I bought Roundup Super Concentrate a few weekends ago and tried to use it last week. The instructions indicate to combine a small amount of the concentrated weed killer with one gallon of water. What could go wrong with that?
Well, I thought, Hey, I have an empty 1-gallon water container. Why not load that up first with the concentrated weed killer, fill it up with one gallon of water, and then just sprinkle around the areas with weeds? I did just that, and the treated weeds, days later, showed no signs of dying at all. What happened? Did I get a bad batch of weed killer?
HOW TO: It occurred to me last evening, when I came home from work, to load up an empty regular 1-gallon Roundup plastic container (recovered from my recycle bin!) with the concentrated weed killer and added water. I then treated the weeds by spraying them with the hand sprayer that came already attached to the Roundup plastic container.
I checked on my weeds about an hour ago – already yellowing and browning. It seems that the sprayer is the critical factor. In all fairness, after seeing the effectiveness of last night’s spraying, I checked the bottle: you have to peel back the multiple-page instructions, which indicate that a sprayer is to be used. I hadn’t peeled back the pages in my first two failed attempts – I only read the visible first page about mixing the weed killer with water.
Clearly, using an empty water bottle filled with water and concentrated weed killer, and just sprinkling the contents on weeds, is simply the wrong method of using this product. Thankfully, the lesson did not become too expensive before I found out how to use this product correctly. Lesson learned!
UPDATE: Many thanks to Kevin for giving me the 411 on Diquat and Glyphosate, active ingredients in weed killers, and why my weeds appeared to be unaffected by my initial two treatments using Roundup Super Concentrate. Check out his very helpful comment!
SHOPPING TIP: This product is expensive (about $100) but cheaper in the long-run since it can yield up to 85 gallons. The pre-mixed 1-gallon Roundup solution goes for about $10 in my area. Going the pre-mixed route, to get the same amount of solution, I’d have to spend $850, versus the $100 Super Concentrate. If you have a large yard space, or if you’re over-run by weeds, the Super Concentrate option may be worth considering.
Filed under: Gardening, How To, Shopping Tip | Tagged: diquat, garden maintenance, Gardening, glyphosate, How To, Roundup, Roundup Super Concentrate, Shopping Tip, weeds
Because it does not have Diquat like red cap Round-up. Diquat is the instant leaf curl you experience in a day or two. Makes it stop feeding. Then the Glyphosate takes over, killing to the root. Purple cap stuff you used, is straight Glyphosate. Takes longer weather you pour or spray, makes no difference… Just thought you might like to know you didn’t screw up the first time. Red cap Round-up is instant gratification, especially for blooming weeds, from bloom, you get seed, so faster death is much better. If you were nuking a field, then the purple cap is the way to go, Less oz per gal goes farther, but no results for weeks, then BAM!, All gone….
Dear Kevin,
Many thanks for the very helpful information on Diquat and Glyphosate! Very good to know! Thank you for visiting my blog!