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Hi All,

I really need a strong, kill everything weed killer for my gravel driveway. I have tried to do it by hand and with some roundup but it's just not working. I need something I can just spray on or water in and it will do the job. I've been struggling by hand for a few years and I've hand enough  :) Any ideas?

Thanks
Sam

clorate of potash.

Thanks for the reply. Any idea where I can get it from?

Sam

banned i'm afraid, and it was sodium chlorate

^^ yes, chlorates were withdrawn after 2009, you can try stuff like "Pathclear" (sounds good doesn't it?) but all the persistant stuff has been removed from the amateur market.

You can still buy Chlorates, there used in firework making, so ally you do is google 'pyrotechnic supplies' and do a bit of clicking......

Sodium chlorate was good for making fireworks, shame it's banned now.

I recently made my own weedkiller from a recipe I found on the net:

1 part vinegar
1 part water
1/4 part salt
+ soap

It worked okay. I'm no chemist but I think salt is sodium chloride and vinegar is acetic acid so maybe the result is not too disimilar to sodium chlorate. Not sure if it's classed as organic. I was hoping to use rhubarb leaves but couldn't find any data to support the idea.

sodium chloride - you put it on your chips

sodium chlorate - you make bombs with it

here is the Wiki link to the famous New Zealand Exploding Trousers Events from using chlorate weedkillers  :o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_trousers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_trousers)

Salt, put in a small watering can, the type you use for indoor plants which have a small bore spout. You can buy salt from the supermarkets for under one pound for a Kilo. The other alternative which I have mentioned before is what I would call a fire wand, you can get them for about fifteen pounds and the gas bottles are not too expensive. I can not think of a more satisfactory way to control weeds than the wand in one hand and a glass of your favourate tipple in the other, heaven!!!!!!!!. I have found that the salt method mounts up and after a couple of years the soil beneath the gravel becomes so soaked with salt that weeds find it very difficult to germinate it does take patience.

Amcide was very good... used to be used by the Forestry Commision. Also withdrawn I think, but still available as a patio cleaner (allegedly)...  :-X

I am not sure that a weed wand gets rid of the roots,  couch certainly does not seem to mind having its head burned off.

Quote from: Digeroo on April 12, 2011, 11:38:13
I am not sure that a weed wand gets rid of the roots,  couch certainly does not seem to mind having its head burned off.

Seconded, and the small gas canister ones are pretty useless anyway....

friend of mine mentioned Ammonium something or other, banned a few years ago. By some odd coincidence he has a few kilos in his shed. Apparently its the stuff you get in very small quantities to use as compost accelerator

Kibosh should be up there as a good choice.

Kibosh is a non selective weed killer which kills all grass and broadleaved weeds it contacts in approximately 7 days.

At the rate recommended below, Kibosh weedkiller will give complete control of annual and perennial weeds including thistles, couch grass and the nightmare weed mare's tail (or horse tail).

Quote from: derek765 on April 12, 2011, 20:47:33
friend of mine mentioned Ammonium something or other, banned a few years ago. By some odd coincidence he has a few kilos in his shed. Apparently its the stuff you get in very small quantities to use as compost accelerator

That would be Ammonium Sulphamate - the am indicates that it's not ammonium sulphate fertiliser - the weeds think it is and take it up, but it is 'made crooked' as L.D.Hills used to say, and it kills them.

It is a really simple predictable substance, cleared for use as a compost accelerator, and it is a bit of a scandal that it was allowed to fail its last registration only because 'data on its effects when dogs eat it' was missing.

All the alternative herbicides are complex, unpredictable, persistent and far more suspect on health grounds - but they generate much bigger profits...

Ho hum.

However Ammonium Sulphamate is not persistent (only 4-6 weeks) so it wouldn't be a first choice for a drive.

First choice would be getting rid of the gas-guzzler and growing food on the drive - but that's another story.

Cheers.