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

Could you call this multi skilling? or jack of all master of none?

Possibly, today, I guess we should plead total ignorance of anything described in the posts above as the environazis would be screaming "contaminated ground". :o

:U:2tsup::U " ENVIRONAZIS" . I love it Bob. :2tsup: Paul.

Sorry, I can't claim it as an original but it certainly seems to describe the radical ferals reasonably well.

In my apprentice days and early in the piece when I was only earning 5 quid a week, with a 100% pay rise when decimal currency came in, we used to collect all the used engine oil from all the mates and their extended families. Pretty much everyone we knew used to change their car oil themselves back then and disposing of the oil could be interesting.

As a sideline, the mate and I mixed the oil with a reddish ochre powder stuff obtained from the local hardware and painted peoples fences with it. We painted like there was no tomorrow, we usually made a weeks wages and a bit on a weekend. Used to come home on the pushbikes with trailers on the back of each with empty drums and ourselves covered in red oil specks; sometimes the specks were pretty big.

Mick.

I also remember as a youngster, "painting" paling fences with a mix of sump oil and diesel . The fences never ever rotted and there was no grass or weeds growing directly below those old fences. The posts would eventually rot just below ground level. I do remember my dad "recycling" a lot of those old palings, which were "old" to start with. Could this be an environmental POSITIVE, ? Do people still build paling fences. ????? PAUL.

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Originally Posted by HOOKED.UP

Do people still build paling fences?

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Almost exclusively Treated Crapiata, if they do. I'm going to have to change my forum name in about 10 years.....:B

Built a couple of hardwood paling fences with my dad when I was a kid. We always painted the bottoms of the posts with creosote to stop them rotting. Don't think you can buy creosote now, as it's carcinogenic. Just as well CCA is quite safe.

D1 has just built a short hardwood paling fence, so hardwood palings must be available. Probably Masters - didn't ask her.

The M-I-L had a new paling fence put up along the side boundary. They used concrete posts with 75 X 50 Hardwood rails and palings. She was really pleased with the end result because the there was no gap between the palings. Roll on 18 months....ALL the palings have shrunk and now the palings have a minimum of 10mm gap. At the time I didn't have the heart to tell her that the palings would shrink. She is definetly not as happy as when the fence went up.
We still have a Hardwood Mill in town cutting logs from private properties. The "big" logs they use would be 450mm diameter and never real straight. The mature trees that used to be cut have long gone or have been protected by the Forestry Department. A huge amount of what the Mill cuts is trucked to Sydney for the Landscape market. The boss bloke was saying one day he had an order for 6mtr lengths of 150 X 50 and 100 X 50. He was annoyed because the logs were hard to source but when they got to the landscape outlet they would be cut to customers requirements which could be as short as 1200mm. He was annoyed because he could easily cut packs of shorter lengths.

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Originally Posted by chambezio

The M-I-L had a new paling fence put up along the side boundary. They used concrete posts with 75 X 50 Hardwood rails and palings. She was really pleased with the end result because the there was no gap between the palings. Roll on 18 months....ALL the palings have shrunk and now the palings have a minimum of 10mm gap. At the time I didn't have the heart to tell her that the palings would shrink. She is definetly not as happy as when the fence went up.

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Just as a possible solution to the gap problem as well as earning some brownie points.

Get enough palings ( equal to half the number of gaps you want to fill). Rip each in half and bridge the gap with the half paling. This will give a sort of 3D look to the surface and fill all of the gaps. Possibly an expensive fix but if the gaps are a genuine problem - this should cover it.