prosecuted for unapproved use of anything under those circumstances I have no idea!
Gardeners' Question Time often tells you that aphids don't like being sprayed with soapy water - and then reminds you that to spray them with soapy water would now be illegal (wink-wink, nudge-nudge).
I'm astonished. Compost is often said to aid plant growth, yet nobody's been round to approve my compost.
Are you quite sure there's been no misunderstanding here?
Compost is not a chemical. Soap is.
>
No. As I said, fertilisers (and composts) do not need approval. It's basically the pesticide side of things which needs approval - herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, molluscicides, etc.
Absolutely *everything* is a chemical of one sort or another.
Water is H2O (a fairly pure chemical if it's reasonably clean water).
Sand is mostly silica (SiO2) but usually has lots of other stuff (chemicals) in it.
etc. etc.
Ammonium Sulfamate was a well established and very effective weedkiller, in that it acts on plant metabolism in a similar way that carbon monoxide acts on humans (ie blocking the normal processes by fooling the plant that it is a fertiliser rather than a weedkiller), but it was believed to be almost completely harmless to animals and people except in huge doses (typically over twice the animal's body weight).
There is an American website that covers the concentrations for weedkiller that work best for various outcomes, dissolving what weight of crystals in what weight of water. It is a legal, well-established weedkiller in America.
The EU required the manufacturer to show, as part of its application for a licence, the amount of the substance that would be harmful to a pet dog. The manufacturer had in the past demonstrated that at several times the normal usage concentration it was completely harmless to a rabbit, so they objected to subjecting a dog to huge overdoses of the substance to establish the level of concentration (if any) that would be harmful. They quoted the rat and rabbit research and the scalability calculations for larger animals instead, and were refused an EU licence because it wasn't tested on a dog.
However, the EU did licence exactly the same chemical as a "Compost Accelerator". It is available on ebay under that description. The advice on one of the forums I looked at was to "accidentally" spill some on unwanted weeds while claiming to be carrying it to the compost bin. Without witnesses, it would be impossible for the EU to argue that the spillage wasn't an accident.
I did suffer such an accident, and the weeds it splashed on did die.
Jim
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I think you'll find that a compost accelerator doesn't need a licence, so ammonium sulphamate can be sold for that purpose without problem.
Oh, FFS - we've got a right couple of comedians here!
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