Weedkiller That Works?

[Rod Speed]

Brian Gaff [e-mail] wrote

That's not true of glyphosate.

[Thomas Prufer]

German ebay sells "We-ge-rein" (which translates rougly to "paths clear"), which is 30% sodium clhorate and 70% dispersion agent (probably table salt).

It is *not* for application to weeds and plants, and is not legal for that. It is for cleaning and bleaching paths. Be careful to not do that as it will kill plants and their roots indiscriminately.

Just saying...

Thomas Prufer

[Martin Brown]

The ingredient I had in mind was Simazine which really did work but people were far too careless with using it and got a bad reputation.

According to the RHS website there is a Doff formulation that is still approved but whether or not it is any good is another question.

[John J]

I seem to recall reading reports of people decanting the concentrate into "pop" bottles to take home for their own garden and family members consuming it after mistaking it for a soft drink.

[Clive Arthur]

I used some Sodium Chlorate years ago and *nothing* grew in that patch for over two years. I thought I'd cleaned the watering can thoroughly afterwards, but still the tomato plant leaves went brown, though they did survive.

[Jeff Gaines]

Just to say thank you for all the responses :-)

I went for Roundup which came in a useful spray container and applied it yesterday afternoon. As a backup I also got some "Glyphosate Weed Killer Liquid Concentrate" which I will use if Roundup doesn't work.

I haven't lived anywhere with its own garden for about 12 years and am beginning to remember why!

[PeterC]

In a shop (Home Bargains or Wilkinsons most probably) the was a weedkiller that didn't contain the usual suspects. Read the bottle and it was acetic acid, presumably much stronger than vinegar or descaler. I doubt if there'll ever be a concentrate as acetic acid would be rather risky to handle and also, IIRC, the concentration in the weekiller was high enough to make such a route non-viable.

A quick search gives plenty of links saying that it's not very good even at

20 - 25%. Also it kills only the top growth in most cases - and was almost twice the price of the others.

Here's a DIY guide:

[Andy Burns]

Pelargonic acid is also used in some non-glyphosate versions of roundup.

[Adrian Caspersz]

I heard a story of someone who applied the garden control recommendations from an industrial chemist.

Very effective. In a few hours, killed everything including the cat.

Sorry no use, dunno what it was!

[SteveW]

A friend used to work in the offices of a chemical plant. He once offered me weedkiller, with the options of "Do you want to stop weeds for 3 months", "Do you want to stop weeds for 6 months" and "Do you never want anything to grow there again". As it happened, he left there before I asked for any and I have no idea what it was.

[Theo]

That's the pound shop version of weedkiller. It's cheap, and it does sorta kinda kill weeds, but so does stomping on them with heavy boots. Just not very well. Also to note that some homebrew guides suggest adding salt, which is not good for growing stuff there later.

I'm not sure whether it counts as 'organic', which might be one reason why people use it.

Theo

[Martin Brown]

Quite likely to be Simazine which was remarkably good as a persistent weedkiller aka Pathclear. People using it recklessly led to its ban.