Which weapons grade selective weedkiller?

Which weapons grade selective weedkiller?

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Hard-Drive

Original Poster:

4,084 posts

230 months

Monday 24th October 2016
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I have a grass bank down the side of my property, about 30m long and about 1m high. It's quite steep, although I can just about keep on top of things with a petrol strimmer.

The grass is long meadow grass, and it's never been "managed" before as it was one edge of a pony paddock, until I built a house on the site earlier this year. However it's very overgrown with nettles and brambles, and as the rest of the garden slowly takes shape, it's letting the place down a bit.

Which is the best selective weedkiller that will take out the brambles and nettles and hopefully leave the grass alone? Does the stuff really work? Or I am best off nuking it with Gallup360 and re-seeding in the spring?

I was recommended Headland Relay-P but it's now no longer available.

And yes, I will use full PPE and a different sprayer to my Gallup360 one!

Hard-Drive

Original Poster:

4,084 posts

230 months

Monday 24th October 2016
quotequote all
Thanks for all of the advice guys.

One question, SBK is sold as a domestic weed killer. Now if I compare the price and effectiveness of Gallup 360 compared to Roundup, it's in a totally different class on both counts. Should I not be looking for something like Hysward-P? I dunno, it just seems like the stuff that comes in a plain white container with some name that sounds lethal, and no input from a marketing or packaging department, just seems more deadly!

Hard-Drive

Original Poster:

4,084 posts

230 months

Tuesday 25th October 2016
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
OK so it seems Hysward-P is the professional version of SBK. Professional products are different from garden centre ones in that they are (1) more concentrated (2) quite possibly a different formulation. The 'formulation' is not just the active ingredients (ai's) but other gubbins like surfactants. The forumulation of the professional product will not have received clearance for use by Joe Untrained Punter and his watering can. Officially you can't/shouldn't be able to buy it - but in these internet mail order 'ain't seen me roight' days almost anything goes.

ATEOTD there is an optimum concentration for the ai's to work. More than that won't work any better - in this case you'd probably kill the stuff you want to keep. Leaf surface area and all that. These ai's are phenoxyacetics; they mimic PGRs (plant growth regulators) such that the plants 'proliferate themselves to death'.

If you get the pro product it's your risk; you're not trained to handle the noxious formulation /don't have the kit. But you may find the challenge exciting smile
OK thanks for this, all useful stuff. I'll have a read of the respective SBK and Hysward-P manuals and make a decision. If it offers more bang for buck, then I might go for the Hysward-P. TBH I do have a healthy repect for these chemicals, I had to nuke my entire garden after our build was finished ready for grass seeding, using Gallup360. I use disposable coveralls with a hood, long rubber gloves, wellies, plastic face shield, mask, a sprayer that is used for Gallup and nothing else, and obviously do it only on a windless day. Funnily enough in my experience it's the farmers who would probably laugh at all of that and mix it up in an old tea cup (with the handle held on with bailer twine...)