Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best for killing weeds/grass?

Desert rat here - suddenly living in aftermath of prolonged rainfall after 18 months of very dry. During that dry period, laid down a bunch of nice rock for driveways/parking spaces (to avoid dust and nasty mud when it rains). Locals advised against putting down heavy plastic or "cloth" before the rock. So, none.

I need to reclaim the rock areas from the heavy and wild mix of grasses (fine and rough) tall weeds and low creeping flowering weeds that have overwhelmed. Am cutting it all down to some degree of shortness so that I can apply something to kill all of it dead. (maybe would use some pre emergent killer next time).

Am getting all sorts of advice - ranging from vinegar, to heavy salt solution, to various commercial bottled stuff. My wish is for a spray that is EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT. Would like to do it with one good pass and not spend more $$ than necessary - and not pollute this aging carcass any further.

Best solutions? Thanks in advance for all useful info.

Did this earlier this year. I have a tried a bunch of different mixtures.

The best results were Round Up mixed with blue dye.

I'd spray it with RM43.

A gallon concentrate goes a long ways.

It kills indiscriminately, plus has a pre-emergent herbicide that keeps weeds and grass from growing back.

Yep. The RM 43 has glyphosate (round up) AND imazapyr in it. The imazapyr will prevent stuff ftom regrowing for several months. More expensive, but less labor.

Do NOT spray it on a yard or area you want to re-seed or re-plant.

Lots of yards in NM/AZ are xeriscape. Rocks, gravel, etc, that don't require water like grass lawns. Those are the yards where RM43 really works well.

Keep it off your cactus.

I buy glyphosate (41% strength), the active ingredient in Roundup, at the local feed store in 2 1/2 gallon jugs. Mix two cups with 2 gallons of water , kills very well. We have had a relatively wet summer here in Southern NM, so I have been fighting tumbleweeds for two months. It is neither cheap nor entirely without risk, but at 76, I don't lose much sleep about being finished off by chemicals. Buy a Solo sprayer, don't mess with the Walmart cheapos, you'll be buying one a week.

I mix 41% gly @ 3 oz / gal.

Dead is dead.

Liberty

preemergent is really a killer, it just keeps whatever from germinating, have to apply twice a year, sometimes 3 times to stay on top of whatever.


A guy turned me onto a product called Tribune, 1oz with 3oz of residential grade roundup I have found to be scorch the earth stuff. And spraying when its really hot.

We have some neighbors at the office that threw used motor oil in our yard…nothing has grown in that spot since

I don’t condone it but you can’t argue efficacy

That'll put you in the good graces of the EPA...

Gasoline

and the cedarhill guy above you uses


I'll just take a wild ass guess and predict yours is more likely closest to the recommended mixture?

6oz/2gal vs 16oz/2gal

is it any wonder, as Dutch noted, some Euro countries don't allow home users access to the stuff?

Shees

Per acre, I typically use 5 gallons of water and 32 ozs of RT3 glyphosate.

Well...32 ozs is a pretty good rate. Use 16 to 24 ozs a lot.

One quarter per 100 gallons of surfactant.


Spot spray applications are more problematic.

Something else to consider is a "bare ground" herbicide.

For a gravel driveway at the local farm store, I bought a bag of white pellets that kill everything for 5 years and unlike liquid, plants growing nearby are safe from overspray.

That is the rate I use as well for spot spraying.

Throw some 2,4D in to help on more mature, broadleaf weeds.

For spots I really don't want to have anything growing for several months I'll use a generic ground sterilizer from the farm store, not sure the active ingredients, but assuming its like the RM43 mentioned above.

RM43 best I've ever used; hands down! As has been stated, DO NOT get close to anything you don't want dead; I learned the hard way!!!

When using the 18% Roundup, they recommend 6 oz./gal for the strongest mixture. So 3 oz/gal would be about right for the 41% Roundup, or whatever is used that has the glyphosate. Found out many years ago while using Roundup in a wick system that more is not necessarily better. In the wick system, if you got the mixture too hot, it would burn the top and not kill the root.

Gee, that kind of makes sense Oldman,

Long ago, I had a friend, certified "nurseryman" (my fried was definitely not a man!) tell me in areas around plants/trees she didn't want killed, she'd just use a paintbrush to get it on the plants she wanted, at the recommended level of dilution. Didn't kill the tops before it could get to the roots and there was no overspray issues. Saved a lot of chemical too.