On Mar 4, 5:04*pm, "Bob Hobden" wrote:
"Robert (Plymouth)" *wrote
after "Rusty_Hinge" *wrote



after *Aries wrote:
after Bob Hobden wrote:

Anyway, you need to get onto this ASAP as the growing season is fast
approaching and weedkiller takes time to act.

A question Bob. *Doesn't weedkiller poison the soil for growing crops?
If
not how long should one leave the soil after first apply weedkiller
before
it's safe to sow seed ?

Glyphosate (Roundup) and Paraquat, etc, only act on the plants. Once
they contact the ground they are neutralised as far as any effect on
plants is concerned.

You can plant immediately.

The sort of weedkiller which is absorbed by the roots wouldn't be used
on an allotment - I hope...

Of course the safest and best way all round is to avoid weed killer and
cut it down and dig out manually. You get much more satisfaction that way
too

In an ideal world I would agree with you but...
For a "new" gardener I have seen them become totally disillusioned with an
overgrown plot and give up when they could not get on top of the weed growth
at the start, they want to grow stuff not fight entrenched weeds. Glyphosate
allows them to get going growing this season with a weed free plot to start
with. Yes, the weeds will also grow back from seed but then you can stay on
top of them with an hours hoeing each week.

Some years ago I had an allotment. The plot next to me became
overgrown due to the illnes of the elderly tenant.A new tenant was
found, an incomer from London town, full of bluster and energy.On the
bank holiday weekend he got all his friends and relatives on perade at
dawn and dug the plot from end to end, then sprinkled slugkiller
everywhere. Seeds of many kinds were sown the next weekend. He raised
one of the finest crops of perennial weeds we had ever seen because
nobody thought to tell his townee labourers that they had to remove
the roots. We never saw him again.