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Daft weedkiller question

The Bald GardenerThe Bald Gardener Posts: 212
in The potting shed
As the title says, probably a daft question.  Can you make an organic weedkiller in the same way you can make feed from nettles, comfrey etc? 

I know you can mulch etc, but I was thinking of an actual weedkiller made from a garden by product, think I know what the answer will be though.  I'm wondering what the old timers would have done before the advent of Roundup etc. I mean, they knew all the tricks and handed them down, so maybe there is a way and I've just not heard of it.  
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  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Not daft.    Funnily enough I was looking up this subject the other day and found this - https://www.countryliving.com/gardening/garden-ideas/g4176/homemade-weed-killer/

    Not at all sure about salt as nothing would grow afterwards but some of the others look OK and plenty of sites advocate diluted vinegar with a  few drops of washing up liquid.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • The Bald GardenerThe Bald Gardener Posts: 212
    I came across the vinegar idea earlier, but I was thinking more along the lines of ..... let the leaves of such and such a plant breakdown in water and use the liquid.....that sort of thing.  There must be something, got to be.

    Yeah, the salt 'solution' was a bit puzzling I thought. :) 
  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254


  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Another one here with a memory of the sound of several hoes stirring the surface of the soil on allotments and gardens through the village on a summer evening. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • The Bald GardenerThe Bald Gardener Posts: 212
    I quite enjoy hoeing tbh. Kinda therapeutic I find. 

    I can vaguely remember my papa showing me how to use one as a youngster and telling me 'you've nearly got it, try over there now' as I blindly weeded his garden in an attempt to 'master' it as he sat on the step 'mastering' his Embassy filter tips! lol   
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    A wallpaper scraper makes a great hand hoe/slug slicer.
    It's small enough to get between plants. I'm always having accidents with the long one.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • glasgowdanglasgowdan Posts: 632
    A hoe is great if you have loads of pointless bare soil to keep weed-free... but very little use for getting out weeds in many other spots. Weedkiller is absolutely king. But this is GW and some posters recoil in middle class horror at the very mention of the stuff!

    There are a couple of organic weedkillers on the market. Problem is they are stupidly expensive when you consider the dilution rates, and they don't suggest that one treatment is enough ("repeat applications may be necessary").

    Vinegar has to be extremely concentrated to actually kill the roots... much stronger than you'll find in domestic food. 
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Hoeing is fine between rows and wanted plants and I do a fair bit but not for clearing large patches of buttercups, bindweed, mallow and dock and so on.   I need something to give me a head start and a chance of success.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    edited June 2018
    I did part of my biology degree in France, where I learned about allelopathy.  It seems some plants produce compounds on the surface of their leaves which are toxic to other plant species at very low concentrations.  So falling rain washes them off into the soil, and competing plants are inhibited.  A similar phenomenon is autotoxicity, where a plant produces toxins against other individuals of the same species.  So the first seedlings to get going can inhibit those that germinate later, resulting in fewer but stronger plants.  Dead clever, these French.

    As for the old-timers leaning on their hoes, they didn't have block paved drives.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs186 Has some good suggestions.  I was thinking maybe a black walnut leaf and wood mulch?
    Utah, USA.
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