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bhwhitlow

weeds after planting

bhwhitlow
17 years ago

Yesterday after much research planning and preparation I planted nearly an acre to establish a wild flower meadow. After a night of rain today tiny little seedlings have appeared. There are chick weeds around the area and I feed these may be their seedlings and will choke out my wild flowers and keep them from germinating. They are coming up in the area yet to be planted as well. I do not know what to do at this point. I have used round up twice in my preparation before planting. Is there any way to kill this chick weed without killing my seeds? should I continue planting the rest of my seeds or should I round up again in the unplanted area and wait 2 weeks to finish planting? I have spent so much time and money in this project and now I am heart broken. Any help or suggestion would be appreciated. Thank you.

Comments (8)

  • bob64
    17 years ago

    Are your seeds supposed to germinate in spring or now? If they are supposed to germinate in spring then you have more options for your new weeds.
    The weedy area that has not yet been planted can be sprayed again. Round up is fairly harmless when it hits the soil. Not sure what round up will do to seeds that have not yet germinated. Others in this forum will know.
    Don't lose hope. Some weeds are inevitable. A few times when I thought all hope was lost I had the happy surprise of seeing seeds germinate that I thought had failed.

  • vbain
    17 years ago

    It is my understanding that roundup affects only those plants with leaves. It will have no effect on seeds.
    Of course, it won't stop new weed seeds germinating either.
    If you new weeds haven't seeded, perhaps hand pulling might be a way to go.

  • froggy
    17 years ago

    round-up is definately an option here. bob and vbain are correct.

    hand pulling is never the answer to a newly planted soil in my opinion. only gonna cause holes, more weeds and problems with ur seeding. you cannot compete with the # of seeds in the turned soil, leave it alone.

    ok here is my take on weeds in the new planting. if u live in the prairie lands and plant a native ecosystem prairie @ the correct amounts, and u burn as a management technique, there isnt many weeds that will win, eventually. so, in essence, all those weedseeds that are germinating are nothing more than a covercrop for ur mega perennial ecosystem. but...
    but once u start reducing that equation, then the outcome isnt so certain. if u dont live in prairie soils and rains, if u dont burn and mow instead, if u didnt put in native ecotype seeds, if ur mix suxed, if ur seeding technique suxed, if u start digging up ur soil by ripping out 'weeds', if u start spraying roundup and killing everything...etc.
    my pt is, a prairie will win, if u give it a fighting chance. if ur trying to grow a wildflower garden, then none of this drivel applies and ur on ur own.

    froggy

  • joepyeweed
    17 years ago

    Weeds are expected...once you have exposed bare soil, weeds are going to sprout...

    The key is to keep them mowed short. Most of these weeds are annuals. The the way to control them, is to keep them from reproducing seed, which is what the mowing accomplishes.

  • mwbeall
    17 years ago

    Yeah, I did the same thing last winter, but on a smaller scale...prepped the soil very well, I thot, then snow broadcast in Dec. over bare soil...

    I had crabgrass and chickweed come up this season. The whole plot came up very well, but there was the crabass! I mowed (topped) it when it was abt 12" tall just over the top of the other forbs to abt 8". Another plot, I mowed off to abt 4" w my JD rider. How low can we mow first-year plantings and NOT destroy the native forbs? Comments from you and others please?
    mike@prairiesedge.org

  • joepyeweed
    17 years ago

    Think of mowing as pruning off the top growth... similar to a buffalo or deer browsing on the prairie. 2/3 of the plant is underground. An occaisional mow will not destroy a perennial plant.

  • bob64
    17 years ago

    If you like being labor intensive you could selectively chop the weeds but not mow the natives. I do this in small plots and in the woods. However, this is a recipe for madness if you have a sizeable meadow.

  • ladyslppr
    17 years ago

    I'd let the weeds grow and keep an eye on them. Some types of weeds might not survive the winter, so they will only grow a little, die when it gets cold, and form a mulch for the seeds you planted. Other types of weeds will survive winter and try to set seeds in the spring. This will probably occur early in the year before any appreciable growth occurs in the wildflowers you planted, so you can mow without any impact on the desirable plants. There are also probably a few perennial weeds in the soil, and there you may have to mow or cut later in the summer. I don't think your project has failed - weeds are expected and everyone has to deal with them.