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Old 19-07-2012, 08:18 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Martin Brown Martin Brown is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,262
Default weed killing in rain

On 16/07/2012 15:37, Janet Tweedy wrote:
Is there ANY weed killer that would work on say, cracks in paving or
along paths in all this wet weather? I mean how often can you spray if
you have to have 4 hours of dry weather afterwards!!


Ignore the nominal 4 hours dry afterwards - that is the manufacturers
being cautious and covering themselves. Two hours will do and on paths
the Pathclear type formulations contain a persistent component that will
remain in the soil to discourage germination. Ideally you do want it dry
though as heavy rain could move the weedkiller where you don't want it.

I expect you can get a four hour rainfree spell if you plan carefully.
We even had a dry sunny spell long enough last weekend for me to cut the
lawn. The grass itself was dry but the ground waterlogged.

Have tried boiling water and boiling salted water and so on which is
fine but if I don't kill some of the larger stuff soon they'll push my
paving up!


Nice sunny day and aim for yur best guess of a at least a couple of
hours dry.

I also have now got Ground elder, which i manage to keep on top of in
the dryer weather most years, coming across the flower beds and marching
off into the grass and beyond!

Which means I can't put my grass cuttings in the compost.


The tops off ground elder have never given me any trouble in my compost
heap - but it runs hot. It is only ground elder roots that are trouble
and they are no bother if you leave them in the sun to desiccate first.

Lack of sun spoils that strategy for the roots but I would not worry
about adding the cropped tops to compost unless it had set seed.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown