When to use glyphosate?

[Mrs Jackson]

I'm having a hard time with my pregnancy, so I've only managed to get down the lottie once since last summer and I just know what kind of state it'll be in by now. There's no way I can dig all the weeds out (I ended up in hospital for 5 hours on Saturday because I overdid it in the garden), so I figured that glyphosate would be a realistic alternative this year, and I'll reserve 'proper' weeding for around the fruit. When would be the best time to blitz the lottie with it? Does it need to be after the last frosts? How long after it's been used can you use the ground again for planting? I don't want to use it too early, and it not work properly, but equally I don't want to leave it too late as I'm due at the end of May and I'm not going to be up to doing much around that time. I've never used any type of weedkiller before so any help would be gratefully received.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Normally you would wait until the weeds are in full growth for the glyphosate to be at its most effective, and you don't want it to be washed away by rain (you'll be throwing your money away), so wait for a nice dry spell too.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I agree with that

[Glutton4...]

Forget weedkiller this time of year. Just cover all the non-productive areas with a mulch of cardboard or black plastic. That will exclude the light, and kill off most of the weeds. The soil will then be reasonably clear for when you can get back to working it.

Don't forget to securely weigh down the edges of your mulch, as a windy day can cart it across the county!

[Mrs Jackson]

Ok thanks. I've got a couple of tarps that I'll put down to try and cover as much as I can. Then maybe when the weather's a bit warmer I'll leave them off, see what grows back, and kill that off.

[HeyWayne]

I always try and use it on a still-ish day to avoid overspray. Also have a watering can with clean water in it to hand - use it to wash off any accidental spraying, or aforementioned overspraying.

[Jeanied]

I would stay away from that stuff until baby is well and truly out of harm's way- the toxicity of glyphosate is still contested.

[Mrs Jackson]

Ok, I'll probably persuade Mr J to do it in that case. I hadn't realised that the toxicity of it was contested. Thank you.

[Kristen]

Ok, I'll probably persuade Mr J to do it in that case. I hadn't realised that the toxicity of it was contested. Thank you.

You need to take a balanced view on the toxicity being contested. I see nothing (in terms of published scientific papers, rather than finger-pointing) that causes me any concern. Glyphosate has been around for, what, 30 years? probably more. Apart from aquatic life remarkably little toxicity has been found.

Although:

If Mrs K was pregnant I wouldn't let her near any chemicals like that just to be on the safe side. We gave up alcohol for 6 months before we started trying to start a family ...

We sprayed our vegetable plot with Glyphosate at the outset. We've never put anything like that on it since. We very rarely use insecticides, and I can't think of any other chemicals we use.

But I don't really know what might be in the manure that we put on it - I imagine that the pasture has had broad leaf weedkiller on it at some point, the cereal crops have been sprayed with selective weedkiller, fungicides and so on, and the animals have probably had medical treatments, etc. The fertilizers we use are "man made".

So who knows? I'm just adopting a "playing safe" attitude.

But that's the area we grow stuff to eat ... I don't think twice about using Glyphosate and Insecticides etc. on the ornamental part of the garden.

If your soil is "cultivated" I would recommend covering it and planting-through this year as the new babe is going to take a large chunk of time That will fix the weeding problem throughout the year (covering now will stop weeds progressing, but when you uncover it in the Spring the weeds will romp away - the ground needs to be covered for a large part of the warm season to exhaust the weeds enough to kill them).

Cardboard takes a surprisingly long time to deteriorate. We used cardboard around the shrubs we planted - that lasted the best part of two years. Alternatively a weed suppressing membrane (the woven plastic stuff) and then cut crosses where you want to plant. But I think the cardboard would be easier to "pull apart" to make a seed sowing drill etc.

[Peter]

It bonds to metallic elements apparently.

Id emphasie the "active growth" bit Glyphosate will only kill healthily growing plants during spring into autumn.
Think about when you'd sow a lawn from seed, tha spring and autumn times for that are the outer boundaries of the period during which glyphosate works.

[jackyspratty]

Hi
I would definately cover in cardboard and then put organic matter on top of that, such as leaf mould, grass clippings and coffee grains. It will also retain moisture and minimise watering. I did this last year on a couch grass laden plot and it works a dream. Plant your seedlings through the cardboard with a bulb planter, surprisingly efficient and easy!

This method ticks so many boxes, no chemicals, no digging, no weeds, minimises watering, improves soil condition, saves your back.......see Im learning!

[Two_Sheds]

Glyphosate has been around for, what, 30 years? probably more. Apart from aquatic life remarkably little toxicity has been found.

We have a Wildlife Garden at school, full of frogs & newts, absolutely 100s of them.

I was struggling to control the horsetail & couch grass that was coming up everywhere, so the garden "designer" came back and glypho'd the lot

I was utterly horrified - he said glypho was totally safe for wildlife

[Kristen]

Incredible. For a professional person not to read the instructions on the bottle is unforgivable. This isn't something you "need to know" it's clearly stated on the bottle that you must avoid aquatics.

But if it was that easy we wouldn't have had the debacle of aminopyralid a year or two back - instructions on that were perfectly clear that recipients of manure / silage etc. must be informed, but lots of allotments etc. got manure deliveries that killed all their crops.

The more complex and sophisticated the system, the more it will break or catch you out. Like the rain sensing wipers on my car - I see more downside than upside with gadgets like that.