Weed Killer

[Svengali]

In summer I used an agricultural equivalent of Roundup on what is going to be my orchard. Everytghing appeared to die off, but now I have come to rotavate the patch, it is again covered by a lot of weeds & tussocky grass. I sprayed again with the roundup clone about a week ago, but was I wasting my time? The weeds SEEM to be growing strongly, but I can't see much sign of die off. If I rotavate now, will I negate any action that the weedkiller may be having?

[Svengali]

[sandersj89]

If you used the "roundup" clone a number of months ago I would expect weed regrowth by now, it is a contact weed killer that is inactivated on contact with the soil. Plants die but the soil is still fertile and seeds in the soil and dropped on the are will germinate a re grown within a matter of weeks.

Spraying now will not be as effective as in the summer as the plants need to be actively growing for the chemicals to be translocated to the roots to be effective.

It may check their growth a bit though but it may take a few weeks for it to really show in cool weather.

Rotavating now may well check this process so wait if you can, or remove the large weeds by hand and compost them.

HTH

Jerry

[Robert_Brenchley]

If it's an orchard-to-be, you could just as easily mow it. That would kill everything nasty, and you'd just have to clear a small area round each tree. Have you thought about what you want underneath the trees?

[Svengali]

I intend to have this patch as a wildflower meadow, but I need to clear the "wrong" weeds first. I also want it a little bit more level before I re-sow. My fruit trees will each be surrounded by a 1.5 meter circular patch, protected with weed fleece, covered with chipped bark, and with polypropylene edging.
I just hope that it works!