What's new
What's new

Gravel yard around shop.. weeds..

diyengineer253

Hot Rolled
Joined
May 30, 2013
Location
Seattle, WA
uploadfromtaptalk1432661405187.jpg
I battle this gravel yard every year. Chemicals don't seem to work, plus I have a well near by.

Propane works great but seems like the ash makes things just grow back more.

Just bought a john deere D170 and has a small hitch attachment. Wondering if i should buy a gravel rake and drag it?

Anyone else battle the gravel around your shop/place?
 
I honestly don't see the problem?

You could move to S Cali.
They don't seem to be having any troubles with that down there...

Be glad that you live in an area that has water!


----------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
There is a mixture of Dawn soap, Epsom salt and vinegar that works better than roundup. The trick is to weed-eat the stuff down and spray just after the dew drys up on a hot dry day. I don't have the formula with me right now, but an internet search should find it for you.
 
Glyphosate at 2x strength kills most weeds. Triclopyr is even nastier on weeds (especially woody species like poison oak/ivy) -- and at least one of the no-pesticides folks around here thinks it's the lesser of evils (with Round Up / glyphosate apparently being Satan). You could Google to find the pros and cons of each.

I've tried a couple salt-vinegar-"natural" weed killers with not much good to say about their effectiveness.

If run off into the well water is a big concern you could always scrape the area, lay down a weed barrier, and top it with gravel.

Pretty sure Seattle now allows this as a ground cover:

http://cdn5.theweedblog.com/wp-content/uploads/no-flowering-marijuana.jpg
 
We have some 'pain in the butt' waxy bladed weeds here also and spraying Roundup (glyphosate) on it does nothing...unless you propane flash it to get the wax off(it's still green when your done) and then spray. That works for about 4 to 6 months and then I have to do it again. Twice each year and we use the weakest mix.

(The half-life of glyphosate in soil ranges between 2 and 197 days; a typical field half-life of 47 days has been suggested. Soil and climate conditions affect glyphosate's persistence in soil. The median half-life of glyphosate in water varies from a few to 91 days.)
Wikipedia.

Personally, I'm not concerned with contamination. Since we live in the middle of wine vineyards, the well water is tested twice a year for such things. This well is almost 70 years old and so far it's clean even with glyphosate's use in the vineyards for some 40 years.

One other thing, if your soil is constantly wet glyphosate doesn't work too well in my experience.
 
I honestly don't see the problem?

You could move to S Cali.
They don't seem to be having any troubles with that down there...

Be glad that you live in an area that has water!


----------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox[/QUOTE

Ox is it really that bad for you guys ? Ive read stuff about it but want to hear it from you. What are you dealing with water wise ?

Ron
 
I use some stuff called Arsenal that kills everything for a season. Then the lawnmower guy throws cut grass all over the gravel drive and it starts to grow again before the end of the season so I have to do it again. I don't know how hazardous Arsenal is for a well, but it kills things Roundup won't touch.
 
I have had good results with raking the gravel to a smooth surface, then let the grass grow. Mow it when it gets up a few inches. Even with the grass, the gravel provides a firm surface for wheeled vehicles. Once the grass realizes that you don't care, it loses interest and becomes easy to handle. Regards, Clark
 
I honestly don't see the problem?

You could move to S Cali.
They don't seem to be having any troubles with that down there...

Be glad that you live in an area that has water!


----------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox[/QUOTE

Ox is it really that bad for you guys ? Ive read stuff about it but want to hear it from you. What are you dealing with water wise ?

Ron

What??? Ox lives in Ohio.
 
I honestly don't see the problem?

You could move to S Cali.
They don't seem to be having any troubles with that down there...

Be glad that you live in an area that has water!


----------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Ox is it really that bad for you guys ? Ive read stuff about it but want to hear it from you. What are you dealing with water wise ?

Ron


I'm afraid you dialed a wrong number.

It's not been "that bad" here since '88.

..and if you're asking about the floods, we aint got those _ yet... but I doo have a dark sky beatin' a path to my door right now. I think we may have a power blip scheduled for the next half hour sometime.





DIY:

You could try some atrazine.

Round-up is a contact spray and kills via the leaves. It kills most anything that it touches, but it does nothing for plants not yet seen.

Atrazine stays in the ground all year and kills weeds via the root system. It is one of the herbicides that is known to "carry-over" to the next season.
If we used a high dose of these types one year to kill off some trouble weeds (5#/acre) we would hafta plant corn aggin the next season as well.
Atrazine kills quack grass and thistles MUCH better'n Round-up.
I am sure that it will kill via the leaves as well as this is known as a "pre-emerge" herbicide and would at least stunt corn if it was already popping through.

I just noticed last week when I was searching to see if Atrazine was still available for some thistles that I have (I have not used it in 30 yrs) and found that it is still in very high use throughout the corn belt, and is apparently even available in a liquid / spray bottle configuration these days.

Would I want it draining down my well pipe? Prolly not. But it will kill most everything but corn. And it works well in wet soils. I have noticed it "working" right after a rain before. That was interesting to see.


-----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
FWIW, Wikipedia seems to have useful reviews of glyphosate, triclopyr, and atrazine. Looks like the latter persists in water, the other two less so.
 
Maybe our Roundup is better than yours?

Roundup is available in a variety of concentrations, and mixed with a variety of number other ingredients, all of which alter its effectiveness.

Homeowners can only buy a small variety of these mixtures, and only at very low concentrations.

I have several pesticide applicators' licenses and can buy the pure stuff and mix my own brews of just about any poison you can think of. Certainly the OPs problem calls for a very lo concentration.

But Mud is correct--Roundup doesn't work on everything, no matter what strength and what other ingredients are added to herbicide cocktail. Also it is post-emergent acting only--it won't kill seeds that blow in later and sprout. Which is what annual weeds are.

If I was the OP I'd use the gravel rake behind the JD to uproot the stuff, then faithfully blow the area down (backpack blower) every week to dislodge both blown-in seeds, and the blown-in soil particles they sprout in. Problem solved.

There are no universal herbicides, although Agent Orange came pretty close. Without an ID of the plants, he's just wasting his money to pour stuff on in the hope it might work.

Other factors matter in the application too. Stage of plant growth, time of year, even time of day. Weather conditions matter a lot too--apply herbicide when its windy and you will may learn an expensive lesson. Got any farms nearby? Are they organic farms? You may have bought yourself an entire crop.
 
If I was the OP I'd use the gravel rake behind the JD to uproot the stuff, then faithfully blow the area down (backpack blower) every week to dislodge both blown-in seeds, and the blown-in soil particles they sprout in. Problem solved.

If I was the OP I'd concrete the area. Problem solved *permanently*.

PDW
 








 
Back
Top