Whose Cide Are You On?
This week’s blog is going out early and it may be a bit more lengthy than usual, but there seems to be a crisis in our area. We will address insecticides, fungicides, miticides and the like as the summer progresses, but this week I want to talk about herbicides.
Everyone is getting all worked up about the weeds because we had a pretty good storm recently and the little buggers are doing well, compared to the past couple of years at least. So, we stomp off to the garage or the garden shed and paw through the mess to unbury the weed sprayer and dust it off. (Hopefully, you have one specific sprayer ONLY for herbicide!)
Then, it’s off to the hardware store or nursery to find the latest “best thing ever” for weed annihilation. We want the most effective chemical so we can spray it and forget it. We choose a gallon of the white jug, the blue jug, or the red jug, and we race home to git-r-done and move on to other things we would rather be doing. And this is where things start to go wrong . . .
When was the last time you actually read the label? I mean the whole thing. Maybe even pull up the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) online to check the toxicity and precautions of using said chemical in your yard. Most of us are particularly concerned about how it might affect our pets, children, or even the wildlife in the area.
But when it comes to herbicides in particular, have you really researched the risks of using your chosen chemical around things you want to keep? How about using it near things you eat, like berries, tree-fruits, and veggies? And are you one of those people who thinks that if some is good, more must be better? (I’m assuming everyone reads the label about mixing instructions.)
The history of the development of chemicals is often lengthy and complex. There is one chemical herbicide most of us are all too familiar with due to its rather public history. Glyphosate was originally developed as a possible antibiotic in 1950, and it was “rediscovered” in 1961 for use in descaling and metal chelating. It was then “rediscovered” yet again in 1970 as the herbicide we know today as Roundup. It was approved for general use in 1976.
A few years later, I was a young family man just starting my career in the nursery and landscape business and I was as excited as everyone else about this miracle called Roundup that could be used to spray weeds without affecting the roots of the desired plants nearby because it was shown to break down into harmless chemicals in the soil; you had to get in on the leaves of the weeds to kill them.
It wasn’t until years later that I came to realize the true action of glyphosate in the soil. It’s almost never mentioned that it can have a negative effect on soil fungi and bacteria. Not only are many of them good guys directly, but they also serve as earthworm fodder. (We love Earthworms!) Over time, consistent use of glyphosate around trees can have detrimental effects as the life in the soil is eliminated. (First the fungi and bacteria, then the higher lifeforms that depend on them.) I’ve seen this more than once in this area.
Enter a new player . . . Imazapyr, sometimes called a “glyphosate substitute” for control of particularly tough perennial grasses and such. This chemical has been lauded as the safe answer to Roundup without all the carcinogenic risks and such.
It supposedly just inhibits a certain enzyme in the plants that causes death and is gradually broken down in the soil to become harmless. It supposedly does not affect wildlife or pets and is broken down before it reaches the groundwater. Supposedly. Sounds like a broken record. These are close to the same words the EPA used to describe Roundup back in the day and it is now found throughout the world in water and human blood.
And gradually broken down? Imazapyr, according to the label, can remain in the soil for over a year. Research shows that to be up to 17 months! And no one is talking about how that could be even longer in an arid area with little rainfall.
So why this diatribe? There is a product on the market today that combines the best of both of these chemicals. It will remain unnamed in this blog so that I might avoid any possible legal troubles. People are flocking to stores to buy this chemical as the answer to their weed problems. And it IS effective. A little too effective perhaps.
I asked a neighbor what he was spraying along the fence that separates our properties and he proudly told me the name of this chemical followed by, “It’s a substitute for Roundup.” Um . . . no it isn’t. It IS Roundup! The primary chemical on the label is over 43% Glyphosate and a little under 1% Imazapyr. Is it any wonder why the label calls it “Total Vegetation Control”?
The label, which many people don’t seem to read, says in numerous places, “DO NOT APPLY IN ROOT ZONE OF DESIRABLE TREES, PLANTS, & SHRUBS.”
Could it be more clear? Yes, it could. Perhaps the manufacturer could do a little more research and include a catalog of all trees and shrubs around which people might use this chemical with a description of exactly how far the roots for each species could grow. Is it the drip line? Is it 10 feet outside the drip line? 20 feet? In the case of vigorous growers like cottonwoods, it could be as much as 100 feet beyond the drip line!
Unfortunately, this chemical is being heavily used by homeowners in the area and trees are dying, sometimes on adjacent properties. My yard, where we do not use chemicals, has two casualties so far and another that doesn’t look well. Please, do your research! Above all, try to avoid using chemicals whenever possible. Remember, pulling or hoeing weeds is great exercise outdoors, and we can all use a little more of that.
See You in the Shade of a Big Oak!
The Horticoach
NOTE: All information contained in this article is available online by typing in the name of the chemical.