Weed wiper, Experiences and Where to Buy?

The Continental Op

I was thinking about getting a weed wiper - the sort that uses glyphosate.

I can remember when they were all the rage. I had one but never seemed to have much success with it.

Now it seems they are a thing of the past with very few manufacturers so I wondered if anyone had bought one in recent years and their experiences of using it. The one I had previously, never seemed to get a wet enough wick to transfer enough if any chemical over to the weeds.

I've a massive amount of couch grass (scutch?) in some (most) areas of the garden and think a weed wiper might be safer for the other plants, better than spraying with the risk of spray drift.

Ros1234

I've alot of scutch grass too, was planning on mixing a round up mix with wall paper paste and with gloves then apply it to the leaves of the scutch grass. I spot sprayed some scutch grass 2 years ago but the lawn didn't look great so hopefully this new approach might be better. Would love to hear if any body successfully got rid of scutch grass by either of the above 2 methods?

The Continental Op

I use the wallpaper paste mix but keep that for other nasties such as bindweed and the remains of japanese knotweed. The area with scutch is just too big but is full of my wifes plants (her area of the garden). I'd spray it off but my wife assumes any plant not alive when seen again under all the scutch has been killed by me. Plan was to use a weed wiper once a week. Start by putting narrow paths through then expand them each week until hand weeding became the better option.

You can certainly eradicate scutch with Roundup so I don't really see any reason why a weed wiper with glyphosate wouldn't do the same.

rje66

There is a particular chemical that targets grass only. So beds etc can be sprayed and broad leaf plants at ok.

The Continental Op

rje66 wrote: »

There is a particular chemical that targets grass only. So beds etc can be sprayed and broad leaf plants at ok.

You must be as old as me, must be 30 years since that was last licenced in Europe. Alloxydim-sodium I remember it well useful stuff, sold by May and Baker as Clout.

But if there is a chemical that will do that job I don't know about let me know.

Discodog

I have tried a few wipers over the years & none have really worked. Mounting Roundup gel on a stick could work but it's very expensive & I suspect it would be used up in no time.

I think the best option could be to simply zip tie a piece of sponge over the head of a pump sprayer. The problem would be avoiding drips. The ones with a push to open valve seem to get clogged very easily.

One other option is a funnel on the end of a sprayer.

The Continental Op

Grand, though it was just me that didn't get good results with a weed wiper, saves me spending over €70 trying one again.