Topic: Old fasioned CHEMICALS !!!!

[Fingle....]

Right.....

Anyone know of nasty b***tard chemical that will kill brambles off and leave soil usable a year later ?

[rdak]

sodium chlorate?

[tim]

- thought SBK did? 6 weeks? = Tim

[ina]

You must be desperate (and sound it)!
Sorry, hope you get the job done. Good luck.

[gavin]

Hi Fingle

While ago, I had a quarter of one of my plots to clear - rank with weeds.  Desperate to use the area next spring, with NO time at all to clear by hand, I used weedkiller.  Very carefully, following instructions to the letter.  Once the weeds were "well and truly dead" - truned it over quickly with the spade.

Result in spring?

One quarter plot full of nasty, nasty, nasty, sour soil;  thick, cold, wet, dead.  Not a worm except in the 12 inches round the edge; no sign of any life in the middle whatsoever.

---------------- Except?  Couch grass!  Alive and kicking!  The bloody stuff was dancing around in jubilation!!!!!!!

Two weekends of the dirtiest, hardest digging I've ever done - the soil actually stank, and I'd to remove these great stinking clumps of weed roots in February, cold, dank and miserable.  

There is no smiley yet invented to indicate what I was feeling!  :)

If I were back again with that bed to clear?  I'd wait and do it by hand slowly, bit by bit, and to pot with being over-ambitious.  Nothing would persuade me to use weedkiller again.

Anyway - that's by way of anecdote!  Not advice!  

Good luck - Gavin

[Doris_Pinks]

Hate to say it Fingle, but I am chopping my brambles back, (have the scars to prove it!) and digging the roots out by hand :'( Not an easy job , but you just have to take it slowly, your soil will love you for it in the end! Dottie P  

[tim]

- which 'killer, Gavin?

I'm not advocating SBK (it's just the one we use) and there would be no point in using it, anyway, till stuff is in full leaf? = Tim

[Fingle....]

I have recently finished chopping back about 10m sq of it on our plot. I suppose it wasnt as bad as i expected .

The new project i have is a half plot FULL of brambles (125m sq) on uneven looking ground with metal pipes and stuff in there so i cant use a thresher. (i get the plot free for a year if i clear it)

I may well just take it slowly and surely...trouble is i still have to dig beds / plant stuff on my original plot.

might just machete the lot

[cleo]

sounds like a mattock might come in handy as well-still available and not overly expensive.

Stephan.

[tim]

I could lend you one!! = Tim

[Doris_Pinks]

Fingle try  http://www.chillington.co.uk/  I find their heavy duty hoe, and Canterbury fork invaluable on my lottie! Prices are not too bad, and the delivery was fairly fast. (find them easier on the back too!)  Dottie P.

[tim]

What an incredible selection!! Noted. = Tim

[teresa]

Hi Fingle

Have you thought of burning them, mum and I set fire to a large patch at home.
Of course you have to be carefull of if the lottie alows you to have a bonfire and houses?
But with newspaper and matches you could burn a small amount at a time?
Now is the best time when they are not growing.

[john_miller]

 Thanks DP, ever since I moved here in 1982 I've been trying to find a source for a Canterbury hoe (/fork it seems) in the US.You have just ended my search.

[tim]

We still haven't solved the Norfolk hoe matter, have we? = Tim

[john_miller]

Er, we haven't?

[Doris_Pinks]

You are more than welcome boys! Like I said wouldn't be without mine.
Tim, what's a Norfolk hoe?   Dottie P.

[tim]

Someone asked this a while ago, and noone could find an answer - except that it might be two-pronged. Even the Museum of Antique Tools failed. = Tim