Round Up or Brown Down?

Perhaps a better name for any postemergent herbicide should be "brown down" not "round up."  None of these poisons actually rounds up anything.  Most people will agree that a living green weed actually looks nicer than a wilting yellow or brown weed! And yet we willingly force ourselves to watch wilting weeds in our lawns for days, because, quite frankly, most of us haven't figured out that it's actually cheaper, quicker and easier to pull out  living, unpoisoned weeds than to remove the carcasses of toxic dead weeds!  And, it's safer too, whether you use your bare hands or a smart tool like the WEED TWISTER.

Glyphosate Immunity?

Timing is everything!  Glyphosate sprays work best on plants that are still growing, not so well on mature plants.  Also, it makes little sense to spray the stuff on dandelions and other plants that have already blossomed, because the threatening seeds will be healthy and happy to have more time to spread around your lawn and garden.  Glyphosate does not kill seeds!

As powerful as this chemical is in killing plants, more and more glyphosate immunity and resistance is showing up either by natural selection or by deliberate genetic engineering.  In California, weed scientists have documented the failure of Roundup to control little mallow, for example, if treated after reaching a height of 4-6 inches.  Little mallow is an annual or biennial weed that is sometimes not effectively controlled with preemergent herbicides.  Mallow is an invasive weed in agricultural settings and home gardens, and becomes extremely difficult to remove once established with woody roots.  Fortunately, the WEED TWISTER can effectively twist out these gnarly roots even with mature plants, as shown below.  It may take a little effort, especially if the soil conditions are dry and compacted, but no other hand tool has been shown to work on this weed, other than a shovel. 

The first weed to become resistant to glyphosate was rigid ryegrass in Australia in 1996.  In 2000, horseweed (also called marestail) was the first glyphosate-resistant weed to appear in soybean fields the United States. Initially found in Delaware, there now nine states with glyphosate-resistant horseweed (Delaware 2000, Tennessee 2001, Indiana 2002, Maryland 2002, New Jersey 2002, Ohio 2002, Arkansas 2003, Mississippi 2003, and North Carolina 2003). Six weeds have developed resistance to glyphosate in the past 8 years. The more we use the very popular glyphosate, the more we will invite the invasion of weeds, like little mallow or hairy fleabane that are immune or resistant to this powerful chemical.   More information on herbicide resistant weeds can be reviewed at WeedScience.org.  The following Map of Glyphosate Resistant Weeds by WeedScience.org shows the growing worldwide spread of weeds that are resistant or immune to glyphosate.

Efficiency in Agriculture or at Home?

None of us likes to spend hours pulling out weeds, so the illusion of rounding up weeds by spraying a little poison here and there sounds like an inviting prospect.  We imagine that somehow these chemicals will magically make the weeds disappear?  But they don't disappear, unfortunately:  They just wilt, turn brown and eventually require your work to pull them out.  These chemicals don't save you any work or money and they don't save you any time! 

These herbicides make more sense on the farm than they do at home.  And, even on the farm, there's a growing movement to reduce or eliminate the use of harsh chemicals as much as possible.  The basic difference between agriculture and the home is that ornamental home gardening is an optional art that helps to beautify our living spaces, but is not based on efficiency, as is agriculture.  In agriculture, they kill weeds, cultivate them or pull them and leave them on the ground.  It doesn't look pretty, and it's not intended to have an ornamental appeal.  When mature plants need to be poisoned or flamed on the farm, there's no need to take the extra step of cutting or pulling out the dead or droopy plants after treatment.  If they're uprooted by hand or twisted out by the WEED TWISTER, they're usually left in the field right next to the spot where they grew.  Agriculture is all about productivity and efficiency and removing dead weeds from sight is not an efficient thing to do!

On the farm, it's easier to protect against accidental contact with toxic leaves.  At home, your pets and children may be at risk!  Herbicides and pesticides are dangerous chemicals created primarily for industrial applications on farms, where their use increases productivity with reduced costs, and the risks are carefully controlled.  If consumers take these toxic chemicals home, there's no productive benefit to offset the costs, and the risks are more difficult to control.

Preemergent or Postemergent Herbicides?

Preemergent herbicides are more practical at home than the postemergent type prior to the germination of new annual weeds.  Assuming they are effective, there's no leftover residue resulting from the use of preemergent herbicides, because the weeds never germinate. But when they're not effective, you're back on square one, and the evidence is growing anew in your lawn or flowerbeds.  Now your only choices are a postemergent herbicide with all the risks and costs involved, or a mechanical tool of some kind - or a smart combination of the two, as appropriate for different types of weeds and situations.

Even if you grow herbs and vegetables at home, there's hardly any appreciable efficiency in using harsh postemergent chemicals that require the cleanup of dead weeds afterwards.   If you have a large lawn, as many people do, keep in mind that you are making an investment in a completely ornamental, nonproductive, inefficient and costly liability.  The only product from lawns is grass clippings which cannot be marketed for any profit.  The cost of mowing and maintaining lawns is tremendous. Unfortunately, postemergent herbicides like Roundup won't eliminate the need to physically extract live or dead weeds from your lawn.  Have you ever seen a dandelion disappear when splashed with Roundup? 

If you can spend an hour a week mowing your lawn, can you spend half that time tugging out weeds?  You can start on one side of you lawn and take a half-hour a week to twist out weeds.  In a few weeks your lawn will be clear and the weeds will be under control, safely and efficiently!  This is weed control in your hands with a reasonable investment of  effort and time and the help of handy tools.

Some people are learning to find alternatives to costly lawns by growing native plants and organic gardens or vegetables and herbs in their place, even in front of their homes!  The water and nutrients you invest in these alternatives will help to improve the environment and possibly yield some healthy and good tasting food.  If you wish to be efficient and productive, this is the way to go, and it does not require Roundup or any preemergent or postemergent herbicide, saving you even more money.  If planned correctly, the amount of hand weeding with the help of a smart set of tools, will be minimal.   

Practical Applications for Roundup

If there is a safe place for Roundup and other postemergent herbicides, it's on the farm, not at home.  If the WEED TWISTER and other tools cannot match your garden weeds, however, you may need to resort to risky chemicals.  We recommend you take precautions to mark each plant with poisoned leaves with a red label or ribbon that may remind you and your workers, friends or children to keep their bare hands away from the toxic leaves.  The label should also have a date indicating when the chemical was applied.  When applying a label or ribbon to the treated plant, use rubber gloves to prevent direct contact with the contaminated leaves.  You should, of course, also use rubber gloves or other prophylactic shields whenever handling Roundup sprayers and equipment. 

When finally removing the poisoned plants, it's best to use a long-handled tool, such as the 48-inch WEED TWISTER to finish the job.  If the plant is too big for the WEED TWISTER, which is a rare occasion, keep your bare skin protected while using a shovel, pick, fork or other tool to finish the job. 

If you can't pull it, poison it!  As a general rule, postemergent herbicides make sense at home when the culprit is simply too large for available tools to yank out, or otherwise in places where tools cannot reach, as, for example, in narrow crevices or up against landscaping retainers or other hard objects.  Tree of Heaven weeds can be twisted out of the ground by the Ergonica WEED TWISTER up to a height of around five feet, for example.  If the diameter of the root is greater than two inches, you may need to use a weed wrench, shovel or  large fork.  A deep root, up to 12 inches or more, is no problem for the WEED TWISTER.

If applied before going to seed, postemergent herbicides can also help to control future generations. Once the plants are dead, you still have to remove them, or at least trim them, if they are visually offensive to you; but it's better to kill the roots first, especially for perennial weeds, to make sure that they don't revive themselves from their extended root networks. 

If you keep your hands (and your children's hands and other body parts) away from poisoned leaves, Roundup can safely be applied to troublesome weeds when no other means is available to kill or remove the green invaders.  At home, in contrast to the farm or other industrial settings, there are no supervisors or professionals to make sure that you create and maintain safe practices and procedures.  In some cases, even the so-called "professionals" may be too lax in protecting against toxicity from herbicides.  The ultimate enforcement of safety practices at home is YOUR responsibility!

A chemical farm may be productive and efficient, not so for a chemical home garden or herb garden.  Buying organic vegetables and fruits at the store and putting harmful herbicides and pesticides in the same shopping cart doesn't make much sense.  Chemical risks for productivity is one thing, chemical risks for more leisure time, is another.  Ironically, many of us use our leisure time to work out in the gym or take walks, play tennis, golf or basketball because our lives are otherwise too sedentary.   If we practice polyculture techniques, as promoted by permaculture advocates, we can double or triple the productivity in our herb gardens or on the farm with no harsh chemicals.  For a useful guide to kick the habit of chemical dependence on herbicides visit the 12 - Step Herbicide Detoxification Program .