[Dominic]

I have an old hedge row in the way I want to kill.
I've tried cutting away all the growth I can, I've drilled holes into the wood thats too thick for my loppers, I'd dug out roots that are small enough to dig out, and still, every year, it grows like mad.
Will roundup applied to any green leaves still growing have any effect on the main plant?

[SMD66]

If the leaves are shiney (Like Ivy) then it's not so good, it needs to soak into the leaves, but I still think it's worth a try.  I heard that for ivy if you cut it off at the root, drill some holes into the wood and pour in round-up it's supposed to kill it, but I haven't tried it myself.  Good luck.

[Gardeningguru]

Depends on the size of what your trying to kill, but roundup in combination with stopping new growth will kill it over a period of time.

If in a hurry a sure-fire quick way is to dig it out.  Back breaking work in warm temperature, ultimately the quickest and best way though.

[elibump]

I'm no expert and am willing to be corrected but I understood that if the leaves are waxy you just need to add a squidge of washing up liquid to the Roundup mix to make it work???

Carolyn xx

[Salmo]

What sort of bushes are they? eg hawthorn, privet.

[Kristen]

"if the leaves are waxy you just need to add a squidge of washing up liquid to the Roundup mix to make it work???"

Roundup already contains a "surfactant" (detergent type wetting-agent), which I expect Monsanto have spent effort trying to perfect, so I very much doubt that just adding washing up liquid will improve things much ...

... for Mares Tails (which have a waxy coat) I read advice suggesting bashing the leaves to help them to absorb the herbicide, don't know how practical that is for a hedge though!

Does SBK still exist?  That used to be a good brushwood killer, so may be more effective than Roundup / Glyphosate.

[gillie]

"Does SBK still exist? "

Yes it does (Googled SBK brushwood).

But I don't know whether it still has the same formulation.

Gillie

[oldbean]

Since you will have to dig it out anyway, wether you use weedkiller or not, just dig it out. Then you don't have to spend money for nothing.

[Salmo]

The curent Brushkiller contains 24-D, mecaprop and dicamba. The original also contained 245-T which is now banned due to links with cancer.

245-T in an unrefined form was "agent orange" used by the US military to defoliate the jungles of vietnam and in doing so ruined the health of many innocent people.

[Dominic]

"Digging it out" is not an option.
I have two of these problem areas.
One in the front garden, where a single shrub has root extending at least a metre on my side, and as far into a  neighbours garden.

The other, in the back, consists of 4 of these and what looks like a tree stump.
All growing madly every year despite me hacking them back as far as practicable.

Once it stops growing, I can leave it be, possibly hit it with an axe every once in a while until its gone.
Its just horribly unkempt and gets in the way, once it stops growing, it stops being a problem.

I was hoping roundup would "kill the root not just the leaves".

Oh well, I'll give it a shot and hope for the best.

[Ropster]

You need to get the roundup tree stump and root killer
you then paint it onto the fresh cuts when you cut it down, painting the leaves is not going to kill a hedge unless you can do them all

I used it against and it kills everything eventualy, it will even kill knotweed apparently although I dont have any of that thankfully