Weed Warrior Frank
My Weed Warrior teammate Daryl Calder asked me to do some articles on herbicides: including their uses, effects and risks. So, this week I will wade cautiously into the Roundup controversy. Roundup is used to kill actively growing grasses and broadleaf weeds.
It does so by interfering with the plant’s protein building activities. Compare it to building a steel beam skyscraper, like the Empire State Building in New York City, without using some of the nuts and bolts and cross-braces. The structure would end up as a pile of twisted wreckage on the ground during construction.
That is what a rapidly growing plant looks like after a week or two of Roundup interfering with its stem-building activities. We also build proteins in our bodies, so I do not use Roundup in my vegetable garden. Corporate farms plant Roundup resistant crops in their fields, but the vegetables we grow at home will be damaged by Roundup, and we do not want to eat damaged food, or any chemicals that might interfere with our bodies.
The roots of any weeds growing in the loose soil of a garden patch can easily be dug out using a screwdriver or digging tool, so there should be no need to use any herbicide at all in your vegetable garden. Where my wife and I use Roundup is to eliminate weeds from our gravel driveway and to kill Foxtail Barley, the grass with barbed porcupine-quill-like seeds that can burrow into the bodies of pets and livestock causing serious abscesses.
The best place to spray Foxtail Barley is along the shoulder of the street, before it gets to your property, safer for dog walking and easier to control along a narrow strip of roadside. Before spraying, put out a couple of signs warning people, or stay close by to guide pedestrians away from target weeds until your spray has dried onto the plants.
The best time of day to spray herbicide is before 10:00 in the morning, when the wind is calm. Bring a pail along for the Foxtail Barley stems with seed head plume that you pull off the root crown before spraying. If you only have to spray the root crown to stop the plant from growing a new seed head, you can use less Roundup and it will dry faster.
Once the Roundup dries onto the target plant, it will not wipe off onto passing animals. Tip the pail of Foxtail Barley stems and seed heads into a garbage bag and send them to the dump for burial. If the plant growth is slowed down by hot dry weather, like August in the Kootenays, Roundup doesn’t have much effect until you turn the sprinkler on to water the dry treated area.
Give Roundup a day to be absorbed by the target plant before watering. Similarly, Roundup has no effect on seeds that are waiting to germinate. So, only use Roundup on actively growing plants. Roundup is a mixture of strong chemicals. The instructions and online data sheets have a number of health warnings, so mix and use Roundup cautiously. Wear rubber or vinyl gloves when mixing or spraying Roundup.
The concentrate you buy is a much stronger mix of chemicals than the spray solution that you have diluted with water. Be careful not to spill any Roundup concentrate when you are pouring it into the spray container. Have a bucket of water close by in case of a spill, so that you can quickly dilute the spill or thoroughly wash the Roundup concentrate off of yourself.
Do your pouring and measuring over a bucket to catch any accidental spill. Put 1/2 of the water into the spray container before adding the Roundup concentrate, so that only diluted Roundup gets into the sprayer hose. Then add the rest of the water after the concentrate to help stir the mixture. Before buying or using any herbicide, take the online B.C. Residential Pesticide Applicator course at the website here