Round Up Alternative

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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Bales9er
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Round Up Alternative

Post by Bales9er » July 28th, 2020, 6:57 am

My wife is really against Round Up and I badly need to do a full reno. Any suggestions beyond solarization for a decent alternative to kill off all existing vegetation? I looked into that Sunday Weed Warrior stuff but they don't appear to sell it in concentrate. Just curious if anyone here has seen/used anything else with success. I have about 15K of weeds to kill...

KBGkicksazz
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by KBGkicksazz » July 28th, 2020, 9:02 am

If She is against RU is she also against herbicides?

If you don’t burn down the existing lawn you have to learn to live with the mix stand. Solar burn down of 15k is not practical.

Nothing wrong if you want 100% chem free but realistically there are limits to how far you can get by doing so.

Mother Nature is a beast (weeds, fungus, drought) etc

Bales9er
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Bales9er » July 28th, 2020, 9:32 am

Not against herbicides altogether just specifically RU/glyphosate.

KBGkicksazz
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by KBGkicksazz » July 28th, 2020, 9:38 am

Bales9er wrote:
July 28th, 2020, 9:32 am
Not against herbicides altogether just specifically RU/glyphosate.
If that’s the case I would just overseed and eliminate weeds.

Often time it’s just improving the soil and eliminating weeds which gets most people to “good enough”

Bales9er
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Bales9er » July 28th, 2020, 12:04 pm

That was my plan originally and still may be but theres just so much crabgrass I dont know how well the new grass will fair with all the competition.


Bales9er
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Bales9er » July 28th, 2020, 12:41 pm

I was also considering the Natria concentrate, Ive used the spray in garden beds with good success on grasses but just curious if anyone has done a blanket spray with it for a reno. If not I may just have to be the guinea pig.

KBGkicksazz
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by KBGkicksazz » July 28th, 2020, 1:05 pm

Bales9er wrote:
July 28th, 2020, 12:41 pm
I was also considering the Natria concentrate, Ive used the spray in garden beds with good success on grasses but just curious if anyone has done a blanket spray with it for a reno. If not I may just have to be the guinea pig.
You could always try and burn the lawn with a massive dose of urea lol

Of course at that point may as well just use RU... or tell wife it was urea burn

Masbustelo
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Masbustelo » July 29th, 2020, 2:31 am

I've been using Fertilome brand Over The Top Grass Killer. It is very effective on grasses. There are chemicals that only kill grasses called gramacides. The Fertilome product if it gets windblown won't kill sensitive plants like tomatoes and grapes.

Bales9er
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Bales9er » July 29th, 2020, 7:02 am

Good to know I hadn't heard of that one before thanks

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Wally
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Wally » July 29th, 2020, 7:00 pm

The real question is, what is the genuine risk for the homeowner spraying maybe 2 gallons of roundup?

Masbustelo
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Masbustelo » July 30th, 2020, 5:16 am

Here are a few articles detailing the 'genuine risk' of indiscriminate use of roundup and other common herbicides. One can easily destroy crops and plants of their own and neighbors. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/protectin ... cide_drift https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/a ... amba-2-4-d https://psuwineandgrapes.wordpress.com/ ... revention/ Certain plants are sensitive to these common chemicals at a 1/800 rate of application.

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turf_toes
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by turf_toes » July 30th, 2020, 8:50 am

Well, yeah.

Given that the nature of the product is to kill vegetation, the “risk” you cite here is like a study from the University of Duh.

If you use it. You need to protect yourself and the plants that you don’t want to kill. Another way of saying it,”read and follow the instructions on the label.”

Don’t spray on windy days or on desired plants.

There are no (zero) effective herbicides that you can spray everywhere and on everything without possible side effects on desired plants.

Follow the instructions on the label. Many folks seem to use it without killing desired plants. If you are unable to follow instructions on the label, gardening and lawncare probably aren’t a good hobby for you.

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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by KBGkicksazz » July 30th, 2020, 10:37 am

Masbustelo wrote:
July 30th, 2020, 5:16 am
Here are a few articles detailing the 'genuine risk' of indiscriminate use of roundup and other common herbicides. One can easily destroy crops and plants of their own and neighbors. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/protectin ... cide_drift https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/a ... amba-2-4-d https://psuwineandgrapes.wordpress.com/ ... revention/ Certain plants are sensitive to these common chemicals at a 1/800 rate of application.
I have about 2000 square feet of shrub/tree/perennial beds worth a decent chunk of change and I commonly use a 1 gallon sprayer to zap weeds the break through the snapshot I use. Never damage my plants...

howard416
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by howard416 » July 31st, 2020, 12:25 am

You could try flaming the weeds with a roofing torch or weed torch. Some of the weeds will come back, torch them again. Some of those will come back, torch them again. Once the weed density looks manageable, seed. I mean, 15K though... not sure I'd want to walk all that grass so many times.

Note: you don't have to actually char the vegetation.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant- ... ardens.htm

dull blade
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by dull blade » August 1st, 2020, 10:19 am

I only have 5k of grass, so I know i'm nowhere near your area, but I did solarization. Bought 1k sqft of plastic for about $40. I cut it to fit my lawn and laid it down for a week. I have moved the plastic three times to cover entire lawn. The 90 degree temps killed most everything. A very small number of weeds came back after a rain, so I am spraying them.

Solarization works really well. You might think about doing your lawn in sections.
Image

Bales9er
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by Bales9er » August 3rd, 2020, 12:38 pm

I have some very large bare areas so I'm also wondering if I could just try scalping what is existent for weeds as low as possible and seed right over it all. Has anyone tried that method, essentially just scalp without RU? I want to seed KBG so my thought is by the time it starts to pop the crabgrass will be all but slowed down in terms of growth so there won't be any competition.

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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by turf_toes » August 3rd, 2020, 2:45 pm

dull blade wrote:
August 1st, 2020, 10:19 am
I only have 5k of grass, so I know i'm nowhere near your area, but I did solarization. Bought 1k sqft of plastic for about $40. I cut it to fit my lawn and laid it down for a week. I have moved the plastic three times to cover entire lawn. The 90 degree temps killed most everything. A very small number of weeds came back after a rain, so I am spraying them.

Solarization works really well. You might think about doing your lawn in sections.
Image
A week in Pittsburgh, even in the summer, isn’t going to get it done. Your grass is most likely dormant, not dead.

Effective solarization takes month(s), not days.

I’ve been doing this long enough to know this is usually when the other person swears to me that it works.

But I can tell you that this site has seen users post about solarizing grass for five weeks or more with poor results.

If you are trying to do a renovation of your existing lawn, solarizing it for a week will provide disappointing results.

dull blade
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by dull blade » August 3rd, 2020, 3:16 pm

Hmm. Well I think the grass is dead but we had some rain and the weeds are coming back. Oxalis, goose grass, and ground ivy are popping up and turning green. I am spot treating with round up.

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turf_toes
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Re: Round Up Alternative

Post by turf_toes » August 3rd, 2020, 4:56 pm

Just know that the roundup won’t be effective on dormant grass. If your attempts to solarize the grass only put it into dormancy, the roundup won’t kill it.

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