John K BBQ
TVWBB All-Star
Generally speaking, I don’t like using herbicides, but when I do, I like to use concentrate. I have read that concentrates have a longer shelf life, and IMO there are more options available in concentrate vs ready to spray. The downside to using concentrates is you have to mix them, which means you have to avoid spills, getting it on yourself, and you have to get the ratio of water to herbicide correct, and the perception that you have to mix up at least a gallon. I think I’ve figured out a way to get around most of these downsides. Here’s how I did it.
First thing, not in the photos, I put on some nitrile gloves. Next, starting with a new bottle of concentrate herbicide, I wanted to mix up 32 oz of herbicide for spot spraying some wild violet and creeping Charlie. According to the instructions on the bottle and basic math/conversions, I needed about 7 mL of concentrate per 32 oz of water. I cut two small holes in the foil seal using my box knife, and poured about a ½ oz into the 8 oz measuring cup. Having two small holes, one for an air vent, and the other for pouring helped prevent pouring out too much concentrate, or having any “glugging”. Per the instructions, this herbicide does not addition of surfactant to the mix.
Then I put about 16 oz of water into my spray bottle, and used some syringes from amazon for $7 to suck up 7 mL into the syringe, and spit it back out into my spray bottle. That left some concentrate in the bottom of the measuring up, so I used the same syringe to suck that up and put it back into the concentrate bottle. Then I poured another 16 oz of water into the bottle and screwed on the top, and put everything away. Nary a drop was spilled. I had my 32 oz spray bottle in my bench vice to reduce any chance that I might tip it, but that was probably overkill.
Here’s a photo of everything I used. I'm probably going to switch to a glass cup instead of plastic since they clean up better. By the way, SpeedZone is really effective on wild violet and creeping Charlie, and didn’t seem to hurt my grass. My locally owned garden center has a 4 part cocktail for killing wild violet involving brush killer that didn’t work….
Here's a close up of the two holes I cut in the foil seal. My air hole got a little bigger when I stuck the syringe tip in there to put concentrate back in the bottle.
Here's a better look at the syringes. You can buy them at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JZ2HMJ7/?tag=tvwb-20 if you want to try this out. I think the 20 ml is the right size if you are going to do mostly 32 oz to 1 gallon mixes.
Let me know what you think!
First thing, not in the photos, I put on some nitrile gloves. Next, starting with a new bottle of concentrate herbicide, I wanted to mix up 32 oz of herbicide for spot spraying some wild violet and creeping Charlie. According to the instructions on the bottle and basic math/conversions, I needed about 7 mL of concentrate per 32 oz of water. I cut two small holes in the foil seal using my box knife, and poured about a ½ oz into the 8 oz measuring cup. Having two small holes, one for an air vent, and the other for pouring helped prevent pouring out too much concentrate, or having any “glugging”. Per the instructions, this herbicide does not addition of surfactant to the mix.
Then I put about 16 oz of water into my spray bottle, and used some syringes from amazon for $7 to suck up 7 mL into the syringe, and spit it back out into my spray bottle. That left some concentrate in the bottom of the measuring up, so I used the same syringe to suck that up and put it back into the concentrate bottle. Then I poured another 16 oz of water into the bottle and screwed on the top, and put everything away. Nary a drop was spilled. I had my 32 oz spray bottle in my bench vice to reduce any chance that I might tip it, but that was probably overkill.
Here’s a photo of everything I used. I'm probably going to switch to a glass cup instead of plastic since they clean up better. By the way, SpeedZone is really effective on wild violet and creeping Charlie, and didn’t seem to hurt my grass. My locally owned garden center has a 4 part cocktail for killing wild violet involving brush killer that didn’t work….
Here's a close up of the two holes I cut in the foil seal. My air hole got a little bigger when I stuck the syringe tip in there to put concentrate back in the bottle.
Here's a better look at the syringes. You can buy them at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JZ2HMJ7/?tag=tvwb-20 if you want to try this out. I think the 20 ml is the right size if you are going to do mostly 32 oz to 1 gallon mixes.
Let me know what you think!