What weed killer

:dh:Hello new member here down in sunny Cornwall , in a moment of madness ive just become the proud owner of a piece of scrubby ground approx one and half acres maybe a bit less . My problem is the variation of weeds , stinging neetles , brambles ferns, Rhodendrums ,and i nearly forgot KNOTWEED , which we have started to tackle with Glyfos . what i wanted to know is Glyfos suitable to spray all the other weeds or is there something better for the ferns and stingers as i gave them a spray about 3 weeks ago with a fairly strong mix and this seemed to have no effect . there is nothing i want to save plant wise, this is a big project, and a mini digger needs to be bought new soil brought in etc oh yes there is an old gravel pit in the middle full of water and will make a nice feature will try and post pics Any advice appreciated by this gardening half wit Andy

 

Hi No Rush and welcome. No one is ignoring you but there are very few members on site at the moment. You probably need advice from someone like Pro Gard. who, I'm sure, will give you his usual excellent suggestions.:gnthb:

 

My advice is based on trade products, so if you use them then be careful how you use them in particular measure your doses accurately.

For the nettles and brambles i usually spray with Blaster, this is the trade equivalent of SBK. Glyphosate will work but blaster works more effectively.

http://www.amenity.co.uk/webstore/product_info.php?cPath=1016&products_id=87

All other weeds I would use roundup. Follow the dilution rate, the maximum is usually around 200ml to 10 litres. Increasing the amount of chemical not ony costs more but makes it ineffective. It will take 2 weeks before you see signs of it working.

I usually add something called mixture B to my glyphosate mixture as this helps to cut into the leaves particularly so with knotweed. This also helps with brambles etc and if you've already bought glyphosate may be a better option than buying blaster or SBK.

http://www.amenity.co.uk/webstore/product_info.php?cPath=1019&products_id=113

Knot weed will need repeated spraying over a few years to kill, nothing will work instantly on it!!!

 

:gnthb: Thanks cajary, Pro Gard, i like the look of the blaster and was interested to see that by putting down a stronger mix this achieves nothing . Pro Gard ive cut knotweed tubes off by hand so as not to fling them everywhere then pushed a sharp rod down them and filled with glyphos do you think covering them up will help. I do know this will take years to kill , i did download the DEFRA paper work and was surprised to see they did a short term fix involving bunds, spraying digging and burial they made it sound easy . Any way time to play have a nice day and dont you people ever sleep Andy :lollol:

 

For 1.5 acres once the Roundup / Glyphosphate has done a reasonable job I would have a local farmer plough the lot, and then hire a mini-tractor with POT driven rotavator. It will get the whole lot manageable in short order.

It will also chop up the weed roots and they will come back with vengeance, but they will be smaller and less strong, and further Glyphosphate will be very effective on them.

We "fallowed" the land we wanted to convert from pasture into beds this way, and its been successful.

Covering the whole lot with 2" of well rotted manure (or even fresh if you aren't going to plant it for a year) will add a lot of heart. Or mushroom compost - we had monstrous pantechnicon deliveries of that at a previous property, worked very well as a mulch and soil restorer.

I'm less sure about bringing in new soil, but that does depend what you have got!

Dunno how this approach would effect your Knotweed though.

 

Kristen, with Knotweed if you rotovate or plough youll spread the knotweed so best avoided, otherwise in normal ground ploughing or rotovating would work well.

 

"with Knotweed if you rotovate or plough youll spread the knotweed so best avoided"

I suspected as much , thanks for confirming.

 

Hello again my garden of Eden as the wife calls it has an old blocck works in it and as i said a fairly large gravel pit full of water about 40 m x 30m which will make a nice pond with i hope a walk right around.so i think a mini digger would be better suited also theres several different ground levels which will look nice when cleaned up but make it almost impossible to use a tractor on . We are just removing trees at mo to get in , i think you would call this gardening on a grand scale,will stick some pics on when i get hang of it Regards Andy