MY WIFE SAYS SHE SAW A RECEIPE SOMEWHERE FOR HOME MADE ROUNDUP TO KILL WEEDS. DOES ANYONE KNOW OR KNOW WHERE I CAN GET THIS FORMULA, OR A SUITABLE SUBSTITUTE? THANKS

-- chris wayne minor (clminor@juno.com), June 10, 2000

Answers

I'm not sure that it wasn't here, but I heard that vinegar makes a great weed killer.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), June 10, 2000.

Vinegar worked great for the weeds in my walkway cracks. However, it didn't work too well in areas where there was a lot of soil. I suspect there's too much moisture (around here anyway) and the vinegar gets too dilute. But I was amazed at how well it worked. I think I will try again if it ever dries out around here.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 10, 2000.

salt works

-- Grant Eversoll (thegrange@earthlink.net), June 10, 2000.

Da used bleach. Straight bleach. It's nasty, but it works.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), June 10, 2000.

I've used vinegar as well, pretty successfully too. I put it in a new weed sprayer, pumped it up and sprayed away. Give it a try, vinegar is cheap!

-- Michelle (thepieplace@techline.com), June 10, 2000.

Vinegar did not work for me, even in the heat of the day during a 10 day period of no rain (and we are in drought conditions).

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), June 10, 2000.

Roundup or Zero or whatever is a chemical called glyphosate (spelling is correct). The patent on that is time-expired now, so there's lots of variations being made - you can shop around for the best deal - read the ingredients and the proportion on the labels. Many are MUCH cheaper than the original. Some have additional poisons though, to kill either grasses or broad-leaved weeds more effectively.

That's one of the less-bad herbicides, but if you want less bad still, you can get the stuff bleach is made of much more cheaply by buying swimming-pool chlorine.

For a limited number of scattered weeds, particularly in a limited area (like a lawn) some people make up a VERY concentrated solution of fertiliser - say ammonium nitrate - and pour some of that on each weed; or even use it dry. Works well particularly on deep-rooted weeds - burns them off, then gets diluted to fertilise the lawn.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), June 11, 2000.

Using the cheapest bleach I can find; 1 gallon bleach, 1 cup cheap liquid dishwahing soap, 1 qt water. Works well on weeds that are not well established but doesn't seem to kill older weeds like big poision ivy vines (it brown the leaveas but new shoots appear).

-- Robert (STBARB@usa.net), June 11, 2000.

If you just need something for spot weeds, not a large area, boiling water works. It will also kill the grass too so may not be a good choice for a lawn.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), June 11, 2000.

How about a goat?

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), June 11, 2000.

I've heard a blowtorch does a dandy job, too.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), June 13, 2000.

Chris, if you find the receipe to roundup, I hope you post it for everyone to read. I usually buy an off brand which is not as good as Roundup. I priced some Roundup at Home Depot in Houston and it was not within my budget. (Also, I hate to go into Houston, just ruins my week.) My ex-neighbor, before I moved from Houston to the country, used Roundup and it seemed to be better than the brand I bought. Mine did the job but didn't last as long. Hope to hear more from you on this subject. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), June 15, 2000.

Chris our county uses liquid fertilizer as a weed killer a strong dose will kill a plant this is what they use along roadsides.

-- ronda (thejohnsons_doty@hotmail.com), August 21, 2000.

My best luck has been with 90 weight gear oil, (regular motor oil will do in a pinch) And for stubborn cracks in the driveway you can order scientific grade Mercury wholesale online cheaper than Ortho or other name brand stuff, Just be sure to dilute it about 20:1 with Acetone or mineral spirits and run it through the hudson sprayer.

-- Lucy (Lucy4uy@dobermans.net), July 06, 2001.

the best fail safe way to remove those weeds plants and stubborn vegitation is a very simple you simpley nkue them only problem being u might not be around to check they did die

-- mike mercury (shoney@freezone.co.uk), February 03, 2002.

I found this one on-line... Hope it helps. I'm going to give it a try in California.

WEED KILLER FORMULA

In a 1-quart spray bottle, pour 4 ounces of lemon juice concentrate (you can get the cheap stuff ... it works just as well), then fill the bottle up with white vinegar (28 ounces). Vinegar (on sale) costs around a penny per ounce and the lemon juice concentrate I bought was 3 cents per ounce.

For the mixture detailed above, that's a total of 12 cents for lemon juice and 28 cents for vinegar, which means the homemade version costs 40 cents per quart instead of $8!

-- Joey Day (joeyday@jdaze.com), March 14, 2002.

I didn't read every post above, so some one may have already offered this, but I have used vinegar [about 1 quart]with salt[big spoon full] and vegetable oil [about a cup], with a big squirt of dish soap to make it all bind together, it works ok on most plants. Even round- up needs repete applications on some things.

-- Thumper/inOKC (slrldr@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.

I enjoy the varied answers we get here. :) If I sound like I'm complaining, it's just my way - i enjoy this thread, & don't intend to be cranky towards anyone. :)

but, salt? & _motor oil_?????? And some of you are worried about herbicide dangers? Interesting! :)

Motor oil is not allowed, that's bad stuff. I use it on posts & some wood I try to preserve, but I'm not supposed to be doing that either.

Don A. has it about right up above. Glysophate is what does the deal, & it is fair game for others to produce it. It is a fairly safe chemical, far more than motor oil, and does not last in the soil like salt or over application of (salt based!) fertilizers. It breaks down quickly, and pretty much only acts on green plants - no half-life stuff, no soil residue. If you got a knock-off that didn't work as well, look for one with better 'stickies' in it. The official Roundup has things added that makes it stick to the plant & get through the leaf wax & into the 'blood stream' of the plant. That would be the diff3erence of some of the cheapies.

All of the suggestions given here seem to be radiaclly different than Roundup, work very differently, and some seem quite bad for the enviornment. (Altho the A-bomb suggestion doesn't sound so bad when I get to a Canadian thistle patch!!!! :) Perhaps vinegar isn't so bad, but it doesn't seem to do as much as glysophate does.

Just my opinions, I understand some people just hate the thought of herbicides - to each their own. :) On the scale of things, glysophate is pretty mild. You have to be careful what you want to replace it with! :)

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

This recipie worked well in Virginia, but I havent tried it in Charleston SC yet. I take an ordianry hose end sprayer, add 2cups Beer(not Corona or Killians man, the cheap stuff works just as well), 1cup Johnsons baby shampoo tear free, and fill the rest of the sprayer up with ammonia. If you have an Ortho Dial N Sprayer, set it to 1 1/2 to 2 OZs. That setting works well. This mixture not only kills broad leaf weeds (as they develop) but also greens up your yard. Good luck, hope it helps.

-- Tim Brady (emitim79@comcast.net), April 14, 2002.

Have not tried it yet but heard about it. Hope it helps.

Vegetation Killer( including poison Ivy) Caution: will kill all the vegetation

1 cup salt 8 drops liquid detergent 1 gallon vinegar

Combine the salt and vinegar in a pan and heat to dissolve the salt. Cool the vinegar, add the detergent, and pour some of the liquid into a large spray bottle. Spray the vegetation. (You can also just pour the mixture onto the weeds.) Refill the spray bottle as necessary. Note that this formula will kill all the vegetation, so make sure that you are only spraying the plants you want to kill. If you need to use a lot of this spray, avoid spraying it near wells, as the salt can leach into your water supply.

-- rg (sirslick1@yahoo.com), April 27, 2002.

I have been looking for something to kill the giant poison ivy vines in my backyard, some of the vines are about 10 inches in diameter. I can't even work in the yard because I am very allergic to this stuff, it seems when the wind blows my way I'm iching all over. I have tried various weed killers over the years, nothing works, I talking about over the counter remedies. I tired of fooling around with this poison ivy, I think I have an answer, I have been thinking about this for a while. The pine trees that these vines are feeding of of and growing up, over a hundred feet, have finally died from last years attack of pine beetles. Anyway, I'm not worried about killing these tress anymore, so I am going to spray as much of the vines leaves and roots with a solution I used to copper-plate with. This solution contains copper-sulphate and diluted sulphuric acid. The copper-sulphate (blue crystals] is used to kill roots in your septic lines and is still avalible at your hardware store, the acid is the same as battery acid. I am desparate, I might throw in a little salt. If this doesn't work, I will be in the market for a small tactical nuke device.

-- Paul Parks (pparks3549@msn.com), May 05, 2002.