The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Solus on July 18, 2015, 06:00:34 PM
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I've just had a fence that has been overgrown for several years cleared by hand.
Some of the shrubs grew very large with 6"+ trunks. It all has been cut down to the ground and the fence removed with the round aluminum fence posts still in place...if that matters.
Before I try to replant the area, which goes from 6 or so inches wide to 2 or 3 feet in the corners.
What I'm looking for is a herbicide to kill everything were needed until I'm sure any regrowth of the stuff is done...for sure for the next year, I'd say...but I'm not a lawn care person and don't want to hire one.
What I do want is a recommendation for a herbicide that will do the job.
I can get a sprayer for the application of that is the best option.
So, anyone have any experience with a product that will keep that fence row clear. Mulitple applications are fine...say every quarter or twice a year?
Thank for any help you can give.
Take care.
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Back when I lived in Illinois I wanted to keep an area in my backyard free of weeds and vegetation, so I could gravel over it. The guy at the local hardware store sold me a product called Ortho Triox Ground Clear.
http://www.hardwarestore.com/ortho-triox-ground-clear-vegetation-killer-274449.aspx
Once you put it down, nothing will grow for a year. It worked well, and I bought more of it, put it in a sprinkling can, then put it down around where my chain link fence bordered my back yard. It worked really well. It sure as hell beat going through spools of string trimmer line. I don't know what's in the stuff, but it really prevents growth for a year. The only thing is not to get it too close to anything you want to live. My neighbor had a row of shrubs that bordered my fence, and it never seemed to bother them. If I remember it's a concentrate so you can mix it as strong, or as weak as you want. Something to at least check into. Perhaps there are better products now. But the fact it's still on the market say's something. I used it back in the 70's. I think back then it was made by Chevron.
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If you want to grow select items only, stay away from the ground sterilizers that make things burnt clean for several years. In this case use Round Up - Spray where practical, and you can brush weeds that are tangled in the good plants. Also, check with the nursery where you are buying the plants about pre-emerge herbicides like Treflan and Sencor to control grass and some broadleaf.
When we planted our new grove we put down Treflan/Sencor at a rate of 1 quart/.33 pound per acre prior to planting the trees. The next three years I used the same rate in a hand sprayer and hand raked it in at the base of the trees. Today the grove is natural, but I use Round Up around all the trees on the yard to give a clean area, so we don't need to worry about nicking the trunks with the mower deck.
To kill stumps that you have cut out: Round-Up (strongest label rate) + six ounces diesel fuel per gallon of water. For any stump larger than 1.5", drill holes down into the stump and apply liberally. Another trick I have used, but it may not be looked on kindly in city limits, is to drill the stumps, saturate them with waste oil for a week, then saturate with diesel fuel, and burn them.
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Mike's got you zeroed in on conventional. I won't do it now because it's probably a felony or something, but in the old days people used to put used motor oil on the fence lines down south. Did the job without being permanent.
Besides the heavy metals...which I doubt the ground concentration is that high, my observation is that it worked for a long time but and deteriorated. It was not as persistent as a true herbicide is my thought.
My 2 cents, and they are zinc now so not much to it.
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A gallon of oil can pollute a million gallons of ground water so it's not a good idea to go that route. The stuff Bill recommended is supposed to kill everything if that's what you want to do. I'd like to spray it through the fence to keep the weeds and picker bushes from getting in from the neighbors yard. They've already choked out almost all of the flowers I had growing along the fence.
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Yeah, I know it can but it biodegrades whereas the herbicides are persistent...at least I'd rather take my chances with the refined oil vs. the manufactured chems. For all the squawking back home about BP there's not a lot of damage that can be seen from the oil spill now....the chemical dispersants yes...but the oil maybe a tar ball here or there and their days are numbered.
I guess it also matters how your groundwater is generated if you are in a rocky area that charges with fissures the oil would get down quickly. Going through sand bodies, soil, etc. we really don't see a lot of movement of it down to aquifers like you have where I grew up. For the volumes we're talking about it locks up in an immobile phase within the first few feet and biodegrades.
Synthetic oil....I dunno about. For unrefined crude oil the best way to clean up the spills is to suck up free oil and then put some bugs and fertilizer on it. I
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If you want to go the cheap route, and still achieve satisfactory results, try Spectracide Weed & Grass Killer. Wal-Mart has it on the shelf in the garden dept. cheaper than it's shown here. It comes in ready to spray gallon jugs for around $11.00 a gallon.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Spectracide-Weed-and-Grass-1-Gallon/16877791
I have gravel landscape like most here in Phoenix. I use it to spot spray for weeds. I've found it works faster and better than Roundup, and is about half the price. I always keep several gallons on hand. If I spray it in the morning, after a day in the hot summer Sun the weeds are turning black by dinnertime.
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Thanks for all the advice.
Thinking I'll start with the Ortho Triox which should stop regrowth for up to a year. There was nothing in there I want to ever live again and this will insure it is barren till when I decide to reseed with grass.
I do have several stumps to deal with so I'll review those suggestions too.
Thanks again
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Clear plasitc sheeiting and a suny day kills stuff dead.
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Triox fan. Used it to kill stumps that keep wanting to regenerate. Drill a hole in the middle of the stump and fill it with Triox. Works great on Pyracantha which is especially hard to kill.
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I once heard that pounding a copper rod into a stump, or the trunk of a live tree will kill it by electrical conductivity over time. A bit like the 2 Pennies and a lemon battery trick.
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I once heard that pounding a copper rod into a stump, or the trunk of a live tree will kill it by electrical conductivity over time. A bit like the 2 Pennies and a lemon battery trick.
It's because the chemicals in the Copper are poisonous to plant life, and it does work, but very slow .
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It's because the chemicals in the Copper are poisonous to plant life, and it does work, but very slow .
That might be good.
Thinking of a slow death for some of this bothersome stuff might help you fall asleep with a smile on your face.
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If you have a hacksaw and a pedestal or small bench grinder, you could buy a length of 1/4" or 3/8" Copper rod and make a bunch of Copper nails. Just cut the rod off to the length you require, then grind a point on the end, and hammer away. Drive in several per tree.
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Salt.
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It depends on what's there. A combination of imazapyr and glyphosate should cover most of it. If you have blackberries, add escort to the mix.
I am not familiar with the ortho triox, but it does contain the imazapyr.
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
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Clear plasitc sheeiting and a suny day kills stuff dead.
I was going to post this, but TAB beat me to it. It's called soil solarization and it's a little more than just putting plastic on the ground, but it works (google 'soil solarization' to see how). It superheats the soil and it even kills the seeds that can remain dormant in the soil for years. You need to leave it on for about 6 weeks, though.
No chemicals and your only expense is a little time and a sheet of plastic.
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TAB and lprop1, I have an area that was overgrown and cleared that I plan to use as a garden plot and will use the plastic to "sterilize" it without the use of chemicals to keep it clean for next year's garden.
Thanks.
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Some landscapers out here will lay down plastic before covering it with gravel. It prevents weeds quite well. But you have to be really careful with how your land is pitched, and water runoff. Out here we get no rain for weeks. Then we can get a half inch in 20 minutes when a super storm rolls through during Monsoon Season. (Now, until around the second week in September). If the ground can't absorb it, (which it has enough of a hard time doing), the plastic can really cause problems if you don't have enough pitch to carry the rain water away.
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Some landscapers out here will lay down plastic before covering it with gravel. It prevents weeds quite well. But you have to be really careful with how your land is pitched, and water runoff. Out here we get no rain for weeks. Then we can get a half inch in 20 minutes when a super storm rolls through during Monsoon Season. (Now, until around the second week in September). If the ground can't absorb it, (which it has enough of a hard time doing), the plastic can really cause problems if you don't have enough pitch to carry the rain water away.
What you're talking about is called weed-block and it's different from what we're talking about. Weed-block is a semi-permeable material that people use underneath layers of mulch or rock to prevent future weed growth. It works fairly well.
What TAB and I were talking about is a method of killing every plant and seed that may lie dormant in a patch of soil prior to planting. Basically, you raze everything and dig a small trench around the area. Wet the area and then cover it with thick, clear plastic for the 6 hottest weeks of the year and then fill the trenches in with dirt to weight down the plastic. The heat created by this will kill everything up to about 18" beneath the surface, including weed seeds that can lay dormant for up to 5 years under the right conditions.
After that process is finished, it's advisable to put down a layer of weed-block before you landscape. It will keep you mostly weed free for quite a while, though once the layers of mulch start to decompose, they will form a layer of soil above the weed block in which newly spread weed seeds can germinate.
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No lhprop1, they use actual plastic out there under the rocks in most places out there. They do this because it is much less expense than landscape fabric, and with the limited amount of rain there is minimal negative affect. Keep in mind that their soil structure combined with arid conditions make the soil virtually like concrete to begin with, so when they get their rains it all runs off naturally.
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Plastic out here, regardless of the type or what you want to call it, all has the same effect. Nothing grows under it. When it's 118 in the Sun, and the ground temperature is so hot you'll burn your feet if you leave them on gravel for any length of time, it's going to kill the germination of anything. Much like planting something in a frying pan on your kitchen stove.
Even concrete gets far too hot to walk on with bare feet. When I let my dog out during the afternoon on these kind of days, he won't walk on it. He'll just walk along the pool on the Cool Decking, then trot under a tree to do his business. This type of heat can be dangerous. A closed up car in afternoon Sun can see inside temperatures go over 150 F. Every year dogs, and sometimes kids die from idiots who leave them in cars while they run errands.
People are encouraged if they see such nonsense, to break the windows of vehicles to relieve who or whatever living is inside. Cops will do it automatically, then be waiting with handcuffs when they come out. You would think common sense would prevent people from doing this to kids and pets, but it happens all the time.
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If you plan to plant a garden, then disregard the salt..... ;D ..... nothing grows after a good salting.... for a while. We used it under fence lines many moons ago.
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No lhprop1, they use actual plastic out there under the rocks in most places out there. They do this because it is much less expense than landscape fabric, and with the limited amount of rain there is minimal negative affect. Keep in mind that their soil structure combined with arid conditions make the soil virtually like concrete to begin with, so when they get their rains it all runs off naturally.
I didn't realize that. I guess not everyone can live in a perfect climate like we do.
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If you plan to plant a garden, then disregard the salt..... ;D ..... nothing grows after a good salting.... for a while. We used it under fence lines many moons ago.
Salt is fine if you intended to grow only asparagus.
You won't have worry about weeding it much either.
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See thats why I likr forums like herr rc, rdp srp and a few othera, have a question, ask it, some onr will know the answer.
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I didn't realize that. I guess not everyone can live in a perfect climate like we do.
I have lived in several places, including Phoenix and near Huntington Beach (try and get through high school with a surf board and scuba gear in the back of a pick up only 15 miles from the ocean), and I still came back to the great white north as soon as I was able.
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For stumps, the old Liquid Plumber drain cleaners in holes did very nicely thank you. Had an ash stump that laughed at axes, and into which I could only drill about 1" before the drill bit went belly up. It was a tough old stump!
As for a patch along a fence line, I use Roundup, then cover with a anti-plant ground cloth covered with gravel. I you want it to look really pretty, box in the gravel with treated timbers. Then once a year or so spray the gravel with roundup again, as the damn seeds will root in the gravel, not to mention the blown-in dirt, etc.
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If you plan to plant a garden, then disregard the salt..... ;D ..... nothing grows after a good salting.... for a while. We used it under fence lines many moons ago.
Ask the Carthaginians. ;D
It's how the Romans started the Sahara desert. ;D