Patio Magic

I’m terminating green shit in the yard with extreme prejudice. The annual buildup of moss, weeds and general greenness on stone and concrete.

I’ve half a bottle of Patio Magic! left. Should I replace it with the same or is there a more STW-approved poison of choice?
(It’s got to be good if it has an exclamation mark in its name, right?)

Having used various algecides in the past with mixed success, I’ve just done ours with a 10% bleach solution. £3.50 for 5 litres of bleach – much success.

Why would you spray evil shit when you can spend a happy hour crafting a tribute to cock and balls everywhere with only high pressure water.

Kill it with fire

Choose carefully, stuff that kills some living things can be bad for other living things. Jeyes Fluid is good for this but very bad for cats, and not super nice for dogs either.

I use a butane torch. Days later they rise again and so endless battle continues.

I use a butane torch. Days later they rise again

Hardly a ringing endorsement, then.

Choose carefully, stuff that kills some living things can be bad for other living things. Jeyes Fluid is good for this but very bad for cats, and not super nice for dogs either.

A good point. But I can control doggo access to the yard and our cats are indoors. We do have occasional visits from neighbouring kitties but they’re fleetingly rare.

Algae Traz, from Amazon, works remarkably well IMO and is also pet friendly once dry. It does it’s magic over a few days, with no need to brush or rinse.

30lbs of table salt. Spread it on, fine mist with the hose. leave overnight and hose it off in the morning.

Take a look at the Agrigem website for all weedkilling requirements.
They supply farmers, contractors and councils.

Take a look at the Agrigem website for all weedkilling requirements.
They supply farmers, contractors and councils.

They may well do but you can’t get the good stuff – it’s licensed and Joe public can’t just rock up and get it.

But it’s good shit. – hence why the farmers and contractors use it …

The round up* that farmers get is much more potent than anything you can get walking in off the street even if it shares the same name.

* Certainly that’s what we used as contractors who’s clients wanted the green killed with minimal cost to them (which meant minimal effort to us).

If it’s moss and algae on a concrete. – Screwfix -no nonsense patio cleaner and a stiff brush – then hit it with the pressure washer.

For algae, I use Wet & Forget, spray in spring. Ideally spray in autumn to minimise green over winter, but it should be sprayed onto dry surfaces and I usually forget until it’s too wet. Doesn’t affect weeds or other plants.

Jeyes Fluid not good for nextdoor’s shit engine eh?

Another Wet and forget fan here, good for killing miss and that green coating everything up here in the sunny northwest gets covered in. It’s also supposed to clean stains over time. I’ve found it good for killingvtge moss and green, not so sure about the stain removing claims but pressure washing seems much quicker now and stuff seems to stay clean longer. I like pressure washing but I’ve destroyed various concrete slabs with a pressure washer so if helps reduce that I’m happy. £36 for 5 litres from Amazon, you dilute it 5 to 1 water so it goes a fair way.

For weeds you can’t beat Glyphosate (Roundup) for safe, effective and relatively environmental impact (it breaks down very quickly and isn’t harmful to mammals despite what the loons in California think, not good for aquatic life though). It can be a bit slow acting as it destroys all of the plant including the roots. The fast acting weed killers tend to be nasty chemicals that burn the leaves off but allow the plant to regrow from the roots. Any homemade weed killers are technically illegal so don’t.

Steam and weed killer burners just destroy the foliage allowing the plant to regrow quickly from the roots.

Cheers all.

So I need two separate things, something glyphosate-based for weeds (which is my go-to generally anyway) and Something Else for the algae on the floor?

‘Pathclear’. It’s basically the super concentrated chemical that’s in vinegar. It works, though not bug friendly 🙁

Bleach (you can get big containers of sodium hypochlorite for almost nothing from farm shops and pool supply companies) with a surfactant such as Fairy Liquid. Brush in, hose off. Better results than any expensive dedicated product.

‘Pathclear’. It’s basically the super concentrated chemical that’s in vinegar

Vinegar is diluted acetic acid. The active chemicals in Pathclear are glyphosate and diflufenican. Not the same at all.

That would explain why tonight’s chips tasted a bit “off”.

I mean this stuff, not weedol

And all that will do is burn the leaves off, note the corrosive hazard label. Won’t touch the roots so the weeds will be back pretty quickly.

Patio Magic for the algae, glyphosate for the weeds, pressure washer for the sheer joy of shifting the grime. IMHO of course.

Hardly a ringing endorsement, then.

Well it does work and I also use Roundup but they do come back unless you dig the whole thing up and and clear all organic matter and re-lay the patio. And the use some paving sand.
Plenty of YouTube videos that go through this process.

Patio Magic for the algae, glyphosate for the weeds,

Can you mix them together in a sprayer for a single application?

Can you mix them together in a sprayer for a single application?

Just how busy is your life that this is a question ?

Mixing chemicals rarely ends well

Home Bargains sell a patio cleaner by Spear and Jackson. It works well and is a lot cheaper than patio magic

Just how busy is your life that this is a question ?

I’m not that busy but I’m all for doing things the quick / easy way 🙂

As someone who works in a garden centre and holds a spraying license I feel happy in saying that if you can buy it off the shelf then it is only a fraction of the power of products you could buy 25 years ago.
SBK is the most potent stuff you can get over the counter. White vinegar and salt with a bit of washing up liquid as an adjuvant is good for killing algae/weeds but is a real scorched earth approach.

We sell a lot of patio magic and wet and forget.