Grass1950 is right. The most common mistake, even for professionals is overuse of an herbicide. WBG and similar products usually use a mix of 2-4D, Mecoprop (MCP or MCPA) and Dicamba. These products work best when the soil temperature is above 54 degrees. Also, ingredients that accelerate decay, which are often added to products that offer quick results (round-up 24, etc.) are left out of most selective herbicides to prevent damage to the surrounding turf. So decay with a selective product may take 3 to 4 weeks to complete. The time-line is as follows 1) absorption 3-4 hours 2) translocation 24-48 hours 3) stunting of growth/ kills the weed 72 hours 4) decay 2-4 weeks. Usually the first sign of it working occurs during translocation, which causes a curling followed by yellowing. Then it just stops and decay depends on soil temperatures. One important note, some trees and shrubs are sensitive to the Dicamba in many broadleaf weed controls (dogwoods for example). Dicamba differs from the other ingredients because it can be translocated through the root system, as well as the leaf. So be especially careful not to exceed recommended doses when you're near ornamental plantings. Here is a link that might be useful: .

I have Black Jewel Orchid and Vanilla What can you offer?

Dave, I got a couple pictures of the box for you. The size is roughly 48X48". In retrospect I should probably have made it bigger, but it was truly spur of the moment because I saw the fiberboard siding material, intended for sheds, for sale as 2 remnants at HD that were about 48"X40". Yes, on the junk lumber cart. Just small enough to fit in a sedan, and only a couple bucks a piece IIRC. I instantly came up with a plan how build it and bought most of what I needed on the spot. Some of other wood was my own scrap or also from the junk lumber cart. Anyhow it was around $50-60 IIRC, because some things are pricey like the hinges and rubber coated chicken wire. I completely lined the bottom with wire mesh, to hopefully keep rodents from digging in. The only semi-permenant plant so far is a Rhododendron 'Goldstrike' rooted cutting, which weathered last winter handily in the box. However, next year I plan to move all rooted cuttings into this after their first year, have them do 2-3 years in here, then transfer to the garden. Also my 2 (hopefully 3, still not sure about one) successful rhododendron grafts will go in here for a couple years, so the graft can fully heal without an animal or the wind disturbing it. In some sense the size is good because this is about a 200' walk from my only water spigot, and it's just about what a 2 gallon watering can can water if it got dry. As it happens, I haven't had to water it at all in the past couple years. At the moment I've let some forsythias overgrow it for shade, but I will eventually cut those back as an Abies firma to the east gives it some more shade. The adjecent rhododendron will have to go this winter or next spring. The main annoyance is that slugs can still get in there, and they are actually sheltered from my many toads that keep them under control. It doesn't affect shrubs but a couple herbaceous things were eaten. Next spring I might try to locate some fine copper mesh and dig it in next to the galvanized wire mesh lining the bottom, but first I need to research whether that will cause a galvinic corrosion problem. It's possible that fine aluminum window screen will work as well. I highly doubt the slugs will then have the intelligence to climb all the way over the top of it and come through the top mesh...but who knows. This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sat, Nov 22, 14 at 12:58

The Forbid label had all sorts of warnings about human toxicity through inhalation, direct skin contact, etc. Birds are extremely sensitive to airborne particles and chemical fumes, even those that don't bother humans (fumes from teflon-coated nonstick pans, for example, can kill birds in a matter of minutes), and in general, it's pretty safe to assume that anything in the air that's harmful to humans will be more harmful to them. I didn't think it was worth the risk, even in a different room. Plus I'd have to worry about getting the overspray on my floor/wall/etc. What I did do is made about a half gallon of Forbid and, with my gloved fingers holding the soil/plant in the pot, dunked each of my plants (I have ~30, so not as many as a lot of people) upside down and swished them around for a few seconds. Saran wrap probably would have helped, but unfortunately I didn't think of it or see your comment in time, but just using my fingers worked relatively well. I did have one plant fall out of the pot and entirely into the miticide, but I fished it out quickly, and after letting it dry out overnight, I repotted it with apparently no harm done. Garbage bags covered with a layer of paper towels worked well to set the plants on while they all dried overnight in my bathroom, with the vent on to get rid of fumes. The miticide got a little dirty by the last few plants, due to some loose soil falling in, but I don't think it impacted its function any. I do need to figure out how to dispose of the leftover, though. However, that would have been a problem even if I had chosen to spray it, since I wasn't sure how much I needed, and it's not stable once mixed up, so I couldn't have saved it to reuse. I currently have it sealed in a cleaned milk jug while I figure out how to responsibly dispose of it. Thank you all for your help and advice while I figured this out! Hopefully this will be the last of the nasty mites!