burning garden area to kill weeds
ladyteresa
15 years ago
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kris_zone6
15 years agolindac
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Need help killing weeds but not plants in very large area.
Comments (3)Johnh, it's been my experience that Don's experience is unusually well-earned and one is wise to heed it, but I hope you find a straightforward solution to your challenge. Some have had success treating particularly tough weeds (meadow bindwind, for one) with roundup applied by hand- i.e., a gloved hand used to smear the chemical on individual leaves. Repeat until the plant quits coming back. You may prefer the black plastic! All of these things are straightforward and easy to understand. The devil's in the execution thereof, ay? Good luck, M...See MoreOklahoma and Controlled Burn to kill weeds
Comments (11)Whether or not prescribed burning is allowed in your county, even in the unincorporated areas, depends on what rules and regulations your county commissioners have implemented with regard to prescribed burning. You'd need to check with your county government to see if you can use prescribed burning during a time when no Governor's Burn Bans or County Burn Ban is in effect. You can learn more about prescribed burns at the website of the Oklahoma Forestry Services. If prescribed burning is allowed, it is best to do it on a day when the wind speed is very low and the humidity is high. You should have a shovel and a hose handy and ready to use at a moment's notice. Also, keep in mind that if your prescribed burn escapes from your control, you can be held financially liable for any damage your fire does to anyone else's property, and may be billed for firefighting costs. Whether you will find prescribed burning to actually work to achieve your goal is questionable. If you are burning a lawn area with short grass, it may not burn long enough or hot enough to kill the sandburr seeds. Often it kills part of the seeds but not all and you still have sand burrs. And, if your soil gets excessively hot because of the fire, your humus and other organic matter can burn up which will negatively impact your soil's ability to hold water. Furthermore, sandburrs are most common in soil that is low in humus, so a prescribed burn that may destroy whatever humus you have could worsen the problem long term even if it helps in the short term. I like Larry's suggestion of MSMA, if you are not opposed to using chemicals. MSMA is in the middle of a phaseout program initiated by the EPA and no longer is available for use in residential lawns. However, if you still have some MSMA on hand in your shed or garage, you can still use it. The two best ways I've found to rid lawn grass area of sand burrs is to (a) improve the soil by applying a thin layer of humus or compost (even mere lawn clippings and chopped/shredded autumn leaves will decompose and serve your purpose) to the soil once or twice a year; and (b) apply a pre-emergent weedkiller in late winter or early spring before the sand burr seeds begin germinating. It is hard to put an exact date on the right time since our weather fluctuates so much but for sand burrs I think you need to get your pre-emergent down and watered-in well before your soil temperature reaches about 50-52 degrees. You would want to put down the pre-emergent just before the soil temperatures reach that range so that the pre-emergent is at its most potent and hasn't degraded too much before the temps hit the right range for seed germination. I use corn gluten meal as an organic pre-emergent and am very happy with it, but chemical pre-emergents are also available. You also could use a flame weeder to torch each individual sand burr plant that sprouts. In the absence of soil improvement, this is something you'll have to do every year, perhaps multiple times, because seeds will continue to sprout over a period of time, especially if the soil is disturbed by rototilling, digging or dragging. If you don't have any burlap, you also can drag a piece of old carpet or a piece of a fuzzy blanket across the lawn and pick up any sand burrs that are on the surface of the ground. Overall, improving the humus content of the soil from the top down generally works fine, as does using proper fertilizing, mowing and watering techniques to strengthen your lawn grass. A healthy lawn will not have widespread bare patches that allow weeds like grass burrs to germinate, but it can take time to develop that healthy lawn, especially in years when you're having to deal with extreme to exceptional drought conditions, incredibly hot weather and watering restrictions. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Website of Oklahoma Forestry Services...See MoreWeed Killing Raised Garden
Comments (15)The vinegar-and-soap trick works, but you will need several applications before killing the weeds (which is advantageous, since if you accidentally spray something you want to keep, just be sure not to spray it the next time). I do about 4 cups of plain white vinegar to 1 teaspoon of dish soap, sprayed on the leaves early on a warm day; spray the weeds every other day for a week or so. It's inexpensive and non-toxic, and you don't have to worry about residual toxins. As an added bonus, some desirable plants (blueberries and raspberries) prefer acidic soils, and some undesirable plants (poison ivy!) don't like acidity....See More'Slash and Burn' weeding
Comments (1)You are on the right track "organically" with the black plastic. Preferred method. If it creeps through overlaps zap it with glyphosate. My most effective kills have always been when I have physically removed it all season until the end of July. After that let it deliberately regrow for a month or so until early September and nail it again, using the recommended concentration of glyphosate OR SLIGHTLY LOWER. The idea is that using a lighter amount of product allows it to penetrate down the root system longer before it affects the vascular flow, and bindweed has an incredibly deep root system. Doing this in the fall is doing it at the time the bindweed is storing carbohydrates into the roots for the next season's growth, so it takes the product as far as it can go. Hope this helps. hortster...See Moreleaveswave
15 years agocalliope
15 years agomwoods
15 years agomeldy_nva
15 years agocalliope
15 years agoHU-334823354
2 years ago
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