Roundup Poison Ivy Formula is my favorite for fast kill. It’s a mixture of glyphosate and trichlophyr. It’s expensive, but you can make your own by buying the components separately at Home Depot. They have their own generic glyphosate, and Ortho’s poison ivy killer is trichlophyr.
That said, herbicides with glyphosate in them will kill anything they touch, good or bad, and if there’s any good grass underneath or alongside the weeds, it will kill that, too. You will have big ugly burned spots.
For ongoing weed management and control of big nasty weeds or weed trees, I like a product called GrazeOn Next. It’s a serious agricultural toxin that’s formulated to be applied via a boom, but you can mix it up for a personal tank sprayer. It takes longer to work but it kills things dead dead dead, and spares any grass. I like it because animals won’t be injured by eating treated vegetation after it dries. In other words, goats are fine, but they may not tear up the root system of every weed, so you may have weeds reappearing after the goats have gone home to whoever you rented them from. The herbicides kill weeds all the way through their root system.
Good luck. I’ve been there and am still fighting the good fight against overgrown woods, invasive multiflora roses, poison ivy, and bamboo.
Thank you so much for responding on this, ott. I’ve been very curious about herbicides, esp. with all of the hullabaloo surrounding RoundUp (glyphosate) and cancer risks. I am leaning heavily toward 2,4 D and triclopyr, but I’m reserved about it because of health considerations. I truly believe if you follow the SDS on these chemicals, you’re no more at risk than not using it, but there’s always that unknown.
Nonetheless, I doubt I’m going the goat route, and I wouldn’t be spraying herbicides around the areas designated for gardening. Any idea how long these chemicals stay in the ground before dissipating? I read that 2,4 D dilutes after 3 - 6 days, but glyphosate and triclopyr can stay in the soil for up to a year. Is there contact risk if someone or something (like a dog) rolls around in grass growing from soil soaked with this stuff? Is it like any chemical where if it’s dry, it’s safe?
Thanks again for this, ott. Seriously. I want to try the natural route for the most part, but sometimes I think we just need to nuke it from orbit to start from scratch.