Weed killer

Dtp1979

Hi everyone,

a simple question that I’m sure has been asked a thousand times on here. What is the best all round weed killer. Ideally I’d like to spray once and have everything dead, down to the root.

looksee

Something like Roundup with glyphosphate. You have to spray active growth then wait patiently for up to two weeks. In the first few days it will look as though you have fertilised it, but it will die as the stuff gets to the roots. You may have to do a second spray a month later and it will not take out plants that grow from weed seeds after you have sprayed (ie you can grow things in the soil after using it).

Pathclear claims to also stop new seedling growth for 3 months but I would not spray this on places where you do want stuff to grow.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119110393#Comment_119110393

Maybe I'm naïve but I thought, and hoped, we were moving away from using Roundup. It kills everything. Weeds yes, but insect life on the surface and underneath too. Its bad for biodiversity and hugely toxic. I think it has been proven to stay active for up to a year in the groundhttps://www.pintas.com/defective-product-lawyer/roundup-weed-killer-lawsuit/how-long-does-roundup-stay-active-in-the-soil/

It has also been found to cause high levels of morbidity in bees https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13867

https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2021/04/roundup-shown-to-kills-bees-but-not-how-you-might-expect/

Saddens me to think this is good advice on a gardening forum but as I said maybe I'm a big innocent as I try to save all kind of everything in my garden! Am I'm an outlier?

looksee

No, you are not an outlier, many if not most, people think the same way. I use very little weedkiller but I do use it on paths and drives where I don't believe it does any harm. Otherwise my garden is full of both cultivated plants and weeds, with quite a lot of the latter serving as the former.

My (rural) roadside verge is the despair of some of my neighbours who have dropped hints that it could be made match their sprayed stone ditches and verges where nothing green is allowed to peep through.

magicbastarder

much as i hate roundup/glyphosate, it's not as toxic as that. it specifically acts on chemical pathways in plants which aren't present in animals so the active ingredient doesn't act on animals to kill them the same way. the jury seems to still be out on other effects.

ironically, we currently have 5L of concentrated glyphosate based herbicide (gallup) sitting in our porch, due to a mixup in an online order.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119110457#Comment_119110457

Good to hear I'm not an outlier! Thanks!

I gave up weedkillers in my garden years ago and its thriving, lots of wildflower and wildlife. But I live in a large housing estate and the management company use contract landscapers who regularly spray Roundup all over the place, verges, around every tree and on all pathways. It burns all the grass in the area. I have a little wildflower garden at the front of my house too , in a "common" area which people enjoy. I have to beg the landscaper regularly NOT to spray on a windy day or close to my plants as I often see them dying from contamination. I know he is only doing his job and this directive should be implemented at a higher level (and Co Council level nationwide) but its sad to see this still happening on such a wide scale.

Great steps have been made in local communities to encourage wildlife, wildflowers, planting and no mowing. Then bigger more powerful bodies come along and obliterate all the good work, cutting down hedgegrows and spraying verges. We need to keep up the good fight and keep doing things in a small way to show the way! Our wildlife , birds, bees, insects and countryside needs us more than ever now!

magicbastarder

we've never used weedkiller here (unless you count a gas torch to burn weeds, which i guess could technically be termed herbicdal).

the attitude of some people to 'weeds' is gas; we got married in a garden ceremony in my parents-in-law's garden - it's down a narrow country road which was lined with cow parsley in flower and looked lovely. two days before the wedding the local farmer - with the best will in the world - decided 'oh that cow parsley is bringing the place down for the wedding' and mowed the lot.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119110431#Comment_119110431

So the three links you provided are from Injury lawyers, Beyond pesticides and the British ecological society. Hardly independent.

As for the bee experiment, if i was needlessly directly sprayed with Roundup for 'research' purposes i doubt i'd be too healthy either, but as i've used it carefully for nigh on 30 years with no ill effects i'm yet to be persuaded that it's as lethal as some profess.

Of course, there's no guarantee that everyone will treat it with the respect it deserves, like any toxic substance.

hayse

Burn them.

Dtp1979

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114449#Comment_119114449

That won’t get down to the root though?

hayse

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114482#Comment_119114482

It’s pretty effective I would say it does.

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114496#Comment_119114496

It really doesn't. How do forests regenerate with plantlife after fires if the roots are destroyed?

hayse

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114883#Comment_119114883

After a forest fire in terms of months how soon would plantlife grow and resume as it was?

magicbastarder

months? weeks.

forget a forest fire, we're not taling about forests. for example, burning a dandelion once won't kill the root. you need to come back week after week to slowly kill it.

hayse

That other poster mentioned a forest fire so that’s why I want to know. We can all fire shots but the ones on the target only count.

SuperBowserWorld

Roundup for something like Japanese knotweed, and then it has to be injected into the stems. Really it's only as a last resort.

Otherwise it's only going to temporarily work and kill everything else and maybe risk your health too. And any animals, pets, children ... who go near it. And damage the soil etc etc.

I've used it in the past a couple of times e.g on winter heliotrope, but the weeds just comes back stronger anyway. So, the weedkiller approach is an annual destruction of your local environment. And you should be wearing protection spraying it. It's a curse. You still have to spray and spray again.

Pulling the weeds after a heavy fall of rain works and it's easier to extract the roots too. Or maybe borrow a pig 😆

So, TL;DR for your own garden it'll probably be quicker, safer, more relaxing to just pull up the weeds to keep them under control. Or burn, boil the ones in paving, awkward spots.

And dandelions,.daisys, thistles, ... the native food web all need these plants. Your garden will be alive then. You don't need a tennis court lawn..leave parts to go (a bit) wild.

magicbastarder

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p075mwd3

..

blackbox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119110476#Comment_119110476

You should ask to see the qualifications of the person doing the spraying.

Nobody should be spraying herbicides or insecticides professionally unless they have had the proper training.

If they have had the proper training they will know not to spray if there is a risk of the wind causing spray drift.

Zardoz

I've found the best weedkiller for tarmac and driveways is a bag of milling salt.

Cheap and does the job well.

RainInSummer

Round Up is sprayed directly onto crops prior to harvest in some countries.

It's one of the more researched weedkillers out there. I think if there was a smoking gun it would have been found by now.

That said Monsanto/Bayer have a long history of scumbaggery so I'm not hugely inclined to trust their flagship product on an emotional level. I still use it because thankfully I can apply logic to the situation.

As it stands it's up there with wine and red meat as a probable cause of cancer. I'm not giving up wine or red meat.