The RU is long gone unless you used one of those "kills for a full year" residue formulations.

The GroundClear is another issue...it's Imazapyr and most formulations stick around a while (up to a year).

Fwiw, Imazapyr is relatively safe for humans (even orally)...which is why it's available on the shelves without a specialized license for application...

...to plants, however...the stuff is napalm in root systems. It can take down adult trees.

There's very little chance of it making it into food one would grow because if a plant can take up enough of it to actually have a residual amount of it in it's tissues...it's probably going to die very soon. It doesn't take much.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 22:51

Thanks. So it sounds like the Ground Clear is the bigger concern. What if I laid down plywood over the sprayed soil and then built the garden bed on top of the plywood, keeping the sprayed soil separate from the soil in the bed? Maybe drill a few small holes in the plywood or put some pvc piping out of the garden bed walls for drainage? Anyway I can salvage this?

Myself...I'd just wait it out and grow your crops there next year where you put down the GClear. It's a long-lasting herbicide, but after 8-12 months it's broken down inertly rather well.

Avoid the area...wait til fall (or later) to put down a crop...etc.

The land isn't barren and dead...but depending on the amount applied it's probably not ready to have something grown in it until mid-summer/fall...winter in an extreme case. After it's warmed up a bit and summer rains come, it'll break down even faster.

I would just grow crops. If they live, it means GC is gone. If not, no great loss. Alternatively, I would amend whatever heavily whatever land is not in production. Amending will fertilize for next year, but it will also greatly speed the rate of decay of GC, due to increased biological activity. The lifetime of many toxic chemicals depends strongly on biological activity.

That works, too, if you can accept a possible crop loss.

With this particular herbicide...if enough is taken up into a plant, it's so powerful that it will most likely kill the plant before you get a chance to ingest anything close to "mildly toxic," much less dangerous.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Fri, Mar 29, 13 at 22:17

Orthos Groundclear is a glyphosate product just like Roundup is, same poison although maybe different "inert" ingrediants that might have a different long term affect on your environment.
Now that they have been applied about the only means available to you to try and eliminate them from your soil is to add adequate quantites of organic matter, ie. bio remediation, and encourage the Soil Food Web to work at cleaning up that poisoned soil.
For this year, and several years into the future, raised beds will be your only choice for an organic garden since it takes time to clear the soil.

GClear is not just glyphosate...it's Imazapyr, too.

It's the Imazapyr that you need to worry about.

I guess my worry is just enough gets into the soil where the veggies live (barely) but not enough to wipe it all out...So a raised bed with 2" of gravel on the bottom...will that keep the glyphosate and imazypr and all the little nasties that takes years to completely disappear from getting into the soil in the bed?

That is really not bright. If you put gravel in your beds, you will pick it for decades. I can understand someone placing broken glass in their dirt, if they are overwhelmed by gophers, but to create a permanent problem for just a little herbicide, it's silly. Just grow no root crops the first year.

FWIW, the imazapyr will breakdown as well. Not as rapidly as the glyphosate, but it certainly won't take decades. A raised bed will give a certain degree of protection, depending on depth. If of a reasonable depth - like at least 10 inches - there is minimal concern the plants will take up any of the herbicide - it migrates down, not up :-) And many annual veggie roots will not go very deep.

The above advice is very reasonable. Just omit any root crops in the area this season. By next season, the soil should be uncontaminated. And adding a cover crop or good layer of compost this fall/winter will help hasten this process.

"poisoned soil" - get a grip!!

Ground Clear Active Ingredients: .08% Imazapyr 5.0% Glyphosate
ewwww

You can plant where the glyphosate was used right now, in raised beds or straight into the ground. I'd wait until weeds start growing before you spend any time on the other part.

And (putting lecturer hat on), before you use anymore products around your house, research EXACTLY what they have in them and what the consequences will be. You can't unspray, unscatter and unspread things.

The other thing I disagree with is the raised beds. Beets, radicchio, carrots go easily down 6 feet. Tomato and squash, 4 feet. There is precious few vegetables that live on the surface. Perhaps the OP should just dump a truck of manure on the spot and buy sprouting jars for the first year?

I link below what should be mandatory reading for the vegetable gardener. Beets, for example, are on page 61. You can just look at the figures if you are in a hurry.

www.sustainablefarmer.com/pdflibrary/library-rootdevelopment.pdf

" If you put gravel in your beds, you will pick it for decades"

Not sure I understand that comment? I though putting gravel at the bottom of a raised bed was good practice for drainage?

So I think I should be set for a veggie bad (gravel, no gravel?) on the glysophate. But maybe wait till next spring for where I sprayed the Ground Clear.

No root crops for me either. Just peppers, kale, arugula, spinach, lettuce

not sure where you are, but the freeze and thaw cycle will bring the gravel up. anyhow, any vegetable will go through the gravel, they really all go feet down. And if you ever plant carrots the gravel will come up in handfuls.

I live in Massachusetts, so yes, freezes start sooner and last longer and can be unpredictable. But I read a couple different places about the use of gravel on the bottom of a garden bed for drainage, seemed like it was good practice...maybe not?

In Texas we use Medina to try to correct those type problems. They say it was discovered after a small chemical plant dumped their waste product on the ground which killed the trees and they fell into the chemicals and healed the water. They were using it to clean up oil spills in the Gulf. Or maybe powdered molasses which is a soil activator might help. Check with your local extension agent for more help.

I wouldn't use the plywood or gravel - as others have said, that will permanently limit the function of your beds, to solve a temporary problem.

If I had this situation, I probably wouldn't grow any edibles at all the first year, though I admit that that's probably excessive caution for the RoundUp. I might put cardboard (since it's biodegradable) on the bottom of the bed, and then grow a flower cutting garden, just to have some gardening fun while I'm waiting for the toxicity to wear off. That's assuming that burying the toxins in dirt doesn't somehow slow down their breakdown.