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weed killer


londoneye
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dear all

we have a large (about one acre) plot which i am clearing - a lot of it is brambles and nettles; i had read that if you cut down brambles and kept cutting the new shoots you wouldnt need to use weed killer.   well i have given it a try and yes i would say it works ; however, it seems to be turning into a life-time mission for me and now i am afraid i have decided that i cant keep on top of it that way.    i have also read that regular mowing will keep down brambles, but at moment there is no mower that would cope with the state our land is in - until we have pool put in and whole lot diggered-over (sure there is no such word !) then the only option we have is strimming, which takes a fair bit of time.

does anyone know of a heavy duty weed-killer which you can buy in large volumes, at reasonable price and which is not toxic to animals please?  I have had a look at garden centres etc but the weed-killers seem to be in rather small quantities for what i need (!) and consequently very pricy.   I was wondering if there is some local brew, so to speak, which i could buy?   any thoughts?

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The only stuff I've ever found that kills brambles is "Roundup", it's a brushwood killer, but unfortunately, kills everything else too, so a sprayed patch will be bare.

Our top-back "garden", and I use the term guardedly, is around 800+ sq m. It was about half covered with brambles which had grown into, through, and around, chicken wire, which was, in turn, buried up to a foot deep in the soil/roots of the barmbles.[:@]

One Easter, wife decides the whole lot's coming out.[8-)]

The family, (wife, me and two teenaged lads), spent best part of a week cutting, digging, yanking and dragging the whole lot out a bit at a time, and then burning the brambles off the chicken wire, before stamping the chicken wire into little bundles for the local dechetterie. The fire burned from one monday morning until the next saturday night!

We now get the OCCASIONAL shoot, but wife mows over it. Our back area is still pretty rough, but she uses a powered 6hp mower, and pushes, or drags it over the worst areas. She still hasn't killed off all the nettles though. Walk on the grass in bare feet if you dare!

(And before any of the usual crew ask why I dont mow: I didn't want a huge garden, I wanted a town-type house!)

If yours is REALLY untouchable with a mower, have you thought of one of those wheeled strimmers? They tend to have larger rear wheels, (up to a foot in diameter), and ONE swivelling front wheel for manoevrability? They aslo have up to a 24" cut! I've never seen one with grass collection though......

Alcazar

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sounds like what i need is Roundup or your wife then - she sounds very handy to have around my place!

Will try Roundup but was reeling at cost of it when i saw it - thought i might be getting really tight here but then remembered that i looked at it once in UK (for my very average sized garden) and was equally horrified - thereby proving i suppose that i have always been tight !

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londoneye the active ingredient of Roundup is glyphosate, you should be able to find it at an agricultural store for alot less than you would pay for roundup, or ask a local farmer, I don't know how much we pay for it but it's not expensive at all.

Chris

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Borrow my wife? Why? Do you NEED someone to supervise a job?[:D]

Me and the lads did it mostly, I was in charge of  the fire and stamping on chicken wire, the lads dragged it out. My eldest was 16 at the time, and WILL NOT be beaten. To see veins standing out on his face and neck as he dragged huge swathes of it out of the ground, was a sight to be seen.

Alcazar

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Alcazar, I had to do the same thing with a part of our garden and I still have more to do.   I found that the brambles fought back and lashed me like flails - forearms were a bloody mess at the end of the day.  Did your lads manage to avoid being torn to shreds while performing this task, and if so, what is the secret?  Chain mail?

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I love battling brambles! Getting ripped to shreds is all part of the fun Cassis, what are you man or mouse? A star blade on the brushcutter....lots of war cries and get stuck in! The pain is good for the soul.

You sure you used Roundup KKK and not 7UP?

Chris

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[:D] Yes Chris, I defo used Round Up.  I believe there are two types.  I used the type for dandelions last year and this and it just has not affected them at all.

Also, as I said in an earlier post,  I believe you should spray it on the leaves.  I have brambles at the back of my rear garden and I dont know what to do now.  ie get ripped to shreds, spray the leaves with 7up or just take a paracetamol and forget about it.[blink]

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Yes, KKK, glysophate (roundup) is absorbed through the leaves and travels to the roots.  You can make it more effective and Chris can work off some testosterone by giving the leaves and stems of the offending saloperie a bit of a beating first - partic if it's ivy or another tough/shiny-leaved plant.

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KKK: I don't think you'd stick him for more than a couple of days, sorry. He's now 20 going on 8!

Cassis: we just wore long sleeves and decent gardening gloves. Yes, we got a few scratches, but actually less than you's get from a good blackberrying session, so not too bad at all.

Alcazar

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KKK I also tried roundup by spraying on the leaves, it said on the packet that it might take a few days to die, so I waited a week,NOTHING waited a second week NOTHING. so i forgot about it amitted defeat and didint visit that part of the garden again for a few weeks . The next time i went it was all dead as a doornail(why do we say that did doornails ever live?) So much so, it was embarassing. I had to quickly work on the area to hide what I had done. (as really Im organic) But I had no choice I could never of dug up the area i needed to clear. but do as cassis says and crush the leaves and it will act quicker.
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As everyone knows I am completely opposed to chemicals except for use in extreme circumstances.

This is for Brambles, nettles and thistles and will kill them "stone dead", it is not pleasant and they will sell it to you at your local farmers co-op shop, use with care and please try not to destroy to much wildlife.

It's called Garlon: http://www.dowagro.com/fr/produits/products/garlonpro.htm 

Chris

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Now then...

'Garlon' a selective tranlocated herbicide will start to have visible effects on Nettles, Brambles and larger woody plants as well as any broadleaf plant within 4-8 hours.

 This really is the stuff to apply to difficult weeds.

Round-up is the brandname owned by Monsanto ( geneticly modified maize...)

It is a translocated nonselective herbicide containing the salt Glyphosate.

Monsanto have lost the exclusive rights to the stuff and it is now available at a much fairer price under many names.

My latest purchase of 5 litres from Gamme Vert cost 36.20euros for 360gpl strength.

Farmers tend to use 480gpl strength but this is never available in less than 25 litres.

 Most any 'translocated' herbicide will be less effective on waxy or hairy leaves as these tend to shed liquids.

After spraying a field with glyphosate, farmers will normally wait more than a month before cultivating.

 The active ingredients begin to biodegrade  within 24 hours and the product decomposes totally within 72 days.

With Garlon more than 6 weeks must pass before animals can graze safely on grass land treated.

A Bio way would be to cut down the brambles and use an adze to remove the root stocks once they regrow. They are generally shallow rooted and will come up easily enough.

Nettles may be strimmed then when they too regrow the roots may be lifted by raking deeply as these too are shallow rooting.

Sorry if these words sound long winded but I have abridged some of  them from my R.H.S certificate college notes.

 Ty

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Oh, I must love the sound of my own keyboard!

 The first nonselective chemical herbicide to be used was in fact salt...

Often used by maruading armies to render fertile lands useless.

In fact salt is 'sodium chloride' and there is a cheap weedkiller (non selective) available called...

                    'sodium chlorate'

 The compound has one more oxygen atom which makes it far more volatile and was a preffered component of home made I.R.A explosives when added to N.P.K fertilisers and sugar.

 Todays sodium chlorate bought in the U.K carries a label stating that it is fire suppressed...

During the industrial revolution sulphuric acid was used and still is today on potato haulms to burn off and bleach the green material.

First used on weeds in onion crops where the thick waxy leaves of the crop would shed the acid but the broad leaved weeds would have their outer waxy cuticle burned off and so make then vunerable to the bleaching of the sun.

 I thank 'Herb' Robert Gray of Merrist Wood College for my wonderfull education...

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I've just bought a 3kg tub of sodium chlorate at B&Q and used some of it on the nettles, thistles and docks we have been surrounded with in Normandy (the rest of the 3/4 acre is just grass (albeit 4 ft high!). I'm hoping it works as we feel very hemmed in on our little bit of concrete we call a patio. I was advised that you cannot plant anything into the areas treated with this for 6 months, so it must be retty harsh (but desperation strikes!). Any ideas where we can get a scythe to chop the rest of the field down?!?

PS Sodium chlorate is very cheap in comparison to the other weedkillers I've tried (under £10 for the 3kg tub).
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