Agh, weeds! Any way to control them?

[Caniac]

Jolinar has the right advice. NO diesel fuel. Roundup is completely inert as soon as it hits the dirt, so there is no residual effect on whatever you plant later. But since it has no residual effect, it won't affect seeds that sprout after application, so you may need to reapply it. Probably the most safe herbicide in the world from an environmental and human aspect. Since Monsanto's patent on it expired a few years ago, the price has come down significantly. Also, there are now other products available that have the same active ingredient. Look for "Glyphosate" on the label. These products are even cheaper. Sort of like there are a lot of companies beside Bayer that make aspirin.

[Zarathustra]

Plant groundcover:
http://www.pfaf.org/leaflets/grdcover.php

If your yard has the preliminary grade on, hire a bobcat and bring in a few more inches of topsoil.... when he applies the new soil and grades it, all those weeds will get turned and barried.... then grade by hand, spray water on it to further compact it, then sod... i've landscaped before, thats all we ever did.... doesnt matter if the weeds are 2" or 3 '...

And no, the weeds won't grow through the sod.

[photon]

Yeah, that's what a friend said as well, but we're not really ready to landscape probably until next summer.. so I don't want to pay to grade and topsoil now and then more stuff later (increased cost of two trips).

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by photon

but we're not really ready to landscape probably until next summer..

Just curious what is holding you back for this year? The reason I ask is I've noticed that people like myself who did it last year were fine, but the people who left their yards the extra year have a lot more work to do to get rid of all the new weeds.

[photon]

Half because I want to let it settle before doing anything major, and half because I don't want to allocate the money to it right now (I would rather have it in some other things for the moment).

EDIT: And half because the house beside me isn't done yet so they're still going to be doing their grading and stuff yet.

[redforever]

Do not use Diesel, do not use salt, dont waste your time boiling water or using that fire thing a ma jig. Killex only works on broadleaf weeds, so if you have quack grass growing there, forget it, wont touch it.

Round up is by far the best product. I live in the country and can get the real stuff and it works great. The stuff you get in the gardening stores has been watered down, so you dont kill your neighbor's stuff too.

Round up is what they call a "non discriminant herbicide", in other words, it will kill whatever it touches, and that means broadleaf plants like dandelions, stinkweed, clover etc as well as other plants such as grasses, small shrubs etc. So, DO NOT SPRAY on a windy day, cause you might get some drift onto the neighbors stuff etc. Get up early in the morning when it is nice and calm and apply. It only needs around 4 hours without rain to work. The plants will be dead in 7 to 10 days. You wont notice anything immediately, but by around day 4, the plants will start to turn yellow, then brownish and they wither up and die.

It goes thru the root system of the plants and whatever touches the ground is neutralized, so you wont have residual long lasting effects. BUT, that is exactly why the stuff in the stores has been watered down. Here is what can happen. You might have a poplar or some shrub on the border of the yard, where your neighbor has a shrub. If the roots of the two plants are interwined, whatever you spray will effect BOTH species of plants. Lots of bad feelings left with the concentrated stuff.

Now the stuff in the gardening stores has been watered down, and if you have things like perhaps Canadian thistle, they will need repeat applications as they have extremely long tap roots. The other thing to do with such a species of plant is to let it grow, just to the bud stage, then drench it a couple of times with Round Up. The plant is at the most vulnerable stage then, all its resources have gone into making flowers and seeds, hence it's root system is at risk.

Good luck. Good old fashioned labor works too. Remember that for every seed you let get into the ground from large overgrown weeds, you will get gazillions of weeds next year!!!

[habernac]

any suggestions for killing weeds in your lawn? At our new house, the prevoius owner didn't care for the lawn too well. It's full of quack grass and thistles and other weeds. Is round up going to nuke the lawn as well if I apply? Or am I just going to have to pull out the stuff by hand?

[flambers]

Originally Posted by photon

So of course the dirt they used to grade my lot is filled with all kinds of plant matter, and of course now my dirt farm yard is filled with plants of all kinds. The neighbour said he tried Round-Up to no avail and is simply using a trimmer to knock them all down every so often.

Any advice on something I could do that's more permanent than a weed whacker? Something to kill them all until I decide to put in grass (likely next summer)?

Round up will work, some times you need to give it a few shots.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by habernac

any suggestions for killing weeds in your lawn?

I found Scott's weed and feed works OK, but best plan is to take a screwdriver and dig them up. Then drop some grass seed down the hole that you made.

Originally Posted by redforever

dont waste your time boiling water or using that fire thing a ma jig. Killex only works on broadleaf weeds, so if you have quack grass growing there, forget it, wont touch it.

Round up is by far the best product. I live in the country and can get the real stuff and it works great. The stuff you get in the gardening stores has been watered down, so you dont kill your neighbor's stuff too.

I would like to hear how you figure a fire burning at 1000 degrees won't kill the weeds.

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by habernac

any suggestions for killing weeds in your lawn? At our new house, the prevoius owner didn't care for the lawn too well. It's full of quack grass and thistles and other weeds. Is round up going to nuke the lawn as well if I apply? Or am I just going to have to pull out the stuff by hand?

In this case if you are using chemicals you want something like Killex that will only kill broadleaf weeds. It will (should) leave your grass alone. Otherwise you are pulling out by hand or with a tool of some sort.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by habernac

any suggestions for killing weeds in your lawn? At our new house, the prevoius owner didn't care for the lawn too well. It's full of quack grass and thistles and other weeds. Is round up going to nuke the lawn as well if I apply? Or am I just going to have to pull out the stuff by hand?

I think you are getting the picture))) Round Up is non discriminate, it kills what it touches. So yes, if you have weeds in your lawn, and you spray the weeds, it kills both the lawn it touches and the weeds it touches.

Now if the weed is big enuf, some will take a paint brush and paint the Round Up on the leaves of the offending weed. BUT, this is an exercise in frustration, unless you have one weed only you are trying to kill.

Canadian thistles are indeed a problem, and because they are in an established lawn, you cant let them grow to the bud stage, the vulnerable stage, to apply the chemical. They are one of the hardest weeds to get rid of, hence they are on Alberta's noxious weed list.

I would use Killex. It gets rid of dandelions pretty easily. But with any chemical, here is yet another hint. The more of the leaves that are exposed to the chemical, the greater your success. So, dont spray just after you have cut your lawn, not many weeds with their leaves intact at that point. Instead, let the grass and weeds grow, then apply the Killex, give it a day or two to make sure the weeds have ingested and then cut your lawn.

Also, spray EARLY in the morning. At that point, plants are waking up, just like people. And weeds in particular, like to grow fast, so they open up their pores early in the day, to get in as many nutrients as possible. So that is the time to apply your chemical, when their pores are open!!!

And here is yet another hint. During long dry hot spells, weeds do the opposite. They dont open their pores as much as that would expose them to dehydration. So, with your lawn, water it first, to promote weed growth, then use the chemical. Otherwise, the weeds wont ingest as much of the chemical, since they too shut down in the heat.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I found Scott's weed and feed works OK, but best plan is to take a screwdriver and dig them up. Then drop some grass seed down the hole that you made.



I would like to hear how you figure a fire burning at 1000 degrees won't kill the weeds.

I never said it did not kill weeds, it will, it will kill your lawn too or whatever it touches. Problem here is he has a whole lot of dirt with weeds, will take forever.

And you dont get 1000 degrees of heat with many things, except a stoking furnace.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by photon

So of course the dirt they used to grade my lot is filled with all kinds of plant matter, and of course now my dirt farm yard is filled with plants of all kinds. The neighbour said he tried Round-Up to no avail and is simply using a trimmer to knock them all down every so often.

Any advice on something I could do that's more permanent than a weed whacker? Something to kill them all until I decide to put in grass (likely next summer)?

Just spray, reapply etc. You will get more new weeds after any new moisture comes, so after every rain, you will get a new growth of weeds. Keep on spraying, or invest in a lawn mower early and mow your weeds. Whatever does not seed wont live over the winter, most weeds are annuals and die over winter. Also, any weed mowed down wont seed and produce new seeds.

However dandelions and Canadian thistles are perennials, in other words if you dont get rid of the problem early, you will have a "perennial" problem.

[return to the red]

my advice...buy the roundup concentrate and a sprayer pack. as was mentioned the stuff is stores has been dilluted to a fair extent

redforever knows what he is talking about so I'll let him go on and on

[redforever]

Originally Posted by return to the red

my advice...buy the roundup concentrate and a sprayer pack. as was mentioned the stuff is stores has been dilluted to a fair extent

redforever knows what he is talking about so I'll let him go on and on

Unfortunately, the concentrated stuff is only available to those who can provide a legal land description proving they live in the country and are farmers or acreage owners. Too potent for casual use in the city. You can try, but I am pretty certain that is the policy. The supplier is UFA in Calgary, or any other agricultural store that provides herbicides to farmers or those who need it for industrial control of weeds.

You might try to get this, I think is the same policy though.

When we first established our lawn, we too of course had the same problem, only problem is we had an acre of the problem. By the way, I am a she))) and I have a lot of flowers, both perennial and annual, so you have to be real careful with Killex too, or many other herbicides, if they smell like 24D, flowers dont like them and die very easily. Ask my husband, he killed all my lupins, we are still negotiating terms on that digression of his))

Anyhow, I phoned around, to local golf courses, to see what they use since they have all kinds of beds around their golf courses that they dont want to kill as well. The consensus at that time was a product called TARGET. It kills a long list of broadleaf weeds and it has nooooooooooo odor and if you spray early in the morning when usually there is no wind, you can go almost a foot close to your flowers etc. It works very very well, and will work on Canadian thistles too, but you have to increase the concentration.

You got to have a lot of weeds to buy and use it, as it comes either by the gallon I think , orperhaps even larger. Anyhow, it lasts a long time. As I said, we have around 1 acre of grass and one container of Target lasts us at least 5 years. It is available at UFA as well and is gonna cost you at least a hundred bucks, Round Up in the concentrated form is even more expensive. There is a new form of Round Up now, you can almost spray it in the rain now and you dont need as warm a day to apply it either. The older type, you needed to have a warm day, around 20C or above.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by redforever

And you dont get 1000 degrees of heat with many things, except a stoking furnace.

Sorry. 908 degrees then. Is that better? I was estimating the temperature, and I was off by 100 degrees.

My point however is that there are several options. You were saying not to use one of the options. The thing is, your option is to go out and buy something that by your own admittion is not readily available. And you also expressed that there are dangers of killing things you didn't mean to kill.

Both are options. Both have pros and cons. Yours is a good method. But it isn't the only one.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Sorry. 908 degrees then. Is that better? I was estimating the temperature, and I was off by 100 degrees.

My point however is that there are several options. You were saying not to use one of the options. The thing is, your option is to go out and buy something that by your own admittion is not readily available. And you also expressed that there are dangers of killing things you didn't mean to kill.

Both are options. Both have pros and cons. Yours is a good method. But it isn't the only one.

The "concentrate" is not readily availableto city folks. The other stuff in the gardening centers is. It will do a fine job on the type of application required for a bare lot full of weeds. You might have to reapply. The concentrate will kill trees and shrubs, the stuff in the city gardening centers wont, but it kills most weeds etc in a city lot application just fine.

By the way, I am an organic gardener, so I am very careful about any chemicals I use. I dont use anything within the veggie garden whatsoever, except labor. Trust me, I dealt with the problems at day one before they became a "perennial" problem. Weeds around here signed a peace treaty with me years ago.

I use Round Up around the edge of my garden only, to prevent the grass from creeping in. I do the same application around my perennial flower and shrub beds. I also use it to control the weeds along our long driveway, which is pit run gravel, a magnet for dandelion seeds blowing in the air.

Target in my opinion is not as safe as Round Up, but it is as safe as Killex. We only use it to control weeds in the lawn, and not every year, every 3 or 4 years perhaps. We just keep the dogs in for a day until all is dry.

Neither Round Up or Target have any odor whatsoever.

[Zarathustra]

If you don't want to kill everything in your yard and just want to get rid of weeds, planting groundcover is your best bet. The groundcover plants will compete and force out weeds. Go to your local garden centre and ask about this method.

If you want to kill everything in your yard and seriously contaminate your soil, spraying toxic chemicals is the method to do it. True story:my neighbours decided that they would use toxic chemicals to kill weeds in the shared area of our lawn, they ended up killing everything on this piece of land. The funny thing is nothing will grow there now except weeds! The grass and shrubs are dead, but the weeds are thriving!

[photon]

Lol.. yeah I eventually want stuff to grow back

And redforever, please don't put your posts in a different font than everyone else's. Thanks.