So, I have 300 pounds of salt pellets for weed and brush control....

Woods behind my house keeps pushing towards the backyard. Kill weeds and brush first, trees later. After mowing and weed whacking I'd like to distribute salt over it to keep it down. 3-4 feet deep X 100 feet wide.

1- I could pulverize the softener salt pellets and distribute over the area by hand.

2- Dissolve pellets to brine and spray w/ HF 2 gal. garden sprayer. $15.

3- Construct a flow through container holding pellets w/ water hose in and out to dissolve pellets on the fly.

That's all I got right now. Rather not use commercial weed killer because of cost and would like to minimize exposure time because tick season. Wanna do it cheap too... and I has all this salt.

Is this just an egghead idear?

Have any better application or weed/ brush killer ideas?

Go ahead and dissolve the salt in a five gallon bucket of watter. It takes about 24 hrs for the salt to fully dissolve. You'll have some undissolved salt at the bottom of the bucket all this means is the watter is fully saturated and cannot adsorb any more salt.

Transfer brine into cheapo garden sprayer and then add 1 cup of Dawn dish washing soap. Shake and spray.

I use this formula to keep the grass from growing on my gravel driveway. It will kill the grass for about a month or two.

Thanks for this thread. I have a similar issue and didn't know how to deal with it.

Dude, ill have to try this on my driveway. What kind of salt is best?

I agree with Doc Brown, use warm water and set the bucket outside where it will get the most sun and more salt will go into solution. Bonus if you happen to have a black bucket.

So...how effective would salt water out of the gulf be for this?

We've been using a salt/vinegar mixture for weed control on our patio this year and it's been quite effective. My dad has used just plain white vinegar for years and that seems to work just fine too. Would probably require too much vinegar to be practical for the OP's application, though.

Yeah, don't salt the SOIL or nothing will ever grow there again. Use the vinegar or water/salt/Dawn solution on the PLANTS and it should kill them good.

Supposedly the Romans did this to Carthage after the 3rd Punic war. Not sure of their methods.

I have a group of shrubs that are struggling a bit after. Eing immersed in maybe 6-8" of salty water last year thanks to hurricane mathew. Not sure if they'll recover or die, but they are still there.

Got the back mowed this afternoon and started nipping away at the underbrush w/ the push mower. Next is the chain saw w/ cutting brush and limbs then more mowing and weed whacking to get at the brush roots.

This is my big nemesis:

It needs cleared out to the corner of the lot, I let it go way too long. Instead of trying to cut it back I might just pour salt pellets down a 2" PVC pipe aimed at the root base, water it and kill it.

This is my brine tank, a cut down plastic drum aka keg bucket. 80 pounds of salt pellets w/ over 20 gallons water. Like Doc said the water will take as much salt till saturated, then repeat. Should start spraying soon after more brush is cleared to get at the roots.

I wanna kill it all so I don't have to berkeley w/ it anymore. Softener salt pellets are cheap at $6/ 40 lb bag. I just might crush pellets and Johnny Appleseed the entire area as well.

Doc Brown wrote: Transfer brine into cheapo garden sprayer and then add 1 cup of Dawn dish washing soap. Shake and spray.

How important is the Dawn detergent and what is it's purpose? I'd suspect it might help the salt solution stick but dunno.

Would a concentrated liquid laundry detergent like ERA work as well?

fasted58 wrote:

Doc Brown wrote: Transfer brine into cheapo garden sprayer and then add 1 cup of Dawn dish washing soap. Shake and spray.

How important is the Dawn detergent and what is it's purpose? I'd suspect it might help the salt solution stick but dunno. Would a concentrated liquid laundry detergent like ERA work as well?

Yes, the detergent helps it stick to the leaves. Supposedly you have to use original Dawn, not the scented later versions, though. At least that's what I've read.

Weather was supposed to be hot and dry all week but now calling for rain in two days, so did some test sprays during the NASCAR red flag at Pocono.

Water in the brine tank was taking up salt well, pellets were like rice on the bottom and after mixing water had that ol' briny look. These pellets oughta go a long way. Filled the 2 gallon sprayer tank w/ brine and added the one cup of Dawn.

The HF 2 gallon sprayer didn't do bad for $15. May be better suited to sidewalk, patio and driveway duty tho, takes time to spray down large areas. I'd really like to saturate the soil in some areas tho, prolly want a commercial unit for this much area but hopefully I have all summer to get this done.

It was evident why Dawn... this mix really stuck to foliage, made it look like plastic leaves, it does stick. I sprayed test areas of cut down grass, weed roots and leaves of brush just to get it dialed in before goin' full tilt kill.

Will see what it looks like in the next day or two.

This is what leaves looked like two hours after spraying w/ the brine and Dawn mix:

Watching with intetest. Roundup is expensive and ineffective on my driveway.

I tried this today. Destroyed the existing weeds in about two hours. I hope the salt will keep plant life off of my driveway for awhile.

Has anyone tried this on a mulch bed? Would this harm a large bush or small tree?

Thanks

Donebrokeit wrote: Has anyone tried this on a mulch bed? Would this harm a large bush or small tree? Thanks

I hope the berkeley so, I have a lotta brush to kill.

Test spray less than 24 hours later, the one shown above. Grass is turning too. Result.

Near 90° today, probably not cutting today, too hot for coveralls (long sleeves and pants are a must). I'll spray the driveway and walks tho.

Gonna crush some salt pellets to pea size and toss them in the real bushy brush I can't reach the base of. High chance of rain later in the week or I can water w/ hose to get the salt in the soil.

Looks like a good start.

How's it looking now?

In reply to Greg Voth:

I'm still learning but very good actually. Brush and leaves I sprayed are verry brown now, grass too. Started spraying the gravel driveway weeds and edges yesterday, around the old XJ also.

Been a slow process though trying to spray at least 36 hours before rain, so far so good tho. No visible results from salting the ground w/ pellets yet.

I'm gonna keep at it. Should have pics tomorrow.

I did a test run in my drive way, in less than three hours I could see the weeds laying flat I will report tomorrow.

Pics!

The brush on the left was sprayed one week ago, the brown grass under the branches was just runoff from leaf spray.

Grass in gravel driveway was sprayed three days ago and at least 24 hours before rain.

This grass was sprayed a week ago, wanted to stunt/ kill it as it's the path to the brush pile. Tired of cutting it.