damndelion killer

gardening shops in australia sell a nylon pressurised sprayer with a long wand. it has a handle which doubles as a pressure pump. holds 10 litres and has a control valve just by the thumb. not expensive. your Home Depot should have something similar in the gardening section.

Stealth Pilot

They made a thing like that back in the '50s, called a "Killer Kane." It was a green transparent plastic tube around 3' or 4' long (I was about 3' long then, myself, so the size may be off). It had a small tube at one end that you pressed down into the center of a dandelion, and it released a little squirt of herbicide.

Maybe they're still around?

-- Ed Huntress

A similar thing called a 'weeding wand' is sold in my part of the world. Came out in the 80's & are still around. Same as you describe but with a wick at the business end that gets sodden with herbicide and is dabbed on the evil weed.

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:16:25 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Karl Townsend" quickly quoth:

Can you say "$10 WallyWorld sprayer"? I knew you could.

BUT, you _don't_ want to put all those nasty chemicals in your food source, do you?!? Gasoline and diesel are carcinogens and do not add to the flavor of fruits and vegetables. ;)

-- Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for. -- Earl Warren

Now, that sounds like something one could make at home. I may make one and give it a try myself. I was late with the pre-emergence weed killer this year, and I have a real mess of them.

-- Ed Huntress

The bottle screws on at the handle end, the wand is the tube (or at least contains a small diameter tube) the wick was like soft cotton rope about

3/8" diameter. Problem I had was with small bottles of expensive pesticide a good deal of it was spent soaking the wick.

Tried to find a pic, I only found this butane powered one....

It's called a "hudson sprayer".

I use one with diesel in burn season, 4 years and no chemical damage to the sprayer. Larger models have a sling strap so she won't have to hold it. There are even 12 models that need no pumping

...

The wicks don't work well, because of the drip issue. We use a cloth glove over a plastic glove with 65% pure Monsanto roundup mixed with 1/3 crop oil for weeds like quack grass. A little dab will do ya. goes fast.

back to my query, the small pressure bottle sprayers aren't what we're after. This wand you've mentioned may be what we'd like, but it can't drip and you must be able to quickly dispense a 1/4 gram of material. Think

1000's of cycles.

Karl

10 litres of diesel oil will weigh something close to 40 pounds. I suspect Karl's wife would want something a little smaller.

That's an idea. I still picture myself taking pain killers for my back...d8-)

See if the Killer Kane is still around. I haven't seen it in hardware stores for decades, but maybe it's available online.

-- Ed Huntress

Google brought this up:-------->

ED

Spraying diesel fuel in your garden? That's not a long-term approach... there's a broad spectrum herbicide named "Round Up" that kills anything green you put it on, and breaks down into inert components so quickly it doesn't have a half-life in the soil.

I've got a nylon pressure sprayer with a long wand that I bought several decades ago in the garden section of a hardware store. Works like a champ.

Why not just slip a length of Tygon tubing over the end of a pump oiler spout? It it's too floppy, slip in a piece of solid copper wire, so you can shape it to suit.

How about one of those standard insecticide sprayers that has a small tank attached? Wand and a hose, fill with diesel, pump it up and take a walk, going sputz sputz sputz.

Find em cheap at the hardware store and Kmart

Gunner

We use one of thoes as the hot water shower aboard the sail boat. I guess I better check to make sure it's water and not diesel :)

Oopsies!

THANKS

I'm ordering one right away.

Karl

Ordinary one-gallon (or two) pneumatic sprayer, with the tip dialed out to "stream". ie, the one I use for dormant oil (I have a few less trees than you do, to say the least) would work fine. Blip the trigger and squirt some oil. Put on the strap for easy carrying, or drop it in a pack basket. Of course, as a large orchardist you may not have one handy, since you use rather bigger spray equipment. But easy and cheap to get.

Youre welcome

Please post a review when you get one., I might want to try one..

Glyphosate--is the fist of God, I use a bit of it now and again. I get dandelions in the alfalfa, they're actually pretty hard to control, Glyphosate works pretty good. I bet with that wand and mixed at %13 actual it would take only a drop or two.

ED

The review didn't take long. She's already tried one and didn't like it. Too slow and drips.

She wants a squirt thingy that can be held in one hand, with a long doodad to put right on the weed without bending over. Oh well, back to the design table.

Karl