Roundup strength

[Rick Hughes]

Use any Glyphophate .... mixed with part oil .... much better than just water, stops it simply running off leaves.

Tordon 22k or SBK brushkiller I have found pretty good

[newshound]

Can you suggest the best thing for creeping buttercup but *not* grass?

[Chris Hogg]

If you mean creeping buttercup in a lawn, then any modern selective lawn weedkiller such as Verdone Extra should be effective with one application.

[newshound]

Thanks. Actually a paddock; I've got rid of a lot of the dock with selective application of Verdone last year, but I had the impression this wasn't zapping the buttercup. Will try again.

[Martin Brown]

Verdone broadleaf specific weedkiller but follow the instructions carefully or you could scorch the grass with too high a concentration. Best applied about 3-4 days after last cutting it and leave to grow on for a week afterwards. I find a 12" screwdriver useful for the odd dandelion or small infestation of buttercup. I let other non-invasive wildflowers grow in my lawn - I don't like the sterile chem-lawn look!

[Martin Brown]

On that scale you can probably get something better and cheaper from a farm suppliers that is better suited to use on a field where stock will be eating the grass. On domestic lawns it is fine.

Is buttercup really that much of a problem in a paddock? Plenty of it flowering in the organic farmers fields around here right now.

[Chris Hogg]

chem-lawn look!

+1

I have a lot of primroses and white violets in various places in my lawn, not to mention the clover that I encourage. It helps keep the lawn green in dry weather and also contributes nitrogen, so means I don't have to feed.

[Java Jive]

Sorry, but not really. Amonst my qualifications I do have a Dip. Agriculture, but I left the industry a long time ago, after contracting what I still believe to be Farmer's Lung, though my last and useless GP didn't agree. Thus anything I happen to remember, like the creeping buttercup and glyphosate (RoundUp), which in those days was a comparatively new spray, IIRC invented by Monsanto, is just a bonus.

ISTR that the broad-leaved weedkiller most widely used then was something called MCPA, but have no idea about now, as I've never bothered to spray any of my lawns - I've only used glyphosate to keep paths clear, etc.

I worked for a short while for an agricultural chemical company, and what I can tell you, which is only vaguely useful information and not what you asked, is that one agri-chemical, IIRC it was indeed MCPA, if spilt, has a gut-wrenchingly revolting stench, sort of a cross between sour milk, sour Guiness, rotting meat, and rotting fish. Most of the firm's vans stank of it. Fortunately, I wasn't one of the normal drivers, but occasionally would get detached from my normal work to deliver an emergency supply to a big customer ordering after the morning deadline for same day delivery, and paying extra for the privilege. If and when this misfortune occurred, you prayed you would get a newish van that hadn't had time to get smelly, but, of course, always got the oldest one that had just been returned after being away for repair, etc.

I remember do>