On 10/09/2015 08:31, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Wed, 9 Sep 2015 13:09:43 +0200, Mervington
wrote:


This seems to be going out of production. I have used it as a foliage
killer only for many years. In other words, it can be used with less
concern should you get a splash on surrounding plants compared with
other Weedols.

Is there an alternative?

Thanks.

Original Weedol contained paraquat, but neat paraquat is poisonous and
has caused of a number of deaths, such as kiddies finding a bottle in
a garden shed and drinking it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraquat#Toxicity . AIUI paraquat was
subsequently replaced by diquat in Weedol 2, but even this is
moderately toxic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diquat

Weedol has now become a family of weedkillers, each aimed at specific
types of weeds. I imagine these combine more than one active
ingredient. See for example http://www.lovethegarden.com/weedol

Yes. It has become a complete nightmare generated by a marketing team
that thought it was a good idea to merge brandnames for weedkillers for
use on broadleaf weeds in lawns with those for *killing* lawns.

I expect some pretty big claims when someone uses the wrong one!

Glyphosate is a good alternative and seems to be displacing
traditional Weedol. It kills deep-rooted weeds such as dandelions
etc., while Weedol was only effective on foliage and shallow rooted
weeds, leaving the roots of the deep-rooted weeds to sprout again. But
glyphosate acts only slowly, taking a week to ten days to kill the
weeds, whereas paraquat/diquat acted fairly quickly, over a day or two
IIRC.

Original paraquat Weedol was pretty effective but very poisonous too!

Glyphosate is the weedkiller of choice for general purpose.

Verdone or now Weedol Lawn Weedkiller (or whatever daft new name they
have given it) as a specific broadleaf herbicide.

There is no decent persistent equivalent of Pathclear any more.
(at least not for the home consumer)

--
Regards,
Martin Brown