Cool weather herbicide

12 years ago

Hello, this is my first post, but i have been a regular reader of this forum for a few years. I'm looking for advice on eradicating fall/winter weeds, here in Phoenix. I've tried round-up, but it doesn't work well at cool temps, plus i keep reading articles that claim that it's not as harmless to the environment as the maker claims. I have used a propane weed burner with mixed results. On my crushed granite, the burner works perfectly in areas away from plants, but in areas where plants have dropped litter small enough to collect within the granite, it ignites and i have a fire going. I end up having to spray the granite with water to kill the smoke. About half my 1/3 acre property fits the latter description, so i need some other method to deal with the weeds. Are there any safe newly released herbicdes that work well in sub 60 degree days?

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Comments (6)

MaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
12 years ago
an organic pre-emergent is corn gluten meal (corn meal gluten?). Should work for about 6 weeks but a third of an acre is a lot of ground to sprinkle. I have used this under the lady banks hedge and along the alley side of the chain link fence that the lady banks hedge is growing on. I believe I raked first to get rid of debris and loosen the soil a bit, sprinkled the corn gluten meal, covered with several layers of newspaper and then cardboard too. Wet it all down well and it had good effect. I have posted this method here before but someone took exception to using anything with corn in it due to that person's aversion to the way corn is being raised today....something like that.

Before we put down the quarter-minus on our third of an acre I used Ground Clear at least once, maybe twice - claims NOTHING will grow for one year. Can't remember now if it needs high air temps to work but we are virtually weed free except the danged bermuda grass around the edges of other vegetation where I did not want to use the Ground Clear. Hope this helps.
lazy_gardens
12 years ago
nalz - Roundup works extremely well in cool weather BUT only if the plant is one that is actively growing in that cool weather.

In other words, it will kill annual bluegrass and the winter weed sprouts, but not Bermuda, because although the Bermuda may be green it's not very actively growing.
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nalz
Original Author
12 years ago
That's great news! i can use the corn meal around the root zones on growing plants, then hit the green and growing weeds with the round up. Thanks Mary and Lazy.
neilaz
12 years ago
Corn meal will not kill weeds that have already sprouted. It only prevents weed seeds from germinating.
lazy_gardens
12 years ago
Mary - I raked first to get rid of debris and loosen the soil a bit, sprinkled the corn gluten meal, covered with several layers of newspaper and then cardboard too.

It's not the corn gluten, it's the layers of newspaper and cardboard that is preventing the weeds.
MaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
12 years ago
Mebbe so lazy but there's lots of research done on corn gluten as an organic pre-emergent weed control. I found the info on Organic Gardening magazine's website.