Apparently mineral turps is an excellent weed killer

Using a bit of turps in the shed the other day to clean up some brushes, and I thought I might flick some of the dirty turps on some weeds outside the shed to see what happens. Damn things were completely dead inside two days, dried to a crisp in a week, and invisible after 10 days. Much faster than Roundup at the recommended dilution, and a helluva lot cheaper.

No doubt there are plenty who have known about this for some time.

Remarkably, it seems that Roundup (glyphosate) is fairly pet-safe, but I wouldn't think that mineral turps is. Although once it has dried the danger should have passed unless they eat the weed (and my cats only seem to go for blades of grass/weed for their 2-3 times a week cleanout barf.

Is there a down side to doing this?

That's an interesting observation... In a somewhat related weed issue - I had weeds growing in spacers between concrete slabs on the driveway... At one point I got tired pulling them out every couple of months, so after pulling them for the gazillionth time I poured a bit of used motor oil in the spacer (just have to do it carefully and not to spill any oil on top of the concrete). Two years later - still not a single weed in the joint :2tsup:

Most petro-chemicals will both burn and smother....
In the 1960's around Brisbane near were I lived, the council used kero to control mozzies in the drains and diesel on the adjacent weeds.
In the 1980's diesel was used around the factory & sump oil along the boundary fence.

It's OK as long as you don't want to grow anything on that spot for a long time.
. Roundup/Zero on the other hand has little if any residual effect on soil.

I'd gladly risk the turps treatment if I thought it would kill the oxalis infestation I have in the veggie garden.

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Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

I'd gladly risk the turps treatment if I thought it would kill the oxalis infestation I have in the veggie garden.

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Chooks were a traditional cure to oxalis and good for veggie patches too.

A friend paints metho on anything that sprouts in her lawn. Uses a smallish artists brush.Easy cleanup, less oily and less residue.

Generic Brown Vinegar diluted about 50:50 with water also works, if a bit slowly. Kero/diesel should be OK, it is an ingredient in many 'soil floculants' aka clay breaker, so it shouldn't have any long term adverse effects.

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Originally Posted by dabbler

Chooks were a traditional cure to oxalis and good for veggie patches too.

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That's good to know, a 1000 chooks should take care of it, as long as they're VERY hungry chooks.
(do they actually eat the weed or is just their constant scratching the keeps them down?)

Chlorine is a good weed killer but do not overdo it.

I get rid of nut grass by mixing Roundup at 3-4 times the recommended
concentrate and putting a couple of drops in the crown with an eyedropper.
Of course this is only viable where there is a light infestation.

Boiling water is the safest and pretty cheap. :D

Steve

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Originally Posted by kamusur

Boiling water is the safest and pretty cheap. :D

Steve

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Good one Steve - I'll definitely try that, even with the cost of the electrickery (the turps is free coz it's used and gotta go somewhere:;)

Some years ago, my local council (Sydney) used a tractor mounted contraption that combined hot water with a coconut extract.
The coconut foamed and formed a seal that kept the heat in to kill the weed.
It did stay in operation for long so it probably wasn't that effective but it used to smell nice.

It's interesting to read the MSDS for various Mineral Turps.
Dulux Min turps for examples contains 60% kerosene, while others call it "low aromatic white spirit"

The Diggers entry for the ecotoxicity is similar to most and is as follows.
Ecotoxicity: Fish, Aquatic Invertebrates, Algae and Microorganisms: Expected to be toxic: 1 < LC/EC/IC50 <= 10mg/l


Mobility: Floats on water.
Persistance/degradability: Readily biodegradable. Oxidises by photo-chemical reactions in air.
Bioaccumulation: Has the potential to bioaccumulate.

The key issue is the persistence and biodegradability.
It readily oxidises by photochemical reactions in air.
So the best disposal method is not to put it in the soil where it can get into the water table BUT to let it evaporate and break down in air.

Boiling water works on SOME things - not nut grass.

There are high voltage electrical weed zappers run by generators
mounted on tractors and driven by the PTO.Not the sort of thing
for the average suburban block!!

In the early 70's I used to get power kero [used to be used in tractors - but no longer available from our depots] from the fuel depot to use under the fences - would keep the grass out for just over a year and did not creep like diesel or oil. Where you sprayed it stayed.

I use sump oil (from petrol engines not diesel) and turps or kero combined. Works really well. Use it mainly in our gravel drive way, also helps keep the dust down. PAUL. :U