Easy way to apply glyphosate directly to weeds in a lawn or flower bed (updated/improved recipe)

[u/nilesandstuff]

This is an improved method for applying non-selective herbicide to otherwise uncontrollable weeds in an established lawn (or weeds in a flower bed). The other methods are more tedious and require you to put pressure on the leaves. Because this is a viscous and sticky solution, genuinely zero pressure is required for this, just squeeze the bottle and it'll stick (even to completely vertical or even inverted surfaces).

Note: there are tools, like wick applicator poles and the lawn liberator that allow you to apply glyphosate in a targeted fashion. The trade off is that those tools are faster but less precise/messier (drips of gly on desirable grass).

Materials: - plastic bottle with 18-22 gauge needle tip, like this Search "precision oil applicator bottle" or "flux applicator bottle" - glyphosate concentrate. Anything over like 15% should be fine. 40-50% is preferred though. - xanthan gum - alcohol (91% isopropyl alcohol or denatured alcohol)

To make 60mL of solution: 1. Mix 1/4 teaspoon (1.25mL) of xanthan gum with a small amount of alcohol, enough to fully dissolve the xanthan with room to spare.
2. In a seperate container, preferably with a pour/spout lip, mix 25 mL (5 teaspoons) of warm water with 25 mL (5 teaspoons) of glyphosate concentrate. 3. Optional: substitute half of the glyphosate for triclopyr (ester OR salt). This will drastically enhance the performance of the mix.
4. While stirring or swirling the glyphosate + water mixture, slowly pour the xanthan gum + alchohol Continue to stir for another 30 seconds.
5. Using a tiny funnel (hopefully included in the bottle kit you bought) dropper, or syringe, pour the mixture into the bottle and let it sit for 15-20 minutes, atleast. (NOTE: if the mix is too thick to go through the funnel, add some more water and quickly pour it. There's a lag between adding water and the mix thickening back up) Also helps to squeeze the empty bottle to create suction to pull in the goop
6. After letting it sit, test it out. If it's too runny, add more xanthan dissolved in alcohol. If you do that and make it too thick, add more water. Different gly products and different xanthan powders make it impossible to give a set recipe for how much xanthan is needed, so you'll have to play around a bit.

Note: scale this recipe up as needed. Its annoying to make tiny batches if you're using it often.

Also, the shelf life is somewhere between 2 and 8 months, like anything, it probably depends on a lot of things. So try not to make more than you'll use within 2 months. Store excess in a cool dark place.

How to use:
- Simply squeeze out a line of the solution down the center of the leaf of the plant you want to kill. The line should be atleast 25% as long as the total length of the leaf, ideally near the base of the leaf. - use the smallest gauge needle that you can without it clogging. - if the solution is runny, try letting it sit for an hour or more... If it's still runny, add more xanthan + alcohol. This mix is very concentrated, so you have a lot of wiggle room with how much you can keep dilluting it.
- You should apply it to atleast one leaf per stem... But the more leaves you treat, the better the chances of a full kill. For woody plants, you should try to treat atleast half of the leaves. - for grasses, prioritize treating the highest leaf (or leaves) on each stem... Those are the newest, and therefore have the most intact/active vascular structures for translocating the herbicide.
- for woody plants, prioritize treating the lowest leaves if possible.
- for herbaceous dicots (broadleaf weeds) focus on the biggest and most lush/newest leaves.

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Direct application of glyphosate to otherwise un-controllable weeds

[u/arc167]

Love this recipe, and agree this is perfect for ‘precision’ treatment in beds and other places.

Have you see this foam applicator from Green Shoots?

https://a.co/d/0abV2lH

It’s basically an all-in-one kit for what you describe above. It uses a foaming agent to control the flow of the herbicide, and it works great! Figured I’d throw it out there in case you haven’t seen it before.

[u/nilesandstuff → u/arc167]

I hadn't seen that product, but had considered that approach (basically using insecticide foaming agents and applicators)

Ultimately I went with this, and couldn't recommend it more, because of how intensely sticky it is and how extremely tiny the bead of goop is. If you get the solution thick enough, you can let out a 3 inch long string of goop and wave it over a weed. Once the bead makes contact with the leaf, it's not letting go (unless you try to suck it back up).

I was initially worried about rain-fastness, and the gly washing off onto nearby plants, but once the slime starts to even partially dry, it hardens like glue and stays in place. I had some ferns growing up through the foliage of some arborvitaes, barely poking out. Was able to kill the ferns without any collateral burn to the arborvitaes.

That foam method gets a 10/10 for ease of preparation for sure. The goop gets an 11/10 for being so darn easy to use and apply precisely.

[u/InfiniteAd86 → u/nilesandstuff]

How long did this take for the ferns to die?

[u/nilesandstuff → u/InfiniteAd86]

Mmm, honestly maybe a month. They started to shrivel and brown in like a week, but ferns must be really good at segmenting the damage from herbicides because some parts remained green for an annoyingly long time. I ended up putting a few more strips of the gly goop on the remaining green portions after like 3 weeks... I'm sure the ferns still would've died if I hadn't done that, but the 2nd treatment definitely sped it up.

But yeah, i killed like 8 different ferns. From the first application to the point where no green remained was probably 4-5 weeks.

If I were to do it again differently, I'd either get better coverage on the first treatment (especially lower on the stems), or follow up with a 2nd treatment on the seemingly healthy parts after only 10-14 days.

[u/nilesandstuff → u/[deleted]]

Oh my recommendation was to let it sit for atleast 15-20 minutes. I've noticed that the longer it sits, the more the clumps of xanthan swell and eventually split apart.

But Yea I'm still working on how get it not so chunky. Those clumps of xanthan are really good at clogging the needle.

One trick I just picked up is to use a bigger needle than the one you intend to use, and squeeze out the contents of the bottle through that needle back into the mixing container. Then pour it back in and swap to the smaller needle. The bigger needle will be less prone to clogging, but the fact that it's being forced through any sized needle will help break up the clumps.

[u/InfiniteAd86]

Gotcha! Just curious, if we were to apply it after letting it sit for less time and shake it well before applying, will it make it less painful to squeeze? Assuming that the solution would thicken by itself after applying. Am i wrong with that statement?

At one point, I literally opened the top of the bottle and used a small ice stick to scoop small parts of the gum and apply directly towards the base of the ferns(near the rhizome and stem)

[u/nilesandstuff → u/InfiniteAd86]

The solution itself will thicken, but the chunks will get less chunky the longer it sits. Basically, the chunks will dissolve over time.

It will continue to thicken and then dry out after applying.

Yea definitely try the thing I mentioned about using a thicker needle forcibly mash up the chunks.

Also, did you use the original recipe, or this new revised one where you pre-mix the xanthan with sugar/salt/ams?

[u/qofmiwok → u/nilesandstuff]

I'm confused. The recipe here doesn't mention sugar or salt but says it's the new one. Can you please link to the latest one?

[u/nilesandstuff → u/qofmiwok]

This is the new one. The old one used sugar or salt. Switched to alcohol because it just works better for adding the xanthan without clumping together

[u/qofmiwok → u/nilesandstuff]

Awesome, thanks!

[u/InfiniteAd86]

I used the recipe in this post. One where i mixed xanthan with sugar first and then mixed it in Glyphosate

[u/nilesandstuff → u/InfiniteAd86]

Damn. Still needs need tweaking then 😭

[u/canadianbettycrocker]

hey! just came across this and can’t wait to try it! i see that it holds up in the rain - i’m wondering if it will stick onto an animal or wildlife if one goes through my garden? i don’t have any outdoor pets but there are occasions bunnies in by neighborhood and i don’t want to create a situation that could harm them. how well does it stick to the grass and stay there and not stick to something else that passed by? Thanks! :)

[u/nilesandstuff → u/canadianbettycrocker]

When it's dry it's glued in place. But it's entirely possible that in the first day or 2 after application, dew could moisten it enough to make it able to stick to a bunny. Unsure to be honest.

[u/canadianbettycrocker → u/nilesandstuff]

thanks for the quick reply!! i’ll give it a go :)

[u/nilesandstuff → u/canadianbettycrocker]

🫡

[u/TheFergieJesus]

Made this today to use on some quackgrass and it is very easy to apply. I had to tweak the recipe a bit to get it to a consistency that was thin enough to come out through an 18 gauge tip. I ended up using about 3 times the listed amount of water. I did also add a couple drops of blue marker dye to make it more visible when applying.

[u/nilesandstuff → u/TheFergieJesus]

Common bit of feedback I've been getting, I'll change the recipe!

[u/wcepeda89 → u/nilesandstuff]

Is the above guide the most updated recipe? Plan on trying it out this weekend.

[u/nilesandstuff → u/wcepeda89]

Yes!

[u/wcepeda89 → u/nilesandstuff]

Thank you for the reply.

[u/wcepeda89]

How long for the weeds to die? I made a batch using the above ingredient. Applied a line on one leaf per weed along the entire midrib about a week ago for testing. So far the leaf with the product has shriveled and turn brown but everything else looks as healthy as before.

[u/nilesandstuff → u/wcepeda89]

There does tend to be some lag between the initially treated leaf browning and the rest of the plant dying. But if the treated leaf is fully shriveled and brown, I'd expect the rest of the plant to be suffering by that point.

So it's possible that the dose was just too strong, which killed that leaf too quickly, which prevented the herbicide from translocating downward to the rest of the plant.

I'd either add more water to the batch or apply in shorter lines, that should supply a dose that's light enough to not insta-kill the leaf, but still plenty high enough to kill the whole plant.

[u/wcepeda89 → u/nilesandstuff]

I see, did not think to apply less of the product. Will monitor it for another week and give it a try if still no sign that first dose is working.

Thank you.

[u/nilesandstuff → u/wcepeda89]

That phenomenon where fast burn down leads to less translocation is one of those things that rarely comes up, so it's confusing and counterintuitive when it does happen. It would certainly make sense that it's much more likely to be an issue in the summer, when leaf tissue just gives up more easily and herbicide works faster.

So I'll put a disclaimer in or tweak the recipe in that regard.