Killing weeds with home products

[Tom]

This is while you're contemplating you belly button and waiting for Spring.  The link has a vid too.  Household products to kill weeds around the house. 

https://www.hometalk.com/29632816/four-killer-ideas-to-get-of-weeds-forever?se=fol_new-20180125-1&slg=77b8646ff2258e22f35fde7731c009f9-25515151&post_position=4

[twowings]

PLEASE use these methods if you can and stop enabling Monsanto kill every living thing they don't like...thanks!

[Tom]

Round UP is nasty.

[yogidozer]

this one works great on poison ivy
Method Two:
3 cups white vinegar
3/4 cup table salt
2 tsp blue Dawn

I use this w/o the 3 tsp arthritis rub that contains methyl salicylate which is wintergreen oil (this is the secret ingredient)

[Lannis]

I'm all for low-impact, poison-free ways of getting rid of pests ....

... pouring boiling water or vinegar on a weed is fine for a few dozen weeds in the gravel walkway.

But what if you've got 3000 square feet of weed-infested garden, or 100 yards of bank on the highway frontage?   Literally 10,000 weed plants?   Can't go after those individually ... ? 

Lannis

[yogidozer]

I'm all for low-impact, poison-free ways of getting rid of pests ....

... pouring boiling water or vinegar on a weed is fine for a few dozen weeds in the gravel walkway.

But what if you've got 3000 square feet of weed-infested garden, or 100 yards of bank on the highway frontage?   Literally 10,000 weed plants?   Can't go after those individually ... ? 

Lannis

100 yards of bank on the highway frontage? cover it with a roll of black plastic. then figure out what you will use to cover it after the weeds die.
3000 square feet of weed-infested garden? what were you doing that it got that bad?
and what makes you think spraying it with any commercial product won't kill everything in the garden?

[Lannis]

100 yards of bank on the highway frontage? cover it with a roll of black plastic. then figure out what you will use to cover it after the weeds die.
3000 square feet of weed-infested garden? what were you doing that it got that bad?
and what makes you think spraying it with any commercial product won't kill everything in the garden?

That'd be about 1000 square yards of black plastic, and some of the trees growing on the bank are 6 feet high.   Be a pretty big job.

And my current 30' x 90' kitchen garden is nice and clean and weed-free, but we're creating another one on the place out of an old patch that hasn't been used in 20 years.

We've got several hundred acres here in various stages of old timber, 30-year-old timber, cut-over, grown up, under cultivation, and in crops.   Can't do it all by hand.

I'm just sayin' that once you get beyond stooping down and pulling dandelions by hand, sometimes other solutions are all you got.   Our goal is that once a tract is tilled/forested/landscaped, to try to keep it that way naturally.   But if you got something that got away from someone, the options narrow ....

Lannis

[Kev m]

this one works great on poison ivy
Method Two:
3 cups white vinegar
3/4 cup table salt
2 tsp blue Dawn

I use this w/o the 3 tsp arthritis rub that contains methyl salicylate which is wintergreen oil (this is the secret ingredient)

Maybe this is fake news but I thought I read an article where a chemist broke this down for us and basically said at the end of the day this essentially produces something similar to Round-Up.... the moral of the story was just because something is made from household products doesn't make it any safer and just because something is marketed as a chemical doesn't necessarily make it evil.

[Lannis]

Maybe this is fake news but I thought I read an article where a chemist broke this down for us and basically said at the end of the day this essentially produces something similar to Round-Up.... the moral of the story was just because something is made from household products doesn't make it any safer and just because something is marketed as a chemical doesn't necessarily make it evil.

It's funny when you hear someone say (when referring to food, medicines, etc) "I want something without any chemicals in it!"   Considering that we, our food, and our medicine are MADE of chemicals, that's a bit tough.

We avoid pesticides where we can.   Tillage and mulch for the weeds, traps and birds for the insects.    I've learned that for every blueberry a Robin gets, he eats 100 bugs, so I just consider the fruit they get a "bug tax" ..... A Japanese Beetle trap with 2000 beetles in it is nasty, though ... !

Lannis

[yogidozer]

That'd be about 1000 square yards of black plastic, and some of the trees growing on the bank are 6 feet high.   Be a pretty big job.

And my current 30' x 90' kitchen garden is nice and clean and weed-free, but we're creating another one on the place out of an old patch that hasn't been used in 20 years.

We've got several hundred acres here in various stages of old timber, 30-year-old timber, cut-over, grown up, under cultivation, and in crops.   Can't do it all by hand.

I'm just sayin' that once you get beyond stooping down and pulling dandelions by hand, sometimes other solutions are all you got.   Our goal is that once a tract is tilled/forested/landscaped, to try to keep it that way naturally.   But if you got something that got away from someone, the options narrow ....

Lannis

if your bank is that far gone rent a machine. I would never use those chemical, pets, and wild critters eat/lick weeds and grass

[Lannis]

if your bank is that far gone rent a machine. I would never use those chemical, pets, and wild critters eat/lick weeds and grass

Heavy, diesel-burning, blade-swinging machines have their environmental downside too.   

I'm certainly not arguing for the willy-nilly unthinking use of chemical weed control.   But when I saw the thread title I thought "Hey, maybe something I could use!" and then saw them pouring hot water from a teapot over 1 weed, my first thought was "The fossil fuel burned to generate the electricity to boil that water probably hurt more than squirting that weed with a shot of Round up .... !"

Lannis

[not-fishing]

Do you want them dead or "trimmed" organically?



My favorite to take care of my Daughter's back yard is:

[Lannis]

Do you want them dead or "trimmed" organically?



My favorite to take care of my Daughter's back yard is:

Sheep and goats are a great idea for keep grass down.   Goats will tackle rough brush too.

Someday I want to have a movable chicken coop (a Chicken Tractor) to work the garden for me, get rid of the weeds and bugs.

But can't do it now.   Fay and I are gone weeks or months at a time on bike trips in this phase of our lives, and (at the moment although that may change) there's no other family actually living on the place to take care of them when we're not here ....

Lannis

[Tom]

Lannis.....an atv with a propane weed burner.

[Lannis]

Lannis.....an atv with a propane weed burner.

I've been thinking about getting an ATV or a "Mule" for chores like that ... but there I'd be with one more machine to maintain, one more battery to keep charged, 4 more tires to keep aired up, one more carb to keep from getting clogged .... already got 17 IC engines here ....

Lannis

[Tom]

Okay.  Back pack it then.

[Turin]

Or a wheelbarrow/dolly. We use these where I work.
 https://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-91033.html

[Aaron D.]

Chicken tractors-don't mike me larf, mate.

[Lannis]

Chicken tractors-don't mike me larf, mate.

'Ere, 'ave a larf on me ....

https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Tractor-Permaculture-Guide-Healthy/dp/0962464864

Lannis

[Rough Edge racing]

 In my opinion, too many people are anal about weeds...If it wasn't for weeds filling in the gaps, our acres of lawn would be pretty barren...Weeds in the garden that is larger than most suburban lawn are a different manner and dealt with by mechanical means..

[Aaron D.]

'Ere, 'ave a larf on me ....

https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Tractor-Permaculture-Guide-Healthy/dp/0962464864

Lannis

Oi! They're 'avin' ye on..

Seriously, you'll find out right quick about chicken tractors and many other facts about the "permaculture" umm, stuff.

We'll likely have chickens again someday when we stop travelling so much-but I will never, ever build another chicken tractor. Unless it is to sell it to someone who has yet to try it out, and has the money to pay!

[nortryder]

Propan rosebud and a 20 lb tank of fuel.

[tris]

I've been thinking about getting an ATV or a "Mule" for chores like that ... but there I'd be with one more machine to maintain, one more battery to keep charged, 4 more tires to keep aired up, one more carb to keep from getting clogged .... already got 17 IC engines here ....

Lannis

Here you go Lannis weed removal and Guzzi content - a Guzzi half track 





https://www.jebiga.com/moto-guzzi-3-wheel-motorcycle/

[ozziguzzi]

You may be worrying unnecessarily about something that may take care of itself.
Possible that Rocket Man may, with the help of the prodding that he's getting, "clear' things up.

Just sayin

[dlapierre]

Which weeds don't you like? Weeds are, after all, plants you don't like, plants that are poisonous to livestock, plants that will outcompete a cash crop  or diminish the value of it, or will overwhelm your garden.
Strip the ground bare here where I live, pioneer plants, or weeds if you like, will quickly fill the void. The only ones I try to control are those that I know will be problematic in time.
After a few years, if the ground is left undisturbed, the plant regime will regain a balance.
Up this way, a weed is anything a cow won't eat. I don't see it that way because I raise sheep. Sheep have a broader diet.

[Lannis]

Which weeds don't you like? ..... plants that will outcompete a cash crop  or diminish the value of it, or will overwhelm your garden.

Those!

[Tom]

https://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-91033.html[/url]

I have that one.  Very effective till the Fire Department came over and told me that there is a "No Burn" for the County of Hawaii.    I had the tank on a hand truck. 

I've been thinking of using these guys.    "goat on a rope".

http://www.goatdozers.com/