[ptarmigan]

Well I drowned a load of weeds, couch grass and the like, in a black dustbin without a lid.  It has steadily filled up with water over the winter and I'm quite worried about emptying it. 

It looks like swamp water, and I'm sure, once disturbed is going to smell worse than comfrey tea (made the drowning way).  Should I use the water on my beds - will it have any value? or is it just going to make my plot stink to high heaven....

Was going to put drowned weeds into compost and cover up very quickly...

[Kristen]

I think it is worth putting the water onto the plot, same as Nettle or Comfrey Tea.  Comfrey roots pull up nutrients from deep in the soil and I take the view that good, efficient, indestructible! pernicious weeds do the same - i.e. its part of why they are successful - so my expectation is that their roots / shoots are nutrient rich, and thus worth reusing the liquid from drowning them.

If you are worried there might be seed etc. surviving in the bucket you could chuck the whole lot on the compost heap - the nutrient solution would then become combined with the compost heap, and ultimately cycle back onto the beds.

[surbie100]

I think it's good stuff for beds, but it will absolutely hum. Make sure you don't get any on you! The sludge is good for the compost heap, or just digging in as worm food.

[ptarmigan]

Well, I'd best sort it out at a time when there aren't too many people round!

Ta for the advice - I don't think I'll be drowning weeds again!

[Headgardener22]

Drowning works well but so does putting them into a dalek with the lid on to cut out all light and rainwater.

[Robster]

I had that exact same issue.  I used it on my tomatoes one year in the greenhouse.  Worked fine.  I would not put it on anything you're going to harvest in the near future though.  What a pong.  I still use the drowning method and use the liquid.

[ptarmigan]

That was the thing, originally the black dustbin had a lid and just piling weeds in it and putting lid on had worked really well. but it blew off in a gale and I sort of by default started drowning them and now have the scary liquid.  I ought to go get a replacement lid!