The Lemon Fool

DrFfybes wrote:For bindweed stick a cane in so it grows up the cane, then unravel it, put it [diluted glyphosate] in a poly bag and spray into the bag, then tie it off and leave it

Yes, top tip, that. You want as much living bindweed curled up into those bags as you can get. Looks awful for a month or so, but well worth it. When we bought Bungee Towers in its semi-wrecked state, we had such bad old bindweed that that the main running roots were a foot down and half an inch thick. Because glyphosate is systemic, it went all the way down and the first application killed 90% of it. A second dose the following year finished off the rest, and it's never come back. That's 26 years now.

BJ

servodude wrote:

Mike4 wrote:

The small print on the back says it contains diluted acetic acid.

Does that mean it's for squirting on chips

Oooh, fantastic tangent. What is all this "non-brewed condiment" stuff one now gets in chip shops instead of vinegar, all about?!

It looks, smells and tastes like vinegar, but presumably they aren't allowed to call it vinegar now. Why on earth not?


(Edit to add the second para.)

Mike4 wrote:

servodude wrote:

Mike4 wrote:

The small print on the back says it contains diluted acetic acid.

Does that mean it's for squirting on chips

Oooh, fantastic tangent. What is all this "non-brewed c ofondiment" stuff one now gets in chip shops instead of vinegar, all about?!

It looks, smells and tastes like vinegar, but presumably they aren't allowed to call it vinegar now. Why on earth not?


(Edit to add the second para.)

Marketing!

servodude wrote:

Mike4 wrote:

servodude wrote:
Does that mean it's for squirting on chips

Oooh, fantastic tangent. What is all this "non-brewed c ofondiment" stuff one now gets in chip shops instead of vinegar, all about?!

It looks, smells and tastes like vinegar, but presumably they aren't allowed to call it vinegar now. Why on earth not?


(Edit to add the second para.)

Marketing!

I remain to be convinced calling your vinegar "non brewed condiment" is the greatest marketing USP a chip shop can have.

Vinegar is a brewed condiment, I've made it before when my beer went wrong. Non brewed condiment is made from acetic acid, water colourings and so can't be called vinegar.

servodude wrote:Or Doc' leaves...
Gets rid of the sting pretty quickly if I remember correctly

-sd

Never found that.

Like (I'm sure) most of us, I got told of the supposed effect of dock leaves as a young child. A fair few years later - school biology classes - I learned of placebos, and had an example from experience.

Nettles, collect them for the kitchen, and encourage critters that eat them. That includes quite a few of our most colourful butterfly species.

Mike4 wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:I bought a bottle of Roundup not long ago. Mine was made in August 2019. I see that it is still available:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roundup-Action ... M3EG&psc=1

TJH

Here is the Roundup in my local garden centre:

Moderator Message:
Image removed. Please provide statement that you own copyright to repost

The small print on the back says it contains diluted acetic acid.

Curious. I took the photo so presumably I own the copyright. Or do I?

Presumably the bottle and label are protected by copyright, are you saying it is an infringement to post a photo at all?

bungeejumper wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:For bindweed stick a cane in so it grows up the cane, then unravel it, put it [diluted glyphosate] in a poly bag and spray into the bag, then tie it off and leave it

Yes, top tip, that. You want as much living bindweed curled up into those bags as you can get. Looks awful for a month or so, but well worth it. When we bought Bungee Towers in its semi-wrecked state, we had such bad old bindweed that that the main running roots were a foot down and half an inch thick. Because glyphosate is systemic, it went all the way down and the first application killed 90% of it. A second dose the following year finished off the rest, and it's never come back. That's 26 years now.

BJ

Having read both your helpful posts I was motivated to have a go at eliminating some irritating bindweed this year. The problem is that it is growing in a bed with a lot of nice plants so the stick and bag process wasn't practical. So I spent a little time unravelling it as much as possible and moving strands away from the other plants. Then I used a paintbrush dipped in diluted glyphosate to paint the accessible leaves. Around three weeks later, the process seems to have worked really well - very sick brown bindweed and unaffected flowers.

Having a small pot of diluted glyphosate to use up, I then attacked a weed like a vine growing in a hedge which has always been a pain. To avoid killing bits of the hedge, I used an old spoon to support the vine leaves whilst painting them and thus protecting the hedge. This has also been very successful.

So going back to Mike's OP, this might be a good method to control nettles in a rockery. Painting the leaves and protecting the rockery plants from splashes. The surprising thing to me was just how little glyphosate was needed to kill a substantial weed. And using a spoon gets the weedkiller onto the more vulnerable bottom of the leaf.

Warning! One can turn into a weedkilling nerd. To use up the rest of the diluted glyphosate using only a small paintbrush one finds oneself pacing the patio and gravel drive looking for smaller and smaller weeds to kill.

regards

Howard

Howard wrote:
Having read both your helpful posts I was motivated to have a go at eliminating some irritating bindweed this year. The problem is that it is growing in a bed with a lot of nice plants so the stick and bag process wasn't practical. So I spent a little time unravelling it as much as possible and moving strands away from the other plants. Then I used a paintbrush dipped in diluted glyphosate to paint the accessible leaves. Around three weeks later, the process seems to have worked really well - very sick brown bindweed and unaffected flowers.

Having a small pot of diluted glyphosate to use up, I then attacked a weed like a vine growing in a hedge which has always been a pain. To avoid killing bits of the hedge, I used an old spoon to support the vine leaves whilst painting them and thus protecting the hedge. This has also been very successful.

So going back to Mike's OP, this might be a good method to control nettles in a rockery. Painting the leaves and protecting the rockery plants from splashes. The surprising thing to me was just how little glyphosate was needed to kill a substantial weed.

Warning! One can turn into a weedkilling nerd. To use up the rest of the diluted glyphosate using only a small paintbrush one finds oneself pacing the patio and gravel drive looking for smaller and smaller weeds to kill.

regards

Howard

Thanks Howard, I like the spoon idea. I too have been planning on using the paintbrush method but now the rain has finally stopped, I'm back on my boat and rarely at the cottage! And getting back to the RoundUp without glyphosate thing, oddly in Tesco Banbury the other day, I found a huge display of RoundUp for sale, WITH GLYPHOSATE. How about that then?!!

You pay a bit for the Bayer Roundup brand name.
Many agri suppliers sell glyphosphate much cheaper than Roundup but with the same strength.
I use Rosate 360 in 5L poly container. Usual disclaimers

Howard wrote:
Having read both your helpful posts I was motivated to have a go at eliminating some irritating bindweed this year. The problem is that it is growing in a bed with a lot of nice plants so the stick and bag process wasn't practical. So I spent a little time unravelling it as much as possible and moving strands away from the other plants. Then I used a paintbrush dipped in diluted glyphosate to paint the accessible leaves. Around three weeks later, the process seems to have worked really well - very sick brown bindweed and unaffected flowers.

Having a small pot of diluted glyphosate to use up, I then attacked a weed like a vine growing in a hedge which has always been a pain. To avoid killing bits of the hedge, I used an old spoon to support the vine leaves whilst painting them and thus protecting the hedge. This has also been very successful.

So going back to Mike's OP, this might be a good method to control nettles in a rockery. Painting the leaves and protecting the rockery plants from splashes. The surprising thing to me was just how little glyphosate was needed to kill a substantial weed. And using a spoon gets the weedkiller onto the more vulnerable bottom of the leaf.

Warning! One can turn into a weedkilling nerd. To use up the rest of the diluted glyphosate using only a small paintbrush one finds oneself pacing the patio and gravel drive looking for smaller and smaller weeds to kill.

regards

Howard

I use a very similat technique where raspberries have invaded my strawberry bed. I can kill the invaders without collateral damage. I use a bigger paint brush to kill couch grass clumps in my lawn. It looks unsightly for a while but done at the right time of year it can remove the clump and refill wth sprouting grass seed in a couple of months.

If anyone knows a better way to kill couch grass in a lawn I would love to hear it.

I just had to add a further post to this thread to thank those who gave such good advice above about getting rid of bindweed using glyphosate.

The results of using tiny amounts to kill two climbing weeds which were previously a real pain in the garden were amazing last year.

We have a lot of weeds which come in from undergrowth close to our garden so I read further information about using this weedkiller. This led me to experiment by using a sprayer to carefully attack bramble shoots, nettles and other weeds which previously we had laboriously removed by hand. And also to try killing weeds around shrubs, some of which I had annually attacked with a rotavator. This method works in the short term and I have used it to mix home-made coarse compost into the soil. However it does prepare the ground nicely for further weed growth!

Given the success with glyphosate last year, I started early this year and sprayed a lot more weeds in early January. This was ideal because most plants in the garden are deciduous and it was easy to avoid the evergreens. Would glyphosate work on weeds which were beginning to grow in freezing conditions? Nearly six weeks later the answer is yes! To my surprise most of the really irritating long rooted ,weeds which require backbreaking work to remove by hand and the annoying ones which can’t be hoed because they are intertwined with plants are looking brown and sickly. Many have already convincingly died back.

I’d stress that I’m being really careful, using a knapsack sprayer with a very accurate nozzle which can give a tiny dose without hitting nearby garden plant shoots. So far I don’t think I’ve damaged any valued garden plants.

Whilst Mrs H and I are pretty fit, hand weeding has become a real chore in recent years. This new method of weeding looks highly promising. And, so far only around 250 ml of glyphosate has been needed in 18 months.

So again, thank you all for the advice in the above thread. As a keen gardener I’ve learnt something new and valuable! Roll on a weed-free summer!

regards

Howard