Home Improvement → Vegetation Control Along Fence Line

Looking for recommendations on products for vegetation control along a split rail fence line. I have been doing it with a wheeled string trimmer for the last three years, but it is definitely a time-consuming task that only provides temporary relief.

I have about 1-1/2 miles of split rail fence in and around my property.

About 1 mile of the fencing is dedicated to horse pasture and is electrified, and the remaining surrounds an area where the horse do not have access.

The main reason for wanting to control the growth around the electrified fence is to keep weeds from shunting the fence wires to ground. A secondary reason for all the fencing is appearance. To me, it looks like shit when the grass is nicely trimmed, but the fence line is overgrown.

Whatever product I use around the pastured area has to be livestock-safe. The remaining area I plan on treating with something like concentrated Roundup.

Any recommendations/experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Grazon is a pasture safe, but only kills broadleaf plants. Many farms around here use it. But I imagine you're looking for something that will kill grasses as well? Hopefully someone with real herbicide knowledge will come along.

While I am certain that it is NOT approved by the EPA, I've seen fence lines kept amazingly clear with an annual application of a 50/50 mix of diesel fuel and used motor oil. It was applied with a standard garden sprayer. That was 40-ish years ago and perhaps that fence line is now a Superfund site...

Not sure how well this would work in your situation, but where my parents used to live, the landscapers simply sprayed roundup along the fence line once a month during the summer. It worked fairly well to keep grass from growing under and close to the fence, making lawn mowing very easy as no trimming was required along the fence.

Some bulk product from Tractor Supply.

As I said in the OP, I plan on using Roundup for the fences where the horsed do not have access. But it is not livestock-safe, and I certainly don't need another vet bill.

Ah, somehow I missed that bit of your post.

Can you raise the electrified strand. It sounds like it is too low.

You might want to try this stuff... longer-acting than RoundUp:
Lowe's ad

Once the product is dry, Round-Up is not toxic to people or animals. We use it for the pasture fence lines regularly.

That stuff works awesome. My only gripes are that it doesn't go a far as it suggests, at least in my experience. And it's a little pricey.

Roundup's toxic properties are detailed here.
»www.monsanto.ca/products ··· s_en.pdf

Salt. Cheap, effective, long lasting.

Interesting. How much and how to apply?

Livestock like licking salt.
It would be interesting to watch - lick, lick, -zap!

Thanks for posting that link. If you read it, you will note it is nearly completely non-toxic, unless you are using repeated overdoses to rats....

A saturated solution would work best. Mow/trim the area of interest and then apply the solution with a regular sprayer.

Make sure you have salt and mineral licks in the pasture for your horse-children...

If you're going to use salt, which, by the way, is very effective, make sure you make a brine out of it, rather than just sprinkling it on the ground dry. The biggest drawback to salt is that it "travels", that is, when it rains the wash will spread well-beyond where you want it to be. It's effective but virtually uncontrollable as to where it ends up. The ancient peoples used to salt the fields to prevent their enemies from growing any kind of food crop. As I said, effective, cheap, but very unpredictable where it will end up.

I picked up some of the GroundClear for the non-horse fence line, having to do only once a year sounds very intriguing. I'll do a 300 foot run along the main road to see how it works before I buy enough to do the remaining non-horse fence line.

I will treat horse fence lines with diquat (Spectracide) initially for the quick kill, then follow up monthly spraying of glyphosphate (Round-up).

I should have started doing this earlier, but between uncooperative weather, work, and other obligations, it looks like next weekend will be the first time I have a whole day clear to do what must be done.

Keep in mind... Round-Up is only effective on actively growing vegetation. It does not prevent new growth. In fact, if I remember correctly the label states that it is neutralized within 3 hours of soil contact. That's one of the reasons new grass can be planted within a week or two after old lawns are treated. Once it hits the dirt, it's useless. Ground Clear, on the other hand, is absorbed into the soil abd stays relatively active for some time. I have never had anything last a year, though. The best I've ever experienced is about six months or one summer. The key thing about Ground Clear is that you have to use quite a bit. More than the average homeowner would expect. I know the first couple of times I used it (it used to be known as Triox) I mixed it and used a pump-up sprayer to apply. I thoroughly wetted the surface but apparently still didn't get enough down for full effect. When I used an old galvanized watering can, I had much better results.

I'm disappointed that double speak is accepted in an msds. "Practically non toxic" means it is toxic, to the degree detailed in the msds. Once I see a spin, I start reading very critically. There's enough information there to make me understand why some choose to avoid Monsanto products at all costs.

Monsanto is just providing products people want and are willing to buy. Otherwise they would not be in business. Over the years we have benefited from their products and like most everything else comes with adverse problems.

Well duh...

Look how toxic this is:

»dept.harpercollege.edu/c ··· sher.pdf

Hmmmm... so table salt is more toxic to rats than roundup.

Now that reads like an MSDS should. No spin.