Round Up screw up

[Pete in Paradise Hills]

I screwed up. I was trying to control my weeds by spraying Round Up and I'm quite sure I sprayed too close to one of my Brahea Clara which has lost all but one of its leaves in the last few weeks (I have cut off 15 leaves which simply dried up and collapsed). If I remove the stump of the Clara, what can I do to facilitate planting something else in the same spot? How do I make it safe for another palm? Thank you for advice

[yabazid]

I sprayed 4 of my peach trees once with something for weeds mistaking it for sevendust. I know the feels. It would've killed me if I did that for the palms

[LJG]

I doubt it was Roundup that killed it. You would have had to get it on the leaves or roots and a used ton of it. Palms are pretty tough. As an example I have a few huge Washys that hang over from the neighbors. They drop thousands of seeds each year. In some spots it is like a field of seedlings that all pop up at once. I have to spray small seedlings twice with Roundup to kill them.

[MattyB]

I was just thinking the same thing as Len, that it's not the round-up. First of all, was it actually round-up (active ingredient: glyphosate), or was it some sort of other vegitation killer? If your palm had 15 leaves it's way to big to die from just getting close with round-up. At that size you could spray a leaf and it wouldn't die.

[Daryl]

I'm some palms are more susceptible to it. I sprayed around a perfectly healthy Dypsis sp. once and within a week it started dying from a small amount of overspray. There was no other reason for it to die and it wasn't just coincidence.

On the other hand you can spray Queen palm seedlings repeatedly until the roundup runs off the leaves and they don't even blink! However, if you rough up the leaves with a brushcutter first, then spay, it soaks in and they die.

I wouldn't think that a waxy Brahea would suffer from a small spray though...

Daryl

[Kim]

Are you sure you don't have gophers eating the roots?

[Xerarch]

I too find it difficult to accept that this was a roundup kill, a general rule of thumb with roundup is that you need to cover about 30% of the total leafy surface of a plant to kill it, and with waxy leaved palms it can be much harder to kill. However if it's true that roundup is not the culprit, then you have to determine just what was.

[Gonzer]

A common misconception is that getting Roundup close to a tree will kill it. It needs green growth to facilitate it's chemical action on the plant enzymes. You would have to really dowse the ground with it for any root uptake, which would be minimal at best. And lastly, never, EVER spray when there's so much as a hint of wind.

Roundup's not the culprit here.

[_Keith]

I doubt it was Roundup that killed it. You would have had to get it on the leaves or roots and a used ton of it. Palms are pretty tough. As an example I have a few huge Washys that hang over from the neighbors. They drop thousands of seeds each year. In some spots it is like a field of seedlings that all pop up at once. I have to spray small seedlings twice with Roundup to kill them.

I have tried to kill Sabal minor with Roundup. They laugh at it.

[oliver]

I would agree with everybody else. I routinely spray roundup around the base of palms as well as some very expensive cycads in pots and have not had a problem. As far as digging up the dead tree and replanting, roundup should have minimal to no effect in the soil. I would be more worried about nasty bugs in the soil that caused the death to begin with. I don't know if you have rhinocerus beetles in San Diego, but they are a common culprit here. Look for big nasty bluish/white grubs the size of your thumb when you dig out the palm.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Pete,

Roundup (Glyphosate) is broken down by microbes in the soil pretty fast, one of it's beneficial features, btw. So, you really shouldn't have to wait very long at all (a week...just to be safe). But I agree with everyone else; I doubt it was the Glyphosate that killed it, unless you just doused the foliage and included some kind of surfactant to get it through the leaf cuticle. Glyphosate will ding up plants with thin bark, however. Example: Crape Myrtle. So its always best not to get it on any part of a desirable plant.

[Pete in Paradise Hills]

Thanks for all the replies. I am mystified why it has died so quickly. If it was a gopher, wouldn't it just tip over? The leaves just died quickly...

[MattyB]

Gophers can work under the soil and sometimes never leave a trace that they were there until your plant is dead. It wouldn't tip over if he didn't eat all the roots. Plus, Brahea are known for being root sensitive so whether it's a gopher or just root rot, that's a death sentence for Brahea.

[DoomsDave]

Thanks for all the replies. I am mystified why it has died so quickly. If it was a gopher, wouldn't it just tip over? The leaves just died quickly...

How about a picture?

[Tyrone]

For it to die so quickly and dramatically the roots have been killed (which BTW is what roundup does). If roundup has done the deed, then the soil will be fine. If it really looks like it has died with no return dig it up and inspect the root area. Maybe something has eaten (as others have said gophers) or rotted the roots. But even a root fungus will work gradually and the plant would gradually decline, not just fold up overnight.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Tyrone, some root rot fungi kill really fast. One example is phytophthora. It can kill a large tree in no time if the conditions are right (wet is the operative condition). I'd be surprised if that was the cause here since it's so dry in California (I'm betting gophers). Roundup wouldn't kill an established woody plant very quickly. It even took almost a week to kill the seedlings of spurge I sprayed here last Saturday. The bermudagrass isn't showing anything yet, but it will be in another week. We're annoyingly hot and dry here, at least for our rainy season!

For it to die so quickly and dramatically the roots have been killed (which BTW is what roundup does). If roundup has done the deed, then the soil will be fine. If it really looks like it has died with no return dig it up and inspect the root area. Maybe something has eaten (as others have said gophers) or rotted the roots. But even a root fungus will work gradually and the plant would gradually decline, not just fold up overnight.

[Pete in Paradise Hills]

ok guys, I'm having a hard time believing it's a gopher because I tried shaking that thing and it's rooted in like a Washingtonia, no movement at all. This thing was 25 gallon sized a few weeks ago before all the leaves started rapidly dying and I've removed almost all of them...

[LJG]

Like Keith said, roundup won't kill palms that size that fast. Especially considering you didn't dump it on. Now that we read it is two weeks planted I would guess the roots were damaged and this plant rotted. This species can be touchy if you cut a lot of roots. Was the 25 gallon pot rooted to the ground when you bought it?

[Pete in Paradise Hills]

Need to clarify this was planted as a 15 gallon one year ago so there were no transplant issues. When I said 25 g that was its size a few weeks ago

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Round Up is EXTREMELY TOXIC despite what the manufacturer and retailers want you to believe. It is very toxic to the environment and to you and your pets too. Better to go all organic. Pull weeds the old fashioned way or pay someone else to pull the weeds. Or you can use a natural herbicide, which is horticultural vinegar (20% vinegar), but use it sparingly and only directly on the weeds themselves, as it will harm or kill your ornamentals too, but at least it doesn't have the toxic effects on you and the environment that Round Up has.

[oliver]

I would disagree with Mr. Coconut Palm. As you likely know, living in South Texas, glyphosphate is commonly used to defoliate cotton, either from the air by crop duster or ground level by special tractor thingy. It has been used year after year and crops are planted a few months again after cotton has been harvested. There is no residual effect in the soil whatsoever. Far better than the old days when they used to use agent orange!

[Pete in Paradise Hills]

Thanks everyone