Help! Used weed and grass killer by mistake

deedee

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

My husband just mistakenly used weed and grass killer instead of weed killer. Is there anything we can do to save it?

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Comments (5)

dchall_san_antonio
6 years ago
This happens all the time. All the time. Where do you live and what kind of grass do you have? And which weed killer did he use? RoundUp is usually the culprit. If so then there is nothing you can do but watch it die. But if you live in the south you can start over now. If you live in the north then you could sod the area and have an immediate new lawn. If you want to seed now (in the north) then use cheap seed because you'll end up with mostly weeds for the season. Then you could reseed with better seed in late summer.
killerv
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Get a smarter husband that can read a label

Just kidding, he wasn't the first....but if he does it again...I'd definitely divorce him

It was a "we" effort, don't put it all on him. You know you pestered him about it for a couple weeks and finally he went to lowes to pick some up on a saturday so you'd leave him alone and he was too aggrevated to read the label and was just trying to get you off his back.
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Wow. While dsnell's plan might work for someone, most all of it has been discredited by the masses on these and other forums over the decades. Although I agree that weed killer is a harsh treatment, sometimes it's the only thing that works. And fertilizer does not take the place of weed killer. If fertility is low on a sod-forming type turf, then fertilizer can sometimes create a more dense turf that resists weeds. March is generally 3 months early to fertilize. You would be fertilizing the spring weeds. Weed n feed products are difficult to apply properly and they are not built with Mother Nature in mind. The time to kill weeds is in April. The time to feed is late May. WNF is a product that sounds too good to be true. Adding topsoil is almost never a good idea unless you have a low spot that needs to be filled. The rye and fescue grasses recommended will never work on half the country. I agree that watering every day is incorrect, but so is watering every other day. I water every 1-2 weeks and have a green lawn all summer. Finally, only apply lime if you have a recent soil chemistry test that shows low calcium and follow the recommendations for the specific type of lime and amounts.
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Recently a landscaping lady told me as she was spraying that they're instructed to stay six feet away from Rose bushes cause the roots are so wide. I recently sprayed around mine to kill the grass that mower couldn't get and just a tiny bit up front turned brown and died, and not a lot of roses growing when should be. Same with my grapevine, it survived winter and had green leaves going and I sprayed grass on fence line and stayed about a foot away and my vine went brown but still a foot on each side of Green grass. Learning my safe distance to spray ☹
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Sammy, the long boring label is what protects you and your plants. For grassy weeds, I use Ornamec, which is also sold ready to use as Grass B Gone. Crabgrass and Bermuda are my top grassy weeds. Like what Kathy uses, it is totally safe to use over top of most broadleaf ornamentals .... roses included. It's a little freaky the first time you spray a chemical like this without worrying about getting any on your 'good' plants. It takes a while to work, and can require a second application for tough grassy weeds, but they will die and your roses will be fine. Round Up is probably the safest non-selective herbicide out there. ('non-selective, meaning that it kills whatever you spray it on.) Most of the scary literature about Round Up is written about large-scale agricultural use, not homeowner spot-treating. For me, there is nothing better than Round Up for killing broadleaf weeds. I take extraordinary care not to get even a speck of it onto my roses, which means minimal pressure on the sprayer to create a soft coarse spray, and spraying early on the morning on totally windless days. You don't have to soak your target plants ... a little spritz will do the job on most of them. With any chemicals knowledge is the key. Know what you are spraying, how to spray it safely, and how to get the best results from it. I hope you gain the upper hand on your weeds soon. They're awful here, and I'm getting them a little at a time. Pulling and spraying, pulling and spraying .... sigh. Connie
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Spectracide Weed and Grass Killer ?????
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Comments (1)
Carol, Without being able to read the label myself, it is hard to say. However, since it is a nonselective contact herbicide, I would be very careful to use it only as the label directs. Thus, if the label does not explicitly tell you how to use it to prepare vegetable beds for planting, then I wouldn't use it for that purpose. My understanding of this product is that it is intended for "quick kill" of weeds and grasses alongside driveways, sidewalks and flagstone pathways or ornamental beds. Because it is nonselective it will kill more or less everything it touches, so if you use it, be very careful about drift. Somewhere on the package it should tell you that you can replant grasses and ornamental plants, usually within 1 to 7 days (depending on the strength of the formulation) ...because I don't think it has any long-term activity in the soil after that many days. If it does not explicitly say that it is safe for use in clearing future veggie beds of weeds, that does not necessarily mean it is not safe, but it does mean it is not proven safe. Assuming that is the case, somewhere on the package it probably says something like "Do not us on or around edible crops". I think at least one of its two active ingredients has been labeled a carcinogenic, so that may be why you don't see it labeled for use around food crops. I'd probably take it back and get the a product with glysophate instead. Dawn
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User
5 years ago
Water, water, water to wash away we’d killer. Did that a few yrs ago grass survived so did weeds.
deedee
Original Author
5 years ago
Ha! Thanks for all the comments :) This was all his doing. I keep my mouth shut when it comes to the outside. We are in NJ. He got a "Hunterdon County" blend of grass seed that is supposed to be good. Hopefully it will come back to life soon.
dchall_san_antonio
5 years ago
This is the worst time of year to plant new grass, so don't set your expectations too high. This is the time of year that crabgrass seed is germinating. It germinates very quickly and loves the summer heat. Your new grass, on the other hand, will be a little too tender to survive the summer heat. But at least you should have something green there.

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Help! Used weed and grass killer by mistake

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dchall_san_antonio

killerv

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Help! Used weed and grass killer by mistake

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dchall_san_antonio

killerv

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deedee
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