In message , ken cohen
writes
Having decided to hand-dig my allotment instead of having it
rotivated, I was interested to discover that 3 hefty treatments of
glysophate, spread over about 6 weeks, have left absolutely loads of
live roots which I have to remove individually. On the other hand,
the glyosophate presumably reduced the vitality of the roots because
the visible above-ground part of the weeds was much reduced.

It has probably reduced their vitality to the point where most of them
will rot away before they recover their metabolism. And if they don't
the reason will be that you applied far too much glyphosate in the first
place.

More is not always better with glyphosate. You want a slow complete kill
so that the active ingredient has time to reach the far extremities of
the root system. Overly fast acting weed killers just burn off the tops.

I still have a few weeds here finally expiring from my first application
of glyphosate in early June. Only one application was needed.

The only exception I have noticed are buttercup roots which are able to
recover when everything around them has given up the ghost. And the
classic troublesome deep rooted weeds like Equisetums.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown