Sodium Chlorate

The health and safety busy bodies appear to have banned the sale of the very useful sodium chlorate for destroying ALL organic material, even tree trunks such as packing it into holes drilled into the trunk. So is this material just as effective as is claimed here please

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=Sodium+Chlorate&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Gordon

 

Only as a weed killer. Were you thinking of burning the stuff in the tree trunks? As even before they withdrew it, they'd added a dampener to stop it burning. Took all the fun out of it.

 

No I did not need to set fire to it, I just waited a year or two for it to rot away. One trunk that was about a foot in diameter took several years to rot away altogether. But it never tried to grow again anytime.

So there is now nothing left to poison the soil for several months like between paving stones I assume.

I thought they added a fire depressant to Sodium Chorate anyway, but the H & S fuss pots were not satisfied I suppose.

 

They banned it in 2009 if I remember correctly!

Every time its been discussed on here there was a chorus of "We used to make fireworks/explosives/a nuisance of ourselves using Sodium Chlorate" so I'm not sure it was a bad thing to ban it (notwithstanding that it had had fire retardant added for yonks)

never liked the stuff anyway. Spread sideways from paths into lawns, and down the drains. However, I don't have a suggestion for a good pre-emergence persistent and total herbicide. There used to be things that bound to the soil, so they didn't move. Dunno if they still exist for amateur to buy?

For tree stumps you could use a stump grinder. Don't have to wait a couple of years for them to rot then ... other than that I would use something on the re-growth when it occurs. I've cut down willows and polars here and after a year, and a few treatments with contact-herbicide, they have been dead.

 

Notwithstanding the addition of fire-retardant, that was probably a good enough reason to ban it - saw it almost kill a couple of friends when we 'played' with it when kids (until we learnt about using batteries to power remote electrical gas cooker igniters, etc.)

What's wrong with SBK for stump killing, or has that also been banned?

 

SBK still around, but I think it may have changed active ingredient. Used to be very good for Brambles etc., but I haven't used it recently so don't know if it has become less so under weight of legislation.