Definitely I would not use this where it might touch plantings. Or where pets or children might be exposed.

Similar chemicals to weed-n-free exist in chemical weapons (nerve agents). I would not deploy these chemicals in places are life is important.

I once used some grass clippings from a lawn service as a mulch for some azaleas in a rowed out nursery bed. I didn't know it at the time but the lawn had been treated with Weed N Feed. All the azaleas died in a matter of weeks.

I wouldn't use that type of weed killer anywhere near where the roots of anything you want to live. Tree roots extend out under the grass.

Mike

if you have used weed and feed for a few years ... how many weeds are left?? ... i used it 2 year in a row.. and the lawn got so lush.. weeds really werent a problem afterwards ... think hard.. do you really need it??? ... why not just movwe down to fert .. w/o the killer

in my e.g. ... i went to simple 16-16-16 .. which was about one third the price.. with just as good a result ... what few weeds i had.. i hit with a small hand tank ... there just werent that many ...

i would also think about whether you use a drop spreader.. or a broadcast spreader??? ... one flings it everywhere ... the other doesnt ..

i would also consider calling the manufacturer.. and see what they have to say about it ...

ken

You can buy just a straight pr-emergence for weeds for your conifer beds. I just hand cast it upon the ground. I wouldn't buy anything with plant food in the mix. Conifers don't need food or added amendments. Left alone they do fine.

Certain conifers such as true cedars may be so affected by pre-emergent herbicide applications that their foliage becomes conspicuously variegated afterwards. This means that the chemicals are being taken up, with what varies being which kinds change in appearance afterward.

When I was involved with the sales of the stuff in the past product labels would actually specify which kinds of plants it could be used around.

Conifers on deficient soils can benefit from well targeted fertilization
same as any other plants. Both B & B and containerized conifers
shipped to garden centers here often arrive with fertilizer having been
applied beforehand.

Thanks gardengal for taking the baton from my hand! Or should I say, for carrying the same baton I usually do here! So-called weed n feed is, as gardengal states, the most outstandingly inefficient way to deliver herbicides to lawns ever conceived. If you must kill lawn weeds, please use a liquid formulation of appropriate phenoxy herbicides, sprayed directly on the offending weeds. This is so so sso much more effective that you end up using far far far less active ingredient. Weed n feed's a scam, against the purchaser, but more so, against nature itself. Ridiculous products.

At the homeowner level, I didn't think weed and feed was that big of a problem. I'm sure a lot of the runoff/accumulation levels is probably due to big agriculture and commercial business.

I wouldn't say weed and feed is terrible at killing weeds. It did a great job on my lawn to the point where I could probably go out and pick them on my own. But let's face it, we get lazy and time is an issue.

Say what you want about pesticides and fertilizers. Fact is, you can't feed all the people on this planet without it. It has to be used responsibly.

. . . and if everyone in your neighborhood had the same attitude, the impact would be greater than commercial application. The stuff is evil and it doesn't look like you're going to find much support here.

A great naturalist told me once that somebody who must have a perfect and pristine lawn should really find a real hobby.

From the boss of a former scotts lawyer - "if we arent getting sued, we're doing something wrong".

Thanks for polluting Mill Creek (and scioto, ohio, mississippi, gulf of mexico, and pretty much all water in the world).

https://environmentalgeography.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/scotts-lawn-pollution-around-marysville-oh/

Etc,etc,etc.... (fines seem low to me).

I probably should let this go but I can't. @glaciers end & Pete Powell. You really think your going to change my mind by Telling me to get a hobby? And Pete, going on to tell me, "thanks for polluting the world".

Fact is all of you have indirectly contributed to pollution.

I consider my application of fertilizer/weed killer RESPONSIBLE. Don't blame me for how Scott's handled the particular situation in the article. Chances are, you support companies knowingly or unknowingly polluting the world as well.

Your not going to change anybody's mind acting like you do. So just feel good about yourself and continue on with your holy than thou attitude.

I think the neurotoxins have begun to take effect. This is a product that can in no way be "used responsibly." To me that sounds the same as saying that tobacco products can be used responsibly. We're not talking pollution here, we're talking about a very poisonous substance. It is very important to think beyond just yourself.

i just hate Scotts. If you want to use it, let us know how it goes. Food and poison in one.

. . . include Monsanto in that list of companies that suck. RoundUp is another carcinogen.

My step brother has a house in muirfield village (nice golf course). In his backyard runs a creek. When the water is low, guess what is used to remove the "unsightly" algae? He got the "tip" from his neighbors...

I wonder where that 'unsightly algae' came from?

Couldn't be from the over fertilized golf course, could it?

Mike

Many issues being tripped over here. But let me just repeat....for the specific purpose of killing broadleaved weeds in turf, the weed and feed products trade convenience for efficiency. The efficiency that is being lost is not on the part of the person doing the application, or the person who happens to own the property. No, the inefficiency is on the part of the herbicidal portion of the product-very little of it getting to where it can do its job. Fill up a canister sprayer with a liquid formulation of the very same herbicides and you will achieve far greater weed control while using perhaps 10% of actual active ingredient. That's what I'm saying. Whether or not to use these materials is a topic for another day, but if one must, then please, let's use those formulations that go to their targets, not those like this one, so-called weed n feed, where most of the herbicide never even targets the plants we wish to target. Most of it ends up washing down into the drains and on into our waterways. without getting into a finger-pointing exercise, any amount of this going on should be considered a problem, should it not?