Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Useful garden chemicals

TheNaKLaB - 28-11-2011 at 13:53

Hey SM,
I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge of garden chemicals that you have come across (e.g Sodium chloride and Acetic acid in natural weed killer)

It would be great if we could discuss a lot of great chemicals that we have found useful in garden chemicals.

zoombafu - 28-11-2011 at 13:58

Flowers of Sulfur is elemental Sulfur
Some root killer is copper (II) sulfate (make sure to check the label)
Some fertilizers are ammonium nitrate (check label)
gypsum powder is calcium sulfate

Those are just those that I could think of off the top of my head. I have a post on my blog that has a big list of chemicals that you can get at garden stores/hardware stores etc.
Here

zoombafu - 28-11-2011 at 14:00

I was able to find a root killer that was 99.9% copper (II) sulfate, and for the price it was much cheaper than buying from a chemical supply store.

TheNaKLaB - 28-11-2011 at 14:13

I've bought some really pure Copper sulfate used as a root killer. I've also found some 'Garden Silica' which is Sodium Silicate. Magnesium Nitrate, Potassium Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate and Iron Sulfate

zoombafu - 28-11-2011 at 14:18

I believe that Spectracide stump remover is 100% potassium nitrate (aka saltpeter)

Sedit - 28-11-2011 at 14:22

Whats the Acetic acid weed killer and what percentage is it?

zoombafu - 28-11-2011 at 14:24

Weed Pharm brand is 20.0% acetic acid (I have no idea where to get it though)

Neil - 28-11-2011 at 17:57

also Wipeout (the new Wipeout) and Scotts EcoSense Non Selective Weed Control Spray, they are both agricultural vinegar.

Almost anything listed as 'organic weed control' is 15-20% acetic acid.

bbartlog - 28-11-2011 at 19:08

Burnout II (which is organic) says it's 6% clove oil and 10% citric acid. Having used a previous version of Burnout (which was also clove oil based) I can say that it is really quite ineffective. Poison ivy I drenched with it ended up wrinkling up its leaves a little and then recovering without any lasting damage whatsoever.
As a source of eugenol, however, it might be economical.

Adas - 29-11-2011 at 06:44

Calcium hypochlorite. This is not a garden chemical, but also useful. You can find it in pool stores at concentrations 60-80% I think. You can use it to generate chlorine or make some weak explosives - it is a reactive oxidizer.

blogfast25 - 29-11-2011 at 07:07

In Europe: chlorate weed killer contains about 50 % NaClO3, 50 % flame retardants. Easy to convert to quite pure KClO3.

Other garden chemicals: FeSO4, MgSO4, K2SO4, (NH4)2SO4, all almost pure (dissolve, filter and crystallise for better purity)

Some weed killers contain a few percent of C8 - C9 - C10 fatty acids (as ammonium soaps I believe).

[Edited on 29-11-2011 by blogfast25]

ldanielrosa - 30-11-2011 at 02:23

Ca(NO3)2 * 4H2O, convert any soluble sulfate or carbonate into a nitrate

ScienceSquirrel - 30-11-2011 at 04:24

Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25  
In Europe: chlorate weed killer contains about 50 % NaClO3, 50 % flame retardants. Easy to convert to quite pure KClO3.

Other garden chemicals: FeSO4, MgSO4, K2SO4, (NH4)2SO4, all almost pure (dissolve, filter and crystallise for better purity)

Some weed killers contain a few percent of C8 - C9 - C10 fatty acids (as ammonium soaps I believe).

[Edited on 29-11-2011 by blogfast25]

Sadly as far as I know, in the UK and throughout the EC, sodium chlorate weedkiller has been removed from the shelves due to an EC directive.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Advice/Garden-chemicals-and-...

woelen - 30-11-2011 at 06:43

Yes, ScienceSquirrel is right. NaClO3 is banned and I noticed it. It suddenly disappeared from the shelves, I cannot buy it in any hardware or garden store anymore.

Interesting OTC chemicals for making chlorine, which still can be obtained are:
- calcium hypochlorite dihydrate (almost 100%, active chlorine content ~70%)
- TCCA (100%, active chlorine content ~90%)
- Na-DCCA (100%, active chlorine content ~60%)
All of these can be purchased at swimming pool stores.

Besides that, from the same type of stores you can get
- NaHSO4.H2O, sold as pH-minus
- Na2CO3, sold as pH-plus

KAlSO4.12H2O is available as 'hortensia' (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrangea_macrophylla for info about the flower) fertilizer. It makes the flowers of these plants turn blue instead of rose/red.

blogfast25 - 30-11-2011 at 09:10

I bought mine a while ago (but now I just by KClO3 from chem outlets) in my local hardware store. I'll check next time I shop there.

There’s always this resource for OTC chemicals but I don’t know how often it is updated:

http://www.hyperdeath.co.uk/chemicals/