A softer, smarter approach to weed control.
It’s time to worry about weeds again. Or is it? Weeds affect people’s basic psyche, but they shouldn’t. To solve many weed issues, simply mow the lawn regularly and leave the clippings, mulch bare soil in beds and apply organic fertilizer a couple of times a year.
The primary way to control weeds is to eliminate the conditions that allow weeds to thrive. Severely noxious weeds rarely invade high-quality lawns. Weed-controlling products and techniques won’t help if the lawn or garden area is not maintained well. On the other hand, we do have effective organic tools when needed.
Preemergent weed-control products
Corn gluten meal, a natural weed-and-feed fertilizer, must be broadcast before annual weeds germinate. Perhaps its best use is on bare soil around new transplants. It will feed the young plants while stopping weed germination. This method, which works year-round, can also be used after planting seeds in the garden, with small seedlings.
Post-emergent products
These are products that kill growing green grasses and broadleaf weeds. Several strong soaps, vinegars and plant oil products are on the market in this category. They are nonselective (kill everything) and used for spot spraying. Vining weeds, such as Carolina snailseed, trumpet vine and poison ivy, are the toughest to get rid of. Your only option with those is to physically remove them and then spray the tender new regrowth with vinegar.
A good vinegar herbicide is 10 percent white vinegar with 2 ounces of orange oil and a couple of drops of soap per gallon (no water). For a more powerful choice, Good Natured, Nature’s Creation, MaestroGro and other companies have 20 percent vinegar that can be used for organic weed control.
Selective weed-control products
Currently, there’s only one. AgraLawn Crabgrass Killer is a baking soda and cinnamon product that works well when dusted lightly on wet, weedy turf. It kills crabgrass, chickweed, clover and many other weeds — even tough weeds like false strawberry and Virginia buttonweed — but doesn’t hurt Bermuda, St. Augustine or zoysia.
Dry or liquid molasses can be used for nutsedge. The dry product is used at 40 pounds per 1,000 square feet, or use liquid molasses at about 1 cup per gallon of water. It usually takes two or three applications of the liquid method for the nutsedge to slowly die away.
If you aren’t worried about your exposure to the toxic products that I advise against, think about your pets that are running around with bare paws and noses in the plants. Roundup, Manage and Bayer are some of the common names to avoid, but look for these more technical terms in the active ingredients on labels of products you are considering: 2,4-d, dithiopyr, ethofumesate, indaziflam, mesotrione, pronamide, sulfentrazone and many more. And no, they don’t go away when they’ve dried on plants.