Roundup and tilling Garden

[wawajake]

I bought a 4 gallon container of Roundup from my rural Coop store this weekend. Wow $175 ouch !

Anyway I took a look at the 60 page instruction manual trying to find the simple instructions on what ratio of roundup to water I would use to hand spray my vegetable garden.

I turned the vegetable garden last fall (its 30 ft x 30ft ) but now that spring I see the clover is quickly sprouting the fairly black clay loam . So I figured roundup followed a week or two later by tilling with my new Agri 40" tiller. (tiller arrives next week ya!)

But no simple instructions in that Roundup book ! I suspect its a 10 to one ratio and just spray on a sunny day (with sun forecast for next 48 hours) But now I am not so sure how much of this ratio to put on garden when I am using a backpack sprayer. Do I just make moist and keep moving spray wand ? How many gallons of my mix would do that area ?
Any suggestions ???

jake

 

[nmu98]

If it is the Agriculture stuff, Mix it at a 1.5 to 2 ounce per gallon mixture. Its hard to say how much you need to mix when using a backpack sprayer. I would simply mix it as you need it. BTW, you can now buy generic round up for about 1/3 of the cost of the real stuff....

 

[dooleysm]

If it were me, I would avoid chemicals in my garden. You've got a nice tiller on the way, let it do the work and keep the chemicals out of your garden.

If you're going to till anyway, I don't see any advantage to round up first?

 

[MMagis]

Are you sure you needed 4 GALLONS of concentrate? For a 30 ft x 30 ft garden you could have gotten by with just a pint. Somewhere in those instructions it will say, but I mix standard 41% gly at 2.5 oz per gallon when spraying established grass. I'm sure 1.5 - 2 oz per gallon will work fine for what you're doing. Do it on a day you don't expect rain for the next 4 hours or more. I've sprayed my 50 ft x 25 ft garden before and only used about a gallon. It doesn't take much, just a few drops per plant. Any chance you can take that back and get a smaller amount? I'd hate to see you spend that much when you could buy a little $10 container of generic glyphosate from Walmart.
dooleysm makes a good point. Though there really isn't any risk in using glyphosate, I'm not sure you really need to.

 

[MarkV]

Well roundup and its generic partners become inert when they contact the ground so I don't have an issue when used in the garden. Farmers use it on crops we eat every day. It does not that the much and it only takes a misting, no need to soak the weeds.

MarkV

 

[greenmule]

Well,you need to just till the clover weeds in,and don't use that roundup,I plant clover and winter rye in my garden in the fall as a cover crop,than till it in come spring,its called green gold by those yuppie farmers!

You need to take a gardening 101 class.

 

[dooleysm]

Without getting into a whole big deal about it, given a choice between veggies grown in ground treated with roundup vs. those grown in ground without roundup, I would choose the no roundup. I'm not going to crucify someone for choosing differently from me.

That said though, I see no value in killing the weeds twice. I think it's a waste of time and money. That roundup is a valuable tool, I would definitely put it to use, just not in a garden that is going to get tilled up in a week or two.

 

[wawajake]

Unfortunately the canadian province of Ontario has banned all sorts of herbicides and it came into effect this spring.
With only a few exceptions (including farmers) So considering the COOP manager knew I had 40 acres not far from him, he sold it too me without needing to show my "farm card' So of course I don't need 4 gallons for garden !!!! , but I now will have enough for many years including if I want to try it on one of of my abandoned hay fields .
So please understand I am not foolish .
But I see farmers in area till a one or two acre field and not a weed grows on it until they plant in spring.So they must use roundup .
Considering both my wife and I have bad backs, we are not about to do the same amount of weeding we did last year. So hope to start with a semi clean slate of weedfree and then use straw between rows to keep them at bay during summer and till and roundup maybe in fall again. But will research more
signed
hobby farmer just trying to get better with technology
jake

 

[MarkV]

Another method that works well, maybe even better in Ontario, is to cover the area with black plastic. Kills the weeds and warms the soil earlier for early planting.

MarkV

 

[weedpharma]

Does anyone know the shelf life of glyphosate? I have used mine over many years but curios to know.

Weedpharma

 

[greenmule]

Clover adds nitrogen to the soils plus green/rotting organic stuff[you might say],good stuff.
Weeds,you can't get rid of weeds in a garden,you just control them,a few weeds hurt nothing much.

Sounds like you need one of those raised bed/plastic covered,irrigated, bed gardens,and there ain't nothing wrong with that[not my cup of beer,but..],but when you say you want to spray roundup on clover in your garden....

 

[MarkV]

Cover adds nitrogen to the soils plus green/rotting organic stuff[you might say],good stuff.
Weeds,you can't get rid of weeds in a garden,you just control them,a few weeds hurt nothing much.

Sounds like you need one of those raised bed/plastic covered,irrigated, bed gardens,and there ain't nothing wrong with that[not my cup of beer,but..],but when you say you want to spray roundup on clover in your garden....

Hey Greenmule, you seem to have a lot of experience and advice, why don't you fill in your profile so we have a little better idea of where you are coming from? It often helps to know if people are in your area or have similar homesteads.

MarkV

 

[turnkey4099]

Unfortunately the canadian province of Ontario has banned all sorts of herbicides and it came into effect this spring.
With only a few exceptions (including farmers) So considering the COOP manager knew I had 40 acres not far from him, he sold it too me without needing to show my "farm card' So of course I don't need 4 gallons for garden !!!! , but I now will have enough for many years including if I want to try it on one of of my abandoned hay fields .
So please understand I am not foolish .
But I see farmers in area till a one or two acre field and not a weed grows on it until they plant in spring.So they must use roundup .
Considering both my wife and I have bad backs, we are not about to do the same amount of weeding we did last year. So hope to start with a semi clean slate of weedfree and then use straw between rows to keep them at bay during summer and till and roundup maybe in fall again. But will research more
signed
hobby farmer just trying to get better with technology
jake

I'm sure you know this but just in case...

Roundup only works on plants that are green and growing. It has no 'dormant' effect.

Harry K

 

[wawajake]

Thanks to those that offered sincere advice.
And to those that were persnicity ........go get a cup of tea and relax !

As for Ontario getting extreme on banning herbicides (except for farmers and golf course use)...........now that America has a more left wing government , you might see the same thing happen in a few years in your states.

My province almost banned incandescent bulbs, (and I was ready to stock up before the ban) but they backed out at the last minute when they realized the mercury issues with the low watt curly bulbs.
Now back to my gardening.......
Yes I do know weeds must be active for roundup to have an effect , and although clover is dominate weed , I also have lots of dandilion and chickweed.
Looks like from book and from the knowledgable here, I should mix 2.5 oz per US gallon and mix up four gallons and use half on my garden and half on my gravel driveway to kill the weeds . I will let you know how it works for me. Then wait a few weeks before tilling under with the peat moss I will add to reduce the clay impact.

jake

 

[sunspot]

About 2 weeks ago, I bought 2 each, 2.5 gallon jugs of generic Roundup, 41 % at $99 per jug. I also bought 2 each 2.5 jugs of 2-4-D Amine, 43?%, I forgot the exact percent.

I think that comes out at 1.5 oz per gallon.

I mixed a half gallon of each in 40 gallons of water and used a boom sprayer on a half acre and sprayed a quarter mile of badly over grown fence row.

I will plow or disc harrow the half acre in a couple of weeks.

 

[teg]

Only need a very light mist over the plants, no need to soak them. Using extra does not kill them any more then dead. Also, after you till, you will bring up to the surface hundreds of more seeds that will sprout... so killing these plants now will have little effect other then making you feel better

Since I have a small garden, I've tilled a couple of times and the weeds are less and less each time.

 

[wawajake]

I hear ya Teg about the other seeds still in ground.....but spraying will make my wife happy and have less weeds making more seeds. But Combo of seat time to till, I get to enjoy, and roundup weed control, should lower the numbers somewhat. With straw between rows that will later get tilled into ground in fall with the weeds that survive the sumer of course
thanks
jake (with just a very pale green thumb)

 

[schmism]

we fought grass and weed seeds from the composted horse manure i use on my garden last year. There was a large area we didnt plant in the spring and i had tilled 2 or 3 times. Still the stuff cam back in a nice green carpet of weeds/grass

i got the roundup out on it and the area stayed dead all summer even after a till the area was much less weedie than the surrounding garden area that didnt get sprayed and the broccoli did great in the middle of it all.

 

[allenr]

Unfortunately the canadian province of Ontario has banned all sorts of herbicides and it came into effect this spring.
With only a few exceptions (including farmers) So considering the COOP manager knew I had 40 acres not far from him, he sold it too me without needing to show my "farm card' So of course I don't need 4 gallons for garden !!!! , but I now will have enough for many years including if I want to try it on one of of my abandoned hay fields .
So please understand I am not foolish .
But I see farmers in area till a one or two acre field and not a weed grows on it until they plant in spring.So they must use roundup .
Considering both my wife and I have bad backs, we are not about to do the same amount of weeding we did last year. So hope to start with a semi clean slate of weedfree and then use straw between rows to keep them at bay during summer and till and roundup maybe in fall again. But will research more
signed
hobby farmer just trying to get better with technology
jake

I agree with your thoughts Jack, and a large container always works out far less expensive than little bits

The 360 gram/litre (36%) glyphosate that I use is usually applied at 1 part Glyphosate - 100 parts water and then 300l/Ha.

 

[turnkey4099]

About 2 weeks ago, I bought 2 each, 2.5 gallon jugs of generic Roundup, 41 % at $99 per jug. I also bought 2 each 2.5 jugs of 2-4-D Amine, 43?%, I forgot the exact percent.

I think that comes out at 1.5 oz per gallon.

I mixed a half gallon of each in 40 gallons of water and used a boom sprayer on a half acre and sprayed a quarter mile of badly over grown fence row.

I will plow or disc harrow the half acre in a couple of weeks.

Just curious as I have seen reports of other doing it and even companies adding 24d (or similar) to there glypsophate to get 'rapid kill'.

I don't see the logic. Roundup (and generics) kill by killing the roots and it takes time for the stuff to get down there. Getting rapid kill on the top growth seems counterproductive.

Harry K