Weed killer recommendations

[Tink]

If your still there when they arrive. Overall, they may bill you for their "services" if it is determined ignition source did not come from roadside.
Find somebody with an excavator and hog it out.

Community begins with Aloha

[Midnight Rambler]

Even if you manage to not set fire to the christmasberry and all the houses for several miles around, it's just going to grow back with more guinea grass in six months. It's particularly adapted to fire.

[MarkP]

Once on a fishing trip to south point years ago we picked up some 6" dia logs of what I am pretty sure was christmasberry where it had been buldozed down alongside the road. We got 3 logs of irregular lengths as we had no saw. We piled it as best we could with whatever kindling we could scrounge. The kindling flared up and burned away, leaving the logs smoldering. We applied lighter fluid regularly over the next few hours and sometimes it seemed like the wood was burning on its own but it always returned to a smoldering state so around midnight we gave up. Next morning to our surprise the logs had continued to smolder like giant cigars, the whole end of each log was red coals while the remainder was cold. We assumed that they would go out soon but by the end of the day each log was completely consumed and reduced to ash.

Wouldn't burn, but also wouldn't go out. The not going out part seems like a nightmare for firefighters putting out a brush fire.

[dan d]

Go get a couple hundred gallons of sea water and spray on the offending weeds. Cover them with a big tarp, come back weeks later,pull tarp burn weeds. Or for small areas, take 1 gal vinegar 1 cup salt 1 squirt soapy dish soap. Mixem,sprayem, burn em later. My neighbor allways burns his trash when the wind comes my way lol
Aloha


HPP

[ElysianWort]

quote:

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Originally posted by dobanion

OK, so I got 1/2 an acre overgrown with Guinea grass, 7ft tall, and we hit a dry spell, it all turns brown. It's surrounded on all sides by Christmas Berry, from everything I have read, will NOT burn. No houses or structures within 100 yards in any direction.

I light a match to it and step back and it all goes up nice and perfect in 20 minutes, am I under arrest?

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When it's brown its easy to weedwhack, or sythe or string trim or tractor with mower attachment or whatever. It comes down easier that way. As it tries to regrow you could try what dan d said.

Not sure if that will work for guinea grass (what i call cane grass). You could till it and go through and easily pull out the corms of the loose dirt as the regrow. Be careful of what you do with that barrel full of grass roots when finished.

Puna bonus on saving money: Sometimes after you clear it the pigs will do the tilling job for you. Free of charge.

[keiregan]

Well I opted for the 100,000 btu blow torche. Who knew killing weeks could be so fun.

[ElysianWort]

I'm really glad to hear about your choice keirgan! [] It is a responsible one rather than ignoring the problems with using weed killers which so many other residents and some Puna-Webbers seem to do.

I also use the blow torch propane method and it works just fine.
I do it in the morning after a semi dry period so the grasses are still dewy and no chance of any fire spreading. Just avoid torching the staghorn fern as it will ignite like dry cotton soaked with diesel.

Also I wait till 8:00 a.m. as the sound of my torch is a bit like a jet engine and don't want to irritate any late sleeping neighbors.