Weed It & Hope

The burner won't kill off the root.

Hacking it all out is the wrong thing to do. A glyphosate based weedkiller is the best initial attack. You don't drench the foliage to dripping wet with it, you wet it down a little. Two weeks later you repeat the application. Glyphosate is systemic and carefully applied will be drawn back into the root. Once the majority of the stuff begins to flop then you can apply a weedkiller that contains soduim chlorate. Give things another two weeks before re-applying and then you can consider burning the tops off new sprouts.

Some stuff will still come back.

A bit of care for 5 years should bring it under control.

Chuck seeds of nice stuff on it in 6 months.

Warwick

Pathclear is pretty effective...

|Hi Chaps | |Alleyway next to our house has become weed city, possibly infested by |triffids. | |I plan to spray them with sodium chlorate in an effort to poison the soil |they grow in. | |Is it worth hiring one of those flame guns to burn them down & kill off the |root stock?

Flame guns only burn off anything above ground level, roots are largely unaffected.

Glyphosate weedkillers kill the roots until something else germinates.

Sodium chlorate IME washes out after a year.

We use glyphosate a few times a year.

Flame guns aren't much good and are expensive to run. Easiest, greenest and most attractive is to cut. Sickle, scythe, strimmer etc.

cheers Jacob

In my opinion, flame guns are only any good for lighting bonfires and BBQ's. For weeds, useless.

Rick... (The other Rick)

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in news:M6nig.83653$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

Absolutely not - in fact you can have mine if you like.

I did a final test a week ago, some of the weeds in the patch I tried are a bit wilted, none dead.

And if you're going to burn the tops right off (the instructions say they only need scorching) it'll cost a fortune in fuel, and they'll regrow instanter.

mike

The message from "The Medway Handyman" contains these words:

Flame guns don't actually burn the weeds down. They heat them, ideally the stems, and damage them irreversably. They die back over the next week or so. Doesn't do a lot to the roots unless you keep at it. Personally, I'd strim it weekly till the little sods get the message.

The message from "normanwisdom" contains these words:

Those big orange paraffin ones keep small boys amused for hours, though.

Would a goat be better? (Do goats eat triffids?)

is it your alleyway? Are there rules about whether you can toxify public space?

On Sat, 10 Jun 2006 00:03:08 +0100, The Medway Handyman wrote (in article ):

Salt water worked for triffids.

Glyphosate is more appropriate for allies.

The message from Andy Hall contains these words:

Only in the nasty American film. Proper British triffids are made of sterner stuff.

You need a cordless strimmer mounted on an armoured car to deal with triffids.

And of course in our H&S bound society, it now contains fire suppresent!

Dave

Is that not more to prevent its use for nefarious purposes?

The message from "dennis@home" contains these words:

Now that really /would/ use up some line.

The message from gort contains these words:

It did then - but it's not too hard to remove.

|On 10 Jun, | gort wrote: | |> |> > Having spent many hours as a small boy playing with chlorate, it ain't |> > that dangerous. You might /just/ get something to smoulder |> > enthusiastically, like a blue touch paper, provided you spray it on |> > something dry and then have a baking hot day to dry it out again. |> |> And of course in our H&S bound society, it now contains fire suppresent! | |Is that not more to prevent its use for nefarious purposes?

No that is Ammonium Nitrate, rather than Sodium Chlorate, both now contain fire suppressant.

Andy Hall wrote in news:0001HW.C0B080A10050A6F4F0284500@10.0.0.1:

You have to make sure they're not krakens

mike

OK

I think I have a plan A cordless strimmer mounted on an armoured car fitted with a salt water cannon, pulled along by two goats and a pig.

Thanks, that should sort it.