Weed Killer Recipes

[PA hayseed]

I just want to add to this thread that when you use "homebrew" recipes, like salt and vinegar you are NOT being environmentally concious or minimizing your impact on your property or animals. Glysophate has far, far less residual effect than salt or vinegar or diesel fuel. In fact, you can replant within days of a glysophate treatment. Other than tracking muddy prints through the house, your animals would see no effect from walking through a sprayed area whatsoever.

The message in this thread that everyone needs to carry away with them is the fellow who plowed salt into his granny's drive and killed the grass another 10 feet either side of the drive. It will be years before that area will grow grass again.

Using glysophate to control active weeds in dormant stands works, but you have to be very careful. I have a fairly new zoysia lawn that had a lot of fescue clumps in it last winter. In early March, while the zoysia was still very brown, I mixed up a tank of glysophate to knock down the fescue. I started out using the gun, but noticed that I was going through a bunch of mix, so on the second half of the lawn, I used the boom. On the half where I used the gun, the zoysia was stunted for weeks -- brown circles everywhere I pulled the trigger. Where I used the boom the fescue and weeds died and the zoysia greened up nice and even and right on schedule.

Morals of the story are, "Dormant is a relative term" and "It takes a lot less glysophate to kill stuff than you think it does."

As a side note, the grass is growing back (well weeds) beside the drive and on the drive. Took about 5.5-7 years, depending on how you want to describe regrowth.

 

[BTI]

I did our gravel tractor lot and all around it with 2% glyphosate mixture.
It took forever to brown up then it all died.
For about a month, now I'm seeing green patches again.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[jeffinsgf]

I did our gravel tractor lot and all around it with 2% glyphosate mixture.
It took forever to brown up then it all died.
For about a month, now I'm seeing green patches again.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Which is an example of glysophate's lack of residual effect. It kills what is green and growing when you put it on. Now that those plants are gone, the weed seeds at the surface of the soil have the resources they need to germinate.

BTI...hit it again, at some point, if you don't disturb the soil, you'll have the majority of the seeds germinated and the weed population will go down.....until some more seeds blow in or get carried in by birds.

 

[BTI]

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh Ok that makes sense.
I'm a bit slow at times LOL
Ok I'm gonna get some more and give it another shot.

Thanks, BTI

 

[RobJ]

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh Ok that makes sense.
I'm a bit slow at times LOL
Ok I'm gonna get some more and give it another shot.

Thanks, BTI

You'll probably have the same results. Look for Pramitol.

 

[UpstateSC_Papi]

Visited my local "Feed & Seed" on Tuesday and they suggested a mix of Remedy and 2 4D. I bought it and sprayed Tuesday afternoon. Heading out tomorrow to review progress on our house so I'll see if I have any browning or wilting. Hope so! Briars everywhere!

Michael

 

[redlevel]

Just sort of a heads up: in the Deep South, where common Bermuda grows almost everywhere, now is a good time to spray glyphosphate on any Bermuda you want to get rid of. The 'muda grass is about to go dormant in a few weeks. It depends on storing lots of nutrients in the roots. It is really packing nutrients into the root system now, so your glyphosphate will be especially effective. I heard this from a county agent more than twenty years ago. I have heeded that advice ever since, and have had better results controlling Bermuda that way than any other time of application. I imagine the same would be true of any perenniel grass that goes dormant in the winter. I have about 10 acres I'm going to spot-spray in the next week or two.

 

[yzbdsbp]

Rob J is the Pramitol Supposed to kill the seeds in the dirt also? I have looked at this stuff and it says it keeps the weeds gone for most of all season....Have you used it..is it the best you have found????????? I am looking for the most lasting effect!

 

[J_J]

Let me throw a wrinkle on this...

My Goldens have a 20X50 dog run at the back of the house.

It is graveled (about 3" deep). When it was first put in, all the grass was (supposidly) killed.

That didn't last long.

Now I have grass coming up through the gravel.

There's no way I can kill it now (dogs being dogs, they eat grass constantly), so I just mow it every other weekend.

Weeds are another thing. Is there anything animal safe I could use to kill weeds without hurting the dogs?

I don't know what it is, but dog pee causes some VERY weird weeds to grow LOL

-Larry

The system that I am talking about is totally safe, because it uses steam . If done correctly, it will sterilize the ground killing most things. I read about this device years ago. It is simply a steam generator that is fed by a propane tank, and dragged along the path that you want to kill things. No residual, and relative inexpensive. I will try and describe how the unit looked. It looked like a 3 ft by 4 ft wide deck close to the ground, with a water filled steam tank, and propane for the fuel, on top. Under the deck, there were several rows of tubes with holes where the steam came out. It had a temp gage, and the way it worked, once the steam had built up, you would drive around kinda slow, and the steam came out under the deck and killed grass, weeds, and bugs, and what ever. Living things were killed instantly, and grass and weeds would die soon. This unit was used in an orchard, but I see no reason why a unit like this could not be built and used for lots of things. You could tap off the steam generator with a steam wand, and kill caterpillars, spiders, yellow jackets, fleas, and sterilize dog pens or whatever.

 

[J_J]

In addition to what I said above, the principle would be analogous to you parking your car over grass, with the engine running, and the nest day, you notice a brown spot in the grass. Your hot exhaust was hot enough to kill/burn the grass. So in principle, I believe that this would work

 

[J_J]

I know this would kill the surface fire ants, but from what I have read, the fire ants keep some queens on standby, so if the current queen is killed, they start up with a new colony. Sounds logical, because I have killed many a mound of fire ant and several days later, a new mound appeared. They are tuff little boogers.

 

[Spiveyman]

Wow, that steam idea is great, very little impact on the environment long term and effective. I like it. The ant deal though... that's a different story. We don't have nasty ants up here in KY, but my brother has lived all across the south. There's some kind of pellet deal you can spread around, the ants take it back in to the mound, they all die. Works great until your neighbor's ants decide to expand their domain.

 

[RobJ]

Rob J is the Pramitol Supposed to kill the seeds in the dirt also? I have looked at this stuff and it says it keeps the weeds gone for most of all season....Have you used it..is it the best you have found????????? I am looking for the most lasting effect!

I haven't found it to try it yet. I did catch the weekly garden show on Saturday and more people were asking aobut it. He says the RR industry uses it around the tracks. I don't think it will kill the seeds but since it's in the ground as soon as a seeds sprouts...it would be killed. As most folks know as long as you don't till up the ground most seeds will lie dormant. I found that out the first year of our garden. Goatweed where there was none before!!

 

[kmdigital]

I haven't found it to try it yet. I did catch the weekly garden show on Saturday and more people were asking aobut it. He says the RR industry uses it around the tracks. I don't think it will kill the seeds but since it's in the ground as soon as a seeds sprouts...it would be killed. As most folks know as long as you don't till up the ground most seeds will lie dormant. I found that out the first year of our garden. Goatweed where there was none before!!

No, it doesn't kill the seeds at all. I believe it is a pre-emergent herbicide, which means that it leaves a residual layer on top of the ground that kills all plants just as they emerge from the ground. It lasts until there is enough rain to dilute it and and wash it away, which means it will also kill the weeds/grass in the wash area, or the sun breaks it down and it becomes ineffective. It works great on driveways, but be careful and don't use much because rain will wash it into the grass on the sides and kill it where you don't want it to die.

 

[Texas Dodge]

Let me throw another wrinkle in here if I may. My problem is poison oak...a lot of it. I need to kill it with something pet safe, I'd hate to hurt that beautiful girl on the left. Also, a little O/T, same goes for fire ants. It's been dry enough for the past few years from what I've been told they weren't much of a problem, but with all of the rain lately I've got mounds coming up everywhere.

Spray it with saltwater. I used saltwater to kill some poison ivy before

 

[yzbdsbp]

I have seen the Pramitol on Ebay and it is somewhat affordable. Now we just need to talk to someone who has used it to see if they are happy with it??? Sounds liek good stuff though.

 

[reelrunner]

All true, but sometimes, you want permanent control. I don't think I ever want weeds growing between the bricks on my patio or driveway.

I've heard that adding a smidgen of glyphosate to 2-4-D or a smidgen of 2-4-D to glyphosate adds to their effectiveness. I've tried it, but don't notice a difference so far. Anyone try it, and how did it work?

I use the Amine 2-4-D, it is a selective broad leaf weed killer. It will not kill most southern grasses. On the other hand Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum, nonselective systemic herbicide used for control of annual and perennial plants including grasses, sedges, broad-leaved weeds, and woody plants.

I have found the same thing. If I add 2-4-D to glyphos, I cannot see any difference in the rate of kill even when spraying woody brush. Glyphosate by it's self will kill everything (almost). I only use the 2-4-D if I do not want to kill all of the grass, just broad leaf weeds.

 

[MrJimi]

I'm picking up 2 containers of Pramitol 25 E this morning, the 2 and a 1/2 gallon size, Wish us luck. After reading all the good reports on it, I'm sold on it
Jim