Touchweeder - still available anywhere?

fatbelly

Hi

Just visited a couple of garden centres trying to replace my touchweeder - little wax stick of weedkiller - ideal for spot weeding.

Anyway, it appears to have been withdrawn from the market. Anyone know if there are any supplies lurking anywhere?

Jake'sGran

A couple of years ago a lot of chemicals were removed from the list of those that we used to be able to buy over the counter. I think you could Google for the list and see if the one contained in the "touchweeder" is on it. The one I know that is still available is glyphosate but it is in liquid form. A lot of professional gardeners use it.

Jake'sGran

Should have done this first! It is banned. Here is the link:

http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/garden.asp?id=996

fatbelly

If it was banned, surely it's the chemical in it that was banned. Why can't someone produce a wax stick contaiining a legal weedkiller? The selling point of the touchweeder was the precise method of delivery with no run-off on to surrounding plants.

A._Badger

In the opinion of one of my local garden centre owners (and I agree with her) in a few years we will be forced to 'go organic' whether we want to, or not.

It seems to me outrageous that we are being nagged, cajoled and hectored by an unscientific lobby into abandoning products which have been used, safely and effectively, for generations.

No, I don't work for a chemical firm. I'm just a keen gardener of some experience who has been right through the 'Green' movement and emerged, blinking, with my eyes wide open, a few decades later.

The ultimate source of much of this nonsnese is the EU, of course. But that doesnt excuse our ignorant and lazy MPs from havnig allowed these laws to be imposed.

Davesnave

I don't think we will have to go organic, with the likes of huge companies, such as Monsanto, needing to keep their shareholders happy. It's also unlikely that the majority of farmers in the EU will be going down the organic route any time soon. Pipe dream.

Lotus-eater

I don't think we will ever be forced to go organic. I have no real idea if the chemicals we are being not allowed to use anymore are really harmful to us or the environment around us, but we are told that some certainly are, so surely less of them must be good?
Since I started gardening I've never used chemicals, apart from the old roundup style thing, so I can't see the fascination with them, do you really need them? I don't.
I do know that some peoples veg will be bigger than mine and have no holes in them, but I can live with that
For serious things like honey fungus I can see the need for something to deal with it and I don't think there is anything atm. That's not good.

Most younger gardeners tend to be users of less chemicals than the older generation anyway, as they move up through the ranks it will become even more of the norm, with less and less gardeners using them. As a new generation of gardeners start, it will be interesting which way they go, will there be a backlash to organic growing and us oldies being looked upon with scorn, because we make work hard for ourselves? I don't think so, but who knows.

peter_the_piper

The reason a lot of chemicals were/are banned is
1)that our government, bless them, decided that we have to test all chemicals ourselves, its not good enough that the rest of europe has already done so, and it is prohibitively expensive so a lot of goods were withdrawn.
2) The EU recently changed its way of testing in that the individual chemicals possible means of causing harm was investigated whereas before it was the product containing the m which was tested.

If you want a touch weeder roll some cotton wool around a small cane, like a giant cotton bud, dip it into roundup and touch it to the offending plant, safer than spraying.

RHYSDAD

The weedkillers on sale to the general public are, to be frank, almost worthless anyway. Compare glyphosate. The layman has Round-up at a formulation of around 7.5/8g of glyphosate salt per litre. Compare with Agricultural roundup (or equivalent) at a formulation of 360g per litre. 45 times stronger!! The government really aren't going to let the untrained user loose with chemical like that. You can also get roundup 540 which is 67 times stronger than gardeners roundup!!! Really the only pesticide that is the same agriculturally and for the gardener are slug pellets and this is the main reason that they will probably be banned after this Autumn. The contamination rates from metaldehyde getting into our drinking water is above EU limits and so will almost certainly be banned. Metaldehyde contamination is almost certainly the fault of the average gardener not using them safely or effectively (due to not having been trained how to use them (some farmers aren't any better though)

peter_the_piper

Interesting link for any concerned about slug pellets.
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:7rYJzZkxgxsJ:www.pelletsarepesticides.co.uk/docs/Water%2520UK%2520Metaldehyde_web%2520brief_v2.doc+metaldehyde+in+drinking+water&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

A._Badger

Interesting link peter_the_piper.

Incidentally, judging by the paranoid way in which the GQT panel (and others) now dispense wisdom on dealing with pests and diseases, I would start locking your doors and windows for having dared recommend an 'unapproved' application method!

On the point about glyphosate made by Rhysdad, I can only agree. The stuff we gardeners are sold seems to act as fertiliser on my ground elder!

The situation has got quite out of hand. I don't object to people choosing not to use pesticides and herbicides. It's none of my business, so why should I?

Sadly, the converse isn't true.