Calling all gardeners - stopping weeds forever.

[Tim Marlow]

as Tim said, at the moment there is a real mixture of evidence for and against the product.

peter

……and that’s despite it being in large scale commercial use for at least fifty years. The basic chemical seems pretty innocuous when used as instructed, so why use aggressive litigation to close down scientific debate? Makes me wonder why the manufacturers have not just done the science. I would expect an investigation like that to take a couple of years and cost a few million. They must have made billions from this stuff, so that’s pretty small beer in global chemical terms. If the results were positive this would then reopen the markets that are currently closed off.

My personal conclusions are that they probably already know the investigations will bring out something they don’t want aired, or that they have already investigated and are sat on the results to keep them from becoming widely known. This is very much how the tobacco industry acted to keep lung cancer out of the public eye for as long as they did.

 

[Mini Me]

Hmmmmmmm.......Covid comes to mind as well. But let's not go down that rabbit hole.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Hmmmmmmm.......Covid comes to mind as well. But let's not go down that rabbit hole.

Not going to debate this any further, it’s not the place, but I’m really not sure what you mean Rick???

 

[Mini Me]

Vaccine research my friend.

 

[Ian M]

And back to the weeds please.

Round up in Denmark concentrate is banned but you can get it pre mixed. For now. It is also limited where you can use it. Water testing is finding glysophate in the ground water.
As is normal its the townies with their fifth floor flat and window boxes have kicked up the most fuss. Countryside dwellers with large gardens are expected to hand weed....lol.
.Home remedies such as the salt and vinegar are forbidden but work great. In the short term. (Or so I'm told ...).
There are slowly appearing more and more ecologically friendly weed killers.

 

[colin m]

We used to have a not so lovely concrete back patio, now long gone. The weeds had overcome it. I imagine it had taken decades, but they won.

Nice. I'll pass that warning on to him.

 

[JR]

And back to the weeds please.

Round up in Denmark concentrate is banned but you can get it pre mixed. For now. It is also limited where you can use it. Water testing is finding glysophate in the ground water.
As is normal its the townies with their fifth floor flat and window boxes have kicked up the most fuss. Countryside dwellers with large gardens are expected to hand weed....lol.
.Home remedies such as the salt and vinegar are forbidden but work great. In the short term. (Or so I'm told ...).
There are slowly appearing more and more ecologically friendly weed killers.

20% white vinegar Ian, works well. Of course no good if it's about to rain . Works on most grasses, not so good on deep rooted plants like dandelion. In fact we used to buy Roundup as a concentrate and use it at the back of the workshop to keep down nettles. I know potato growers use it to kill of the top vegetation prior to harvesting .
Tim @Tim Marlow look who makes it , Monsanto. Remember all the trouble over their modified corn .

 

[Ian M]

I think there was a case in the land of the free in which some guy got awarded an insane amount of compensation due to the Round up he had used twice "had given hin cancer" and had nothing to do with all the cleaning agents and chemicals he had been using for the last Nth years as a janitor! that sent a lot of the tin foil hat brigade into panic and "ban it" rutine.
Days tip;
Do not confuse round up and lawn cleaner lol. Lawn cleaner is very effective and only kills two kim bladed plants, leaving grass un affected. The effects on stubborn weeds is however vary good. I use it on Ivy, Brambles and nettles as well as thistles in the lawn.
One time having given the gravel driveway a go with the round up, I forgot it was round up and as I walked back to the barn I sprayed a few weeds in the lawn ... next day I was wondering where the brown patches in the grass came from.

 

[Scratchbuilder]

Andy .
Round up becomes inoperative on contact with the soil, so regular spraying would kill any new weeds. The only thing against weed barriers is most weeds come from airborne seeds so why bother to even use it . Unless you have a deep rooted weed such as Dandelion which require to be dug up completely they will grow back through any barrier, just look at the cheap way councils have attempted to surface foot paths , some plants just appear through it . 20 % white vinegar sold on evil bay kills weeds . It will just need a regular spraying , either that or burn it

And a kind word from our sponsor Dr Arson.....

 

[Tim Marlow]

I think there was a case in the land of the free in which some guy got awarded an insane amount of compensation due to the Round up he had used twice "had given hin cancer" and had nothing to do with all the cleaning agents and chemicals he had been using for the last Nth years as a janitor! that sent a lot of the tin foil hat brigade into panic and "ban it" rutine.

To date it’s reported that there have been around 95000 lawsuits attracting 10 billion in compensation Ian. If the information showing these cases to be spurious was there then these cases simply wouldn’t stand up. The manufacturers apparently have significant extra capital set aside to cover future lawsuits. This is hardly tin foil hat money.

However the inference I personally draw from this approach is that they’d rather pay out against litigation, and keep the overall profits rolling in, than do the appropriate research and potentially lose that revenue stream if the results were negative. After all, the necessary research would cost far less than 10 billion, and would eliminate this drain on their resources, as well as restoring their reputation.

 

[spanner570]

Poor Andy only wanted to know what weed killer he should use........

 

[Andy T]

Poor Andy only wanted to know what weed killer he should use........

Indeed.

I think I'll stick to radio silence from now on. Safer that way

 

[Mini Me]

Spoil Sport!

 

[JR]

And a kind word from our sponsor Dr Arson.....

Thank you Wibble, of course I have at my disposal a flame gun , did use it the kill dandelions . Marvelous thing, auto ignition via a spark . Quick adjustment and away you go . Would be just the thing for the January sales , or anyone that mentions C *******s . Used to burn the long grass at the workshop when it died off .

Wobble

 

[JR]

Why is that?

Organisations like the US Environmental Protection Agency, European Chemicals Agency, Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency, European Food Safety Authority, the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO), and the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health all state that it does not pose a risk to humans. Is it a concern for wildlife?

Even when it leaches into ponds and is heavily diluted it will kill most pond life Steve.

 

[Lee W]

A few years ago I used some white spirit and a flame, it took about 2 years for the weed to come back!

 

[JR]

A few years ago I used some white spirit and a flame, it took about 2 years for the weed to come back!

Now your talking ,

 

[Lee W]

Now your talking ,

Worth a go!

 

[PaulinKendal]

I've found that weeds will always, ALWAYS return. So it's important to dismiss ideas of total, permanent eradication and instead seek effective minimisation strategies that are not too labour intensive. That means lots of different interventions, not a single magic bullet.

I use hand weeding, flame gun and toleration in different parts of my garden, but one particularly effective remedy is shading out. Dense planting schemes are good for limiting opportunities for weeds to thrive. What does get through is often leggy and weak, and easy to remove by hand.

One surprisingly effective strategy is to use a competitor plant. In my garden lungwort (pulmonaria) fulfills this role really well. If I have either a weedy area or a blank unplanted patch I bung in some lungwort. It quickly colonises and outcompetes the weeds. Once the weeds are gone the lungwort itself is dead easy to eliminate - just dig it up.

I guess different plants would work in different gardens, but the trick is to find something that grows aggressively itself, knocks out the weeds, but is easy to eliminate. It does all the hard work and then you remove it easily.

 

[Waspie]

If anyone knows a method of eradicating ivy I’d be grateful!!! Hate the thing. Think you’ve removed it, including roots and - bang! It’s back.