Author Topic: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please  (Read 13903 times)

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« on: 02 June, 2008, 09:39:13 pm »
Nature is growing through my pea shingle drives and pathways. Please suggest something really, really nasty that kills all known greenery and is quick and easy to apply over large areas.

I don't care about collateral damage to flower (weed) beds, small animals, watercourses or general biodiversity.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #1 on: 02 June, 2008, 09:40:46 pm »
I don't care about collateral damage to flower (weed) beds, small animals, watercourses or general biodiversity.

Agent Orange. Apply to:-

Denis Thatcher (deceased)
No Fixed Abode
Dulwich.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #2 on: 02 June, 2008, 09:41:06 pm »
Sodium chlorate.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #3 on: 02 June, 2008, 09:58:39 pm »
glysophate (Roundup, or go to Wilkinsons for a cheap one).  It will make your weeds grow, then they go all weak and die

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #4 on: 02 June, 2008, 10:01:23 pm »
A hoe.

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #5 on: 02 June, 2008, 11:02:24 pm »
A hoe.

..and a spade too?

I don't know any, mind you.

 :o :o




I suggest a rap...




...on the knuckles for you, M. Pompeii.

Si

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #6 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:26:13 am »
glysophate (Roundup, or go to Wilkinsons for a cheap one).  It will make your weeds grow, then they go all weak and die

Yeah, the wilkos is less than half the price of Roundup and in my experience it works just as well.   Just check the bottle before taking it of the shelf, I found a couple that leaked when turned over.

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #7 on: 03 June, 2008, 06:24:35 pm »
Sodium chlorate.

Wot he said ^^^^

And FAR cheaper than glyphosate

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #8 on: 03 June, 2008, 06:30:41 pm »
Sodium chlorate.

On a hot day so it dries fast.

Then light a cigarette and let the match fall to the ground...
It is simpler than it looks.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #9 on: 03 June, 2008, 06:45:52 pm »
I chucked some crystals into a bonfire once.  Disappointing - just a bit of a yellow fizz.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #10 on: 03 June, 2008, 06:47:27 pm »
Glyphosate's girly wee, all it does is kill the weeds.

Tumbleweed for long-term clearness.

Diesel or Jeye's Fluid for full-on biocidal run-off pollution as well.   :thumbsup:
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #11 on: 03 June, 2008, 06:49:09 pm »
Glyphosate's girly wee, all it does is kill the weeds.

Tumbleweed for long-term clearness.

Diesel or Jeye's Fluid for full-on biocidal run-off pollution as well.   :thumbsup:
I like the smell of Jeyes Fluid.  Am I a bad person?
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #12 on: 03 June, 2008, 07:06:11 pm »
The whole family loved it here.  Like chlorine, it's the Smell of Clean. 
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #13 on: 03 June, 2008, 07:10:57 pm »
I chucked some crystals into a bonfire once.  Disappointing - just a bit of a yellow fizz.

I can't talk about these activities here. Lets wait until the Swindon ride to speak of these things.  ;)
It is simpler than it looks.

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #14 on: 03 June, 2008, 09:46:39 pm »
IIRC, weedkiller was one of the ingredients we would pinch from our fathers' sheds as boys in order to make "fireworks". In retrospect, if you were to build these "fireworks" today, I'd probably be looking at a long stretch in Belmarsh. They were rather good.

FatBloke

  • I come from a land up over!
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #15 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:46:07 pm »
I like the smell of Jeyes Fluid. 

In the morning?

Can't beat nepalm!!  :demon:
This isn't just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional blood sport. It can happen to you. And it can happen again.

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #16 on: 03 June, 2008, 10:56:41 pm »
Dust off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.  ;)
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #17 on: 03 June, 2008, 11:01:17 pm »
I can't talk about these activities here. Lets wait until the Swindon ride to speak of these things.  ;)

I cannot talk about such activities here either.
I don't do the garden or have an allotment, but as soon as I saw a thread about 'Full Spectrum Weedkiller' I knew it wouldn't be too long before Sodium Chlorate was mentioned and we would talk the talk of the orange flame that cannot be extinguished.

Hello friends.
 ;)


rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #18 on: 04 June, 2008, 08:53:31 am »
There are two things to beware of with sodium chlorate (easily available from garden centres if you're over 18):

1) it is utterly indiscriminate and can move sideways in the soil a bit (unlike glyphosate, which only affects green growth it actually touches).  It lasts for 6 months to a year before stuff starts regrowing.

2) if you soak a wooden fence in it, apparently it can be quite inflammable when it's dried off.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #19 on: 10 June, 2008, 11:18:03 am »
My neighbour keeps rabbits and you can always tell when Sunday arrives as she hoovers the rabbit cages (I can think of better things to do) and there is a very strong smell of Jeyes fluid. Like the smell myself but have to say it doesn't keep the fly population down, my only grouch is the b****y flies.

rae

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #20 on: 15 June, 2008, 09:56:02 pm »
Mum's got a big can of genuine paraquat at her place.   Kills bloody everything - the ICI equivalent of nuking the site from orbit. 

"Grazon" nukes everything apart from grass.  Very effective on bramble patches and the like. 

Tumbleweed and all that proprietary carp you get in garden centres is not as effective as having your dog piss on the weeds.   Never seen chlorate in my local - must be a Swindon thing!  ;D

steveB

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #21 on: 15 June, 2008, 10:15:10 pm »
Paraquat - now we're talking good stuff. 

Last week I put a whole tub of Sodium Chlorate (500g) in the watering can to kill about a square metre of weed and grass outside my side gate, it is working slowly.  My neighbour accross the lane sprayed Roundup on his weedy threshold and the weeds were dead and brown whithin two days.

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #22 on: 15 June, 2008, 10:52:22 pm »
Looking up Sodium Chlorate on Wikipedia, I was quite impressed that they have a related entry on Exploding Trousers !  You can find an entry on anything on Wikipedia. :-\
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #23 on: 16 June, 2008, 11:54:11 am »
A couple of friends of mine were at public school with a very gifted lad. This lad was given the run of the chemistry labs school workshops etc and unbeknown to the staff was constructing his own rocket  on an evening. One evening whilst cooking up some fuel for said missile he spilt a whole load of the liquid he was working on (sodium chlorate I guess) and mopped it up with a handy towel and put the towel over a radiator to dry. The towel did indeed dry but became somewhat unstable in the same manner as the Australian trousers referenced above. The warmth of the radiator didn't help.
Next morning an unfortunate cleaner banged into the towel and was blown clean across the room. Luckily she was more shocked than injured.
The subsequent investigation revealed the missile which according to my friends was quit impressive complete with a milled steel nose cone and an electronic launch system (this was the very early 80s) and prevented it every being fuelled up and launched much to the disappointment of all the boys who knew about it but probably saving some ones life if it had landed on them or come crashing through the roof of their house.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: A Full Spectrum Weedkiller, please
« Reply #24 on: 16 June, 2008, 12:20:58 pm »
If it was the right shape, it could have really done some damage.  It's possible to be killed by a bullet which has been fired straight up into the air; the aerodynamics are good enough that, when it falls back down again, the terminal velocity is high enough to penetrate your skull  :o

This happens occasionally at Middle Eastern "celebrations", which usually involve firing automatic weapons skywards.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.