Killing Grass. How Do I Do It?

anotheruser

We've got some grass I need to get rid of.

The land under it is all bumpy and rubbish so I'm happy to kill off what's there and start again.

Someone mentioned spraying it with a strong weed killer and replanting so I bought some Weedol, their strongest, which even says don't spray on grass unless you want to kill it.
Sprayed the grass but it hasn't really done anything nearly 4 days later. It says visible results within 24 hours. To be fair on it, a dandelion is now dying.
So I poured the rest of the 5L into a watering can and "watered" the lawn. Still hasn't worked, on the whole. Some of he outskirts are now dying.

The grass is a little overgrown but I expected to see some results by now.

Is there anything else I can try?
I don't really want to change the soil too much as we'll plant a whole new lawn and other plants at the tail end of this year.

I don't really want to dig it all out as that'll take forever.

Any other advice?

Poppycat

It takes 2-3 weeks normally for Glyphosateto work when its growing. Some can work better like roundup or Resolva 24H

Justagardener

It will work...eventually, it needs to travel down to the roots first and will then start to die back. Weaker weedkillers take a long time to work. What was the exact name of the weedol? They are usually weak weedkillers.For future try gallup 360 its one of the few professional strength glyphosate weed killers you can buy on amazon without a certificate....that will work!

Mr.Generous

Is it just a bit of grass? I have noticed if you drip a few drips of petrol from the mower on the grass it kills it completely and a brown patch is there for ages. Got any petrol?

pogofish

In my case, looking at it sideways seems to encourage large patches to die.

Davesnave

Mr.Generous wrote: »

Is it just a bit of grass? I have noticed if you drip a few drips of petrol from the mower on the grass it kills it completely and a brown patch is there for ages. Got any petrol?

OP mentions 'starting again' so an area poisoned for 'ages' isn't a great option.

Glyphosate works. It takes at least three weeks, and in winter possibly more, but it gets there. With grass it's 100% effective.

Many people's belief in a product is nothing like that long, so they come here and claim, 'It doesn't work!'

The good thing about glyphosate is that it breaks down quickly in contact with soil, so farmers and other professionals may use it at the same time as spreading seed, doing 2 jobs in one.

Weedol has been re-formulated since I last used it, but the blurb says: "Contains 120g/l glyphosate and 0.33g/l pyraflufen-ethyl
as a suspension emulsion formulation (SE)."

That's a fairly low dose of glyphosate.Typical consumer orientated product. 360g/l is what I use most of the time, and with no fancy trade name, but yours should still do the trick. Just be patient.

Justagardener

That's a fairly low dose of glyphosate.Typical consumer orientated product. 360g/l is what I use most of the time, and with no fancy trade name, but yours should still do the trick. Just be patient.

Just for readers info, when buying domestic weedkiller like weedol at 120g/l of glyphosate in the product you are buying a weed killer at a third of the strength of professional weed killer at 360g/l of glyphosate in the product. Gallup 360 contains 360g/l of glyphosate.
You can now buy at 490g/l of glyphosate, have a look on amazon... http://amzn.to/2ni2yxO

Davesnave

Other brands are available:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ROSATE-STRONG-GLYPHOSATE-WEEDKILLER-GLOVES/dp/B00CBXKFLS

anotheruser

Justagardener wrote: »

It will work...eventually, it needs to travel down to the roots first and will then start to die back.

What was the exact name of the weedol?

I bought Weedol Rootkill Plus Weedkiller Power Sprayer Spray.
Will give it more time; I just thought I would see something different on the longer grass by now.

It says Contains 7.2g/l glyphosate and 0.02g/l pyraflufen-ethyl as a soluble concentrate formulation (SC) on the bottle.

Justagardener

I bought Weedol Rootkill Plus Weedkiller Power Sprayer Spray.
Will give it more time; I just thought I would see something different on the longer grass by now.

It says Contains 7.2g/l glyphosate and 0.02g/l pyraflufen-ethyl as a soluble concentrate formulation (SC) on the bottle.

This is a two part acting weed killer. The pyraflufen-ethy inhibits photosynthesis (the process by which plants turn sunlight into food) so effectively killing the top part of the plant, supposedly the fast acting part, again about a third of the strength of professional weed killer. Then the glyphosate which is the total kill from the root up.
Just a point of note, the majority of weed killers are effective, it's the poor contact with the plant that makes them ineffective. When spraying with weed killer always ensure total coverage of the leaves with the fine mist spray. I have never really understood using a watering can with a rose as sometimes instructed by the manufacturer. With this method the droplets are heavy and roll of blades of grass and weed leaves giving poor contact. Just my view of course. Hope this helps

elaineruk

Have you considered covering it - apparently old carpet is very good for killing weeds http://goto4gardening.co.uk/ground-cover-weed-control/ and you should be able to get it free from carpet layers - you'll do them a favour by taking it off them (it costs for them to dispose off)