Mike wrote:
On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:39:20 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

tony kitching wrote:
A council worked arrived at my garden 30th July on a windy day and
sprayed
glyphosate randomly about by the look of it
Pure glyphosate is about as poisonous weight for weight as the caffeine
in instant coffee. It is the wetting agents in the commercial weedkiller
formulations that are a bit nasty.

I have worked for a council (no selective weed killers) and in
agriculture and my experience of the active ingrediant glyphosphate
commonly used in Roundup is wide.

Surprised they don't use something more suitable on paths. I guess
because glyphosate is so lethal to plants and otherwise relatively
benign they use it for everything. The need to spray is much reduced
when a weedkiller is used with a germination inhibitor that lasts for a
season.

I have seen where council workers sprayed under hedge bottoms and
managed to catch people's lawns and flowers. They will have a licence
to spray, but perhaps not the will to follow what they have been
qualified to do.
You can see the effect of spraying within 12 hrs if you look closely
at leaves.The waxy sheen goes dull.

That is the effect of the powerful surfactants on the waxy coating. I
have found ivy and holly seedlings that have a thick waxy coat can
resist it. Buttercup sometimes recovers for reasons that escape me.

You can spray grassland and leave it for 4 days before ploughing in
and you know it will not come back.

Although usually it gets left for a bit longer. It goes a characteristic
yellow-orange colour. Grass is exquisitely sensitive to overspray or
having traces on the edge of your boots leaving outline of dead grass.


Regards,
Martin Brown