Herbicides

[JimR]

I have a bad infestation of dollar weed in my yard. It has gotten bad enough that I am looking at herbicides. However, I want to be certain that whatever I use will not damage my palms or other plants like bouganivillea, hibiscus, birds of paradise, etc. i am also on a canal and concerned about runoff. I am hoping someobe can suggest a herbicide that will fet rid of the dollar weed, without causing collateral damage. Any thoughts?

[DoomsDave]

I have a bad infestation of dollar weed in my yard. It has gotten bad enough that I am looking at herbicides. However, I want to be certain that whatever I use will not damage my palms or other plants like bouganivillea, hibiscus, birds of paradise, etc. i am also on a canal and concerned about runoff. I am hoping someobe can suggest a herbicide that will fet rid of the dollar weed, without causing collateral damage. Any thoughts?

If it's this plant, eat it!

click for link

[DoomsDave]

joking!

It can be eaten, but, there's other equally vexing edibles

More a more serious note, herbicides can all damage the ecology. Roundup, which is a salt of glyphostate, which is a plant hormone, isn't as bad, but . . .

Caution still warranted because of contaminants.

Have you tried Roundup, or other kinds of glyphosate?

Roundup won't hurt roots, unless you get it on the leaves of desirable plants. It also won't absorb through trunks (brown bark) on palms and dicots.

If you keep the glyphosate off the leaves and green tissues of the plants you care about, you should be okay.

[MattyB]

I use a lot of glyphosate and it only kills the stuff you spray it on the leaves of. Not sure about the runoff issue with your canal.

[Mr Cycad]

Old news now, and it still seems folks just don't know or haven't heard or don't want to believe it, so I'll post it again here!

It is common knowledge that glyphosate has an impact on microorganisms in the soil!!!

Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto's Most Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced?

I can't believe people willing use herbicides/pesticides without considering the consequences!

Jim - how big is your yard?

[JimStPete]

I've been battling with dollar weed for 22 years now. I was using Scott's Weed & Feed Bonus S - this had very little impact on the dollar weed and was a waste of time and money. Two years ago the dollar weed had almost completely taken over my yard and was constantly growing into the planting beds (fast runners!) Finally, I found a product called "Image" that I bought at Home Depot. You have to carefully measure the amount you use and use a carry around bottle & hand sprayer but one application last spring killed 90% of the dollar weed and I did not see the little bit of dollar weed left spread or grow much at all last summer. I sprayed it again this past fall, and the dollar weed is almost totally gone. This is the only product I've found that actually works against dollar weed. It takes 3-4 weeks after spraying for the effects to show up. You'll notice the dollar weed has a funny color to it, then turns yellow, then disappears!

Edited January 23, 2012 by JimStPete

[Mr Cycad]

A native plant, an edible! Sounds like a little beauty! Have you folks eaten it? What does it taste like?

[Mr Cycad]

Hey JimStPete - 22 years! Wow! Did you ever think, maybe, you were going down the wrong path with the poison, and there was an alternative (organic?) solution?

Just saying*

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

Jim,

Dollarweed is a semi aquatic that usually indicates a waterlogged situation or compacted soils from too much traffic (foot or otherwise). It is an indication that there is a lack of oxygen in the soil. Have you tried cultural practices to get rid of it? It is common in wet Florida but I did not know it could be a problem in drier Texas too.

[BigFrond]

This is one of the worst weed that you can have. It can grow 5-7 inches per day. Asian people blend the leaf for smoothies. Gross, I don't like it at all.

What you kill on top is just a small portion because this weed has many round tubers(size of machedamia nut)down to 5 inches, maybe more. A friend of mine used over 2 dozen type of herbicides to no avail. His last solution was to remove over a foot of soil from his front yard. Then he left it there as is for over two months. To his surprise, there were left over tubers even under the sidewalk and driveway. He dug out (about a foot) beneath the sidewalk and driveway. To make sure he kill everything, he sprayed herbicides many times.

He was very successful because there were no more dollar weed for over four years before he moved to a new house.

[_Keith]

Dollar weed is tough. Roundup is fairly ineffective on it here. It will yellow and come right back even stronger. Recommend care with Image as it can cause quite a bit of collateral damage to other plants, use extreme care and research on this one. I learned about Image the hard way.

[JimStPete]

Hey JimStPete - 22 years! Wow! Did you ever think, maybe, you were going down the wrong path with the poison, and there was an alternative (organic?) solution?

Just saying*

LOL! Well, I could have just let it completely over take the entire yard and not tried to control it at all. I have never heard of any organic solution for rampant dollar weed growth. If you know of one that actually works let me know and I'll definitely try it! I've been trying to control it for 22 years because all the various controls I had tried did not work very well (I kept changing what I was using).

I only water my yard one day a week so the soil is definitely not water logged (it's sandy soil and drains quickly). We've had a total of 1-1/2" of rain Nov 1 2011 through today (Jan 23, 2012) so it's been extremely dry. Most of the time we suffer from lack of rain and usually only get 30-35" a year (unlike areas further inland). There is no foot traffic on my yard other than me mowing it every week (well, I do yell at the kids to get off my front yard occasionally!). All the home centers recommended various versions of the weed and feed stuff....but I think I was only feeding the weeds because the 'weed' portion only had a very slight effect on the dollar weed (but better than doing nothing). Finally I found Image, and it fixed the problem. After this final application this spring (I will only treat the few remaining spots that have it), I don't think I'll have to put it down again for many years because the dollar weed does not seem to be coming back at all. I make sure to pull the dollar weed and it's tubers when it tries to grow from the lawn into the beds (it's pretty easy to pull it all out if the soil is loose which mine is). But you can't pull it from the lawn because of the St Augustine Grass so I had to resort to various chemicals to try and control it. I have no idea what effect Image would have on other plants. I make sure to spray it on a calm day, with a mechanical hand pump/sprayer (not a hose sprayer) so it's a very small volume of water (just enough to wet the leaves) and hold the nozzle close to the ground to avoid getting it on anything else. I have many palms surrounded by the lawn and I have not seen any bad effects from applying Image. I measure exactly what they say to use to cover a certain square footage.

I've removed 80% of the lawn and replaced it with beds and plants that don't require a lot of watering because keeping a lawn in Florida is very difficult and unfortunately it requires the use of bad chemicals and too much water to keep it looking decently. Believe me, I'd rather not use any chemicals at all and I tried to avoid them. The lawn is the only thing I'm using chemicals on (mulching mower so no fertilizer is used). Because of Image, I'm no longer applying Weed and Feed which is granular and runs off every time it rains so Image is much better than using that stuff, and it actually works on dollar weed.

Edited January 23, 2012 by JimStPete

[DoomsDave]

Old news now, and it still seems folks just don't know or haven't heard or don't want to believe it, so I'll post it again here!

It is common knowledge that glyphosate has an impact on microorganisms in the soil!!!

Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto's Most Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced?

I can't believe people willing use herbicides/pesticides without considering the consequences!

Jim - how big is your yard?

That is interesting. (And, a good website, full of good info.)

You are certainly correct, at the very least, about using chemicals of ANY kind sparingly.

If you get the time, read the Wall Street Journal's articles about Roundup ready crops, and growing resistance to weeds by same. It's a little staggering to imagine that farmers truly believed that the Roundup Ready crops would be a permanent panacea to weeding issues.

And, no doubt, mulching, etc., really help with weed problems. And, weeds themselves can SOMETIMES make good mulch.

But, sometimes there's a need for the roundup.

That said, however, again, use it sparingly. For heaven's sake, at the very least, don't use it the way agribusiness farmers do, completely indiscriminately.

[DoomsDave]

Hey JimStPete - 22 years! Wow! Did you ever think, maybe, you were going down the wrong path with the poison, and there was an alternative (organic?) solution?

Just saying*

LOL! Well, I could have just let it completely over take the entire yard and not tried to control it at all. I have never heard of any organic solution for rampant dollar weed growth. If you know of one that actually works let me know and I'll definitely try it! I've been trying to control it for 22 years because all the various controls I had tried did not work very well (I kept changing what I was using).

I only water my yard one day a week so the soil is definitely not water logged (it's sandy soil and drains quickly). We've had a total of 1-1/2" of rain Nov 1 2011 through today (Jan 23, 2012) so it's been extremely dry. Most of the time we suffer from lack of rain and usually only get 30-35" a year (unlike areas further inland). There is no foot traffic on my yard other than me mowing it every week (well, I do yell at the kids to get off my front yard occasionally!). All the home centers recommended various versions of the weed and feed stuff....but I think I was only feeding the weeds because the 'weed' portion only had a very slight effect on the dollar weed (but better than doing nothing). Finally I found Image, and it fixed the problem. After this final application this spring (I will only treat the few remaining spots that have it), I don't think I'll have to put it down again for many years because the dollar weed does not seem to be coming back at all. I make sure to pull the dollar weed and it's tubers when it tries to grow from the lawn into the beds (it's pretty easy to pull it all out if the soil is loose which mine is). But you can't pull it from the lawn because of the St Augustine Grass so I had to resort to various chemicals to try and control it. I have no idea what effect Image would have on other plants. I make sure to spray it on a calm day, with a mechanical hand pump/sprayer (not a hose sprayer) so it's a very small volume of water (just enough to wet the leaves) and hold the nozzle close to the ground to avoid getting it on anything else. I have many palms surrounded by the lawn and I have not seen any bad effects from applying Image. I measure exactly what they say to use to cover a certain square footage.

I've removed 80% of the lawn and replaced it with beds and plants that don't require a lot of watering because keeping a lawn in Florida is very difficult and unfortunately it requires the use of bad chemicals and too much water to keep it looking decently. Believe me, I'd rather not use any chemicals at all and I tried to avoid them. The lawn is the only thing I'm using chemicals on (mulching mower so no fertilizer is used). Because of Image, I'm no longer applying Weed and Feed which is granular and runs off every time it rains so Image is much better than using that stuff, and it actually works on dollar weed.

What are the active ingredients of "Image" -- I tried to find out, and I can't. Amazon and sites listing it for sale don't say what the active ingredients are.

[Don]

Old news now, and it still seems folks just don't know or haven't heard or don't want to believe it, so I'll post it again here!

It is common knowledge that glyphosate has an impact on microorganisms in the soil!!!

Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto's Most Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced?

I can't believe people willing use herbicides/pesticides without considering the consequences!

Jim - how big is your yard?

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

Good point to add fuel to the fire you might want to watch this movie, it's an eye opener. Obviously we all need to look at both sides of the story but in the end the puzzle will come together.

[Mr Cycad]

LOL! Well, I could have just let it completely over take the entire yard and not tried to control it at all. I have never heard of any organic solution for rampant dollar weed growth. If you know of one that actually works let me know and I'll definitely try it! I've been trying to control it for 22 years because all the various controls I had tried did not work very well (I kept changing what I was using).

G'day again.

Well, without knowing anything about your place, and not seeing any photo's, could I suggest (as per Jerry's suggestion) tweaking some of your culture practices? Also, what about planting other species that could (potentially (I've never dealt with the stuff you're talking about)) out grow it or grow over it, like mint (so tasty, plus some of the Asian types grow like crazy too and are good in salads) or comfrey which you can cut back and use as a mulch species? Also, you could just mulch over the top yea? You say you soil is sandy also - maybe worth trying lemon grass too, as long as there feet don't get wet.... but all said, I think maybe these idea's are not what you're looking for, because you want a lawn, right? Anyway, just some idea thinking outside the square.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

http://www.amdro.com/Image/labels.html

Here are links for the label and MSDS for Image.

Image turns out to be a "Brand" not just a particular herbicide. They have several versions that do different things. When it first came out, it was labeled as a selective herbicide for killing grass and grass-like weeds in broad leaf shrubbery or ground cover.

[Mr Cycad]

That is interesting. (And, a good website, full of good info.)

You are certainly correct, at the very least, about using chemicals of ANY kind sparingly.

If you get the time, read the Wall Street Journal's articles about Roundup ready crops, and growing resistance to weeds by same. It's a little staggering to imagine that farmers truly believed that the Roundup Ready crops would be a permanent panacea to weeding issues.

And, no doubt, mulching, etc., really help with weed problems. And, weeds themselves can SOMETIMES make good mulch.

But, sometimes there's a need for the roundup.

That said, however, again, use it sparingly. For heaven's sake, at the very least, don't use it the way agribusiness farmers do, completely indiscriminately.

Thanks Dave.

Yep, there's plenty of good website's out there similar to that. I'm also well aware about Monsanto and the Roundup issues. As such is why I am so vocal about the issue (I grew up on an organic farm). IMO - there's never a need for the stuff! If people can get themselves informed and change their ways (current farming practices (and to a lesser extent horticulture) are totally unsustainable) and teach others then there still is hope that we will leave this place better off then when we inherited it so to speak.

[Mr Cycad]

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

Good point to add fuel to the fire you might want to watch this movie, it's an eye opener. Obviously we all need to look at both sides of the story but in the end the puzzle will come together.

If you had your head in the sand, maybe!

[Mr Cycad]

A native plant, an edible! Sounds like a little beauty! Have you folks eaten it? What does it taste like?

So no one has tried the stuff eh???

[JimStPete]

Hey JimStPete - 22 years! Wow! Did you ever think, maybe, you were going down the wrong path with the poison, and there was an alternative (organic?) solution?

Just saying*

LOL! Well, I could have just let it completely over take the entire yard and not tried to control it at all. I have never heard of any organic solution for rampant dollar weed growth. If you know of one that actually works let me know and I'll definitely try it! I've been trying to control it for 22 years because all the various controls I had tried did not work very well (I kept changing what I was using).

I only water my yard one day a week so the soil is definitely not water logged (it's sandy soil and drains quickly). We've had a total of 1-1/2" of rain Nov 1 2011 through today (Jan 23, 2012) so it's been extremely dry. Most of the time we suffer from lack of rain and usually only get 30-35" a year (unlike areas further inland). There is no foot traffic on my yard other than me mowing it every week (well, I do yell at the kids to get off my front yard occasionally!). All the home centers recommended various versions of the weed and feed stuff....but I think I was only feeding the weeds because the 'weed' portion only had a very slight effect on the dollar weed (but better than doing nothing). Finally I found Image, and it fixed the problem. After this final application this spring (I will only treat the few remaining spots that have it), I don't think I'll have to put it down again for many years because the dollar weed does not seem to be coming back at all. I make sure to pull the dollar weed and it's tubers when it tries to grow from the lawn into the beds (it's pretty easy to pull it all out if the soil is loose which mine is). But you can't pull it from the lawn because of the St Augustine Grass so I had to resort to various chemicals to try and control it. I have no idea what effect Image would have on other plants. I make sure to spray it on a calm day, with a mechanical hand pump/sprayer (not a hose sprayer) so it's a very small volume of water (just enough to wet the leaves) and hold the nozzle close to the ground to avoid getting it on anything else. I have many palms surrounded by the lawn and I have not seen any bad effects from applying Image. I measure exactly what they say to use to cover a certain square footage.

I've removed 80% of the lawn and replaced it with beds and plants that don't require a lot of watering because keeping a lawn in Florida is very difficult and unfortunately it requires the use of bad chemicals and too much water to keep it looking decently. Believe me, I'd rather not use any chemicals at all and I tried to avoid them. The lawn is the only thing I'm using chemicals on (mulching mower so no fertilizer is used). Because of Image, I'm no longer applying Weed and Feed which is granular and runs off every time it rains so Image is much better than using that stuff, and it actually works on dollar weed.

What are the active ingredients of "Image" -- I tried to find out, and I can't. Amazon and sites listing it for sale don't say what the active ingredients are.

Dave, the active ingredient is listed as Ammonium salt of imazaquin.... 3.30%. I found this here: http://www.kill-fireants.com/image_herbicide.htm

[_Keith]

No magic here. Just read the label. http://www.amdro.com/Image/labels.html

If your plant is not on this list, it may not immediately die, but it may very well die a very slow lingering death.

CONTROL OF WEEDS IN ORNAMENTALS AND GROUND COVERS

IMAGE is effective in killing the listed weeds in established landscape plantings. Apply

IMAGE spray solution to the area where weeds occur. Applications should only be

made over the top of or around the listed ornamentals. APPLICATION TO THE FOLIAGE

OR ROOT ZONE OF UNLABELED ORNAMENTALS, PERENNIALS, OR ANNUAL BEDDING

PLANTS MAY RESULT IN SEVERE PLANT INJURY. Use only on well-established,

non-stressed plants. Ornamentals which are known to be severely injured by IMAGE

include azalea, ligustrum (privet), viburnum, pieris, abelia and roses.

IMAGE CAN BE APPLIED TO THE FOLLOWING ORNAMENTALS:

Indian Hawthorne

(Raphiolepis indica)

Parsons Juniper 'Parsoni'

(Juniperus conferta)

Dwarf Yaupon Holly 'Schillings Dwarf'

(Ilex vomitoria)

Blue Pacifi c Juniper 'Blue Pacifi c'

(Juniperus conferta)

Blue Pfi tzer Juniper 'Pfi tzeriana Glauca'

(Juniperus chinensis)

Blue Rug Juniper 'Wiltonii'

(Juniperus horizontalis)

Helleri Holly 'Helleri'

(Ilex crenata)

Red Crape Myrtle 'Red'

(Lagerstroemia indica)

Red Tip Photinia

(Photinia X fraseri)

Asiatic Jasmine 'Minima'

(Trachelospermum asiaticum)

Yucca

(Yucca pendula)

Giant Liriope 'Evergreen Giant'

(Liriope muscari)

Wax Myrtle

(Myrica cerifera)

Variegated Liriope 'Silvery Sunproof'

(Liriope muscari)

IMAGE CAN BE APPLIED TO THE FOLLOWING ORNAMENTALS (continued):

Burford Holly 'Burfordii' (Ilex cornuta) Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis)

Gardenia 'Miami Supreme'

(Gardenia jasminoides)

Mondograss

(Ophiopogon japonicus)

Flame of the Woods (Ixora coccinea) Hosta 'Lancifolia' (Hosta sp.)

Confederate Jasmine

(Trachelospermum jasminoides)

Society Garlic

(Tulbaghia violacea)