The weeds are growing better than anything else now ... except maybe oak sprouts. I tend to be a puller. Just finished pulling weeds in my daylily boxes.

Wish you the best, but don't have any suggestions to help you.

Mowing & weedwacking is about it for me - since my beds are organic, I don't mess w/ the herbicides. I did make sure to space them far enough apart to fit a mower.

I pull too - least harmful & most long-lasting IMO

Audra,

I have a red weeder also:) If I let mine get out of control I generally just remulch the beds to bury the weeds and that does work. Around taller plants like my blueberries I use the redweeder with Glyphosate (roundup) and ammonium phosphate. The addition of ammonium phosphate makes the roundup work much better and you can use up to half as much roundup and get the same effect.

If you go the roundup route you can buy Glyphosate 47% for $42 for 2.5 gallons from Southern Growers supply down in Dade city. So much better than paying $70 a quart for it at Lowes.

Around veggies where the plants touch the weeds you really have no choice but to hand pull.

I can't figure a way to get around hand pulling. I did make it easier in my raised bed. No squating or bending. Good luck.

1 thing you might try is laying some cardboard down over the whole mess, soaking it well & then mulching over that - it should smother all but the most persistent weeds like Bermuda grass. & if you're walking on it every day, that helps pack things down more.

If the stuff is very high, you could trim it down 1st ....

I find roofing shingles work the best, I just drop one on the weedy area and they burn and suffocate the weed in several weeks sometimes sooner....and I use them for my path-way to walk on....they last forever, and are cheap....in my front rose-beds I keep a stack handy for between the roses and then I don't get ripped apart by the prickles, and in the front of the beds I just push a bit of mulch over it so it doesn't show...LOL,sally

Cardboard. Just did it to the front of my house where the weeds were knee high. Dumped bags of wood chips on top of cardboard. I soak the cardboard boxes and it makes it easy to tear. Lay it on top of the weeds and cover with wood chips.

Here's a pic of my front flower bed. You can see the cardboard around the flowers. What you can't see is large boxes which are covered by wood chips. They are in the wide spaces. Luckily, my husband is a photographer and is always ordering frames and paper which ships in large boxes.

Jane

To clarify, I do hand weed IN the beds, this is just for around the beds. I only got some of the paths mulched before summer hit and the weeds went crazy. So the side of the garden where I got the mulch in has some weeds, but not a lot. The other side...the weeds are rivaling the okra in height. And the okra is doing great.

I already tried glyphosate, but it didn't do much. It was 41% though, not the 47%. I will get some ammonium phosphate too.

Once the weeds are beat down a bit I will cover and mulch the rest so hopefully this doesn't happen again!

Audra the % of the bottle does not really matter. If it is a lower % you just have to add more glyphosate per gallon of water. Are you sure you mixed in the correct dosage? Glyphosate will kill any weed it touches. Try it again making sure the dosage is correct and add a T of ammonium phosphate per gallon of water.

Bamboo, are there any substitutes for ammonium phosphate to aid in the uptake of glyphosate? Would liquid household ammonia work? If so, what is the correct dosage? Or how about aluminum sulfate? And again, what would be the proper dosage?

Thanks!
Carol

What makes the ammonium sulfate help glyphosate work is the nitrogen. glyphosate only works on actively-growing plant material, so a shot of nitrogen causes the plant to try and grow, and the glyphosate can then do its destructive work more effectively. Any nitrogen source will do the trick. Here's a blog on how to calculate the correct proportions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Making glyphosate more effective

What he said :) Ammonium sulfate is used because it dissolves instantly in water and is cheap.

So how about fish emulsion or high-nitrogen Miracle gro ("For Lawns")?

Especially the miracle grow sure. The ammonium sulfate is 21-0-0 btw.

Or back to my previous post - how about ammonia?

Ammonia sure.....it is just nitrogen but I have no idea how much to add. It isn't just the nitrogen though. There is something about ammonium sulfate that just makes plants take off.