Weedkiller any natural ways to kill them? Or failing best value weed killer?

AdventureRocks

I am looking for a natural effective way to kill weeds?

Although if none what would you recommend is the best value weed killer which actually works?

Thanks!

Farway

Depends on the weeds & area

Roundup does the job

DaftyDuck

Weeding.

Glyphosate.

zaax

No weed killer is natural, as herbicides are only about 100 years old.
Prior to the 19th Century fields had to be hoed regularly.

Ebe_Scrooge

Any of the many weedkillers containing Glyphosate ( such as Roundup etc. ) are fairly effective. Glyphosate works by being absorbed by the leaves and then spreads throughout the plant. So ideally you need to apply it when there's plenty of foliage for it to be absorbed into, and when there's no rain forecast for a few hours - if it rains soon after you apply it, it'll get washed off before it can be absorbed. Once it's in contact with the soil it becomes pretty much inert.


If you really want to avoid chemicals, one way is to dig the weeds out. This is hard work, and you need to make sure to remove every last trace of the roots, otherwise they'll just grow back.


Another option is to cover the area with black polythene, old carpet or similar, for a few weeks. Without any light, the weeds will eventually die off.


Whatever you do, though, weeds will always return as seeds will get blown in or deposited in bird droppings. Once you've done the initial clearing, if you keep on top of it then new weeds are easy to pull out when they first appear and the roots haven't yet had chance to spread very far.

JP08

Got a bit of brick paved driveway that doesn't border any beds. Having gone round with the b****y fiddly brush clearing out the weeds / crap I heavily salted the driveway. Note : I wouldn't try this on any area bordered by plants, but the bit I'm dealing with is self contained in drainage and bordered by walls only. If I remember, I'll report back here at the end of summer as to how successful salt poisoning the pave is.

I_have_spoken

Paraffin fuelled flamegun is quite effective, one pass will damage the leaves and kill surface seeds, a few days later a second pass will finished off any regrowth. Only large tap-rooted plants like dandelions need to be manually pulled.

suejb2

White vinegar salt and washing up liquid. Not knowing how much you'll need I won't give you my recipe simply "google"

theoretica

Goats. Of course they aren't too good at working out what isn't a weed.

SailorSam

I get the cheapest salt and use about a third of a kilo of salt to a watering can of boiling water.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-vinegar-salt-weed-killer-49329.html

AdventureRocks

SailorSam wrote: »

I get the cheapest salt and use about a third of a kilo of salt to a watering can of boiling water.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-vinegar-salt-weed-killer-49329.html

Sounds interesting thanks!

How quick do they die?