JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,428
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Post by JM on Apr 2, 2018 11:04:51 GMT -5
Seeking advice on a way to kill weeds without poisoning food bearing trees & plants.
Don't really trust manufacturers claims about safety. How often has something been marketed as safe, only to find out later that it was not?
Thank you.
UPDATE AT END.
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Post by Encore64 on Apr 2, 2018 11:22:07 GMT -5
Round Up...
I use it around my Blueberries and have for 20+ years.
Keep it off the plant leaves and you'll be fine.
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Post by magnumwheelman on Apr 2, 2018 11:38:19 GMT -5
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JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,428
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Post by JM on Apr 2, 2018 12:03:13 GMT -5
I'm working towards growing clean vegetables & fruit. Plus I'm sourcing clean grass fed beef & pork.
Strangely enough, clean chicken & eggs seems more difficult to find than the beef & pork.
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Odin
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Posts: 978
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Post by Odin on Apr 2, 2018 14:41:56 GMT -5
I'm working towards growing clean vegetables & fruit. Plus I'm sourcing clean grass fed beef & pork. Strangely enough, clean chicken & eggs seems more difficult to find than the beef & pork. I work as a ranchhand at a small (5 acre) urban farm here in town. We have pasture-finished beef as well as pasture raised chicken and a growing pastured poultry flock. My boss and his wife also work a sizable market garden. Pasture-raised pork is probably going to show up within a year or two (taking suggestions for a proper, concealable, pork pistol). Our cattle are sourced and butchered locally, so there's less travel stress to the animals. Chickens are raised from shipped in day-olds and are butchered locally as well. Everything we do is about raising food right. It has been an amazing learning experience. I'd urge everyone here to stay far, far away from Glyphosate (Roundup). It's some seriously bad Mgumbo and it stays residually in the soil for a significant amount of time. We use it in commercial applications, but it won't ever, ever be used at the farm. Same goes for Trimec. That stuff works great, but is straight-up killer poison. There is an alternative to Trimec called Quicksilver that my boss says is pretty close to being an organic substitute and it works pretty well on areas which aren't out of control weed-wise. He suggested I switch to that if I want to maintain some weed control in my lawn as I prepare for a home layer flock. As for Roundup, we haven't found a working organic solution. Not that we haven't tried. On the farm and at home we tarp open ground in the off season and use mesh groundcover where applicable in the gardens. It is by no means perfect. For us it's about control, not elimination. If you haven't already, check out the work of Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms (link to the farm website here). His book The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs really changed the way I look at food. |
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JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,428
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Post by JM on Apr 2, 2018 15:58:00 GMT -5
I'm on slightly over an acre. The back half has not been developed. The property was once either farm land, ranch land, or both. My neighbors spray the weeds in their yards with various poisons. The front half of mine is covered with rock & has been sprayed many times by previous owners, plus twice by myself. The weeds & grasses are popping up on the back half. The previous owner mowed. Don't know if the ground has been sprayed/treated before or not. Probably safer to assume that something has been used on the soil some time in the past. I do know that "Andro" type products have been used to kill the red ants.
I have planted several evergreen trees, along with some fruit & nut bearing trees. Garden beds will be next. Most likely a raised bed type of arrangement with fresh soil brought in. The water system is a community well with the usual required treatments. Supposed to be fairly good water.
I've witnessed family & friends die fairly young from various cancers & illnesses. Can't help but feel that food, water, air quality, etc, is declining, leading to increased health problems. I'm attempting to improve the quality of my food & diet.
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jsh
.327 Meteor
Posts: 884
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Post by jsh on Apr 2, 2018 17:41:02 GMT -5
"I'd urge everyone here to stay far, far away from Glyphosate (Roundup). It's some seriously bad Mgumbo and it stays residually in the soil for a significant amount of time. We use it in commercial applications, but it won't ever, ever be used at the farm. Same goes for Trimec. That stuff works great, but is straight-up killer poison."
After having worked in agriculture for close to 20 years, the above I am sorry to say is not completely true. Anything in excess is not healthy. Glyphosate has no residual that I am aware of. I have seen people point at RU off and on for years. The big issue now was mostly caused from people not following directions, rates were cut in half or more years back. It did not kill the plant completely and over the years it built up resistance.
When one gets on this subject, they should be wide eyed. According to some studies there is so much atrazine in the Missouri River you should be able to pump right out of it on to corn and kill weeds. They will throw in that acceptable amounts are higher today than years ago. What the neglect to mention is they went from PPM to PPB. They will throw numbers around then not give all the facts.
I won't try and school anyone on using chemicals.
As to the honey bees, I believe it for sure.
Look at what they find in the water they bottle from glaciers...........
Weeds are just plants out of place. Don't want them there, get a hoe.
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JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,428
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Post by JM on Apr 2, 2018 17:53:52 GMT -5
...Weeds are just plants out of place. Don't want them there, get a hoe. Well... That is more or less what I've been doing, but its easy to see that I'm losing at a rapid rate & I'm not growing any younger. |
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Post by dougphillips on Apr 2, 2018 18:30:48 GMT -5
How about a weed torch like one of these: flameengineering.com/You obviously have to be a little careful with it, but there are zero harmful chemicals |
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Post by dougphillips on Apr 2, 2018 18:32:23 GMT -5
Besides, it looks like it might have a lot of fun uses, too.......  |
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Odin
.327 Meteor
Posts: 978
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Post by Odin on Apr 2, 2018 18:52:10 GMT -5
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Post by bradshaw on Apr 2, 2018 19:27:51 GMT -5
Seeking advice on a way to kill weeds without poisoning food bearing trees & plants. Don't really trust manufacturers claims about safety. How often has something been marketed as safe, only to find out later that it was not? Thank you. ***** John.... the Dustbowl of the 1930’s was created through monoculture and the moldboard plow, kicking the door wide for wind erosion. Confined to an acre, how well your land provides for your table and for animals will probably come down to whether to take a path of sustainability (long term), or profit (immediate gain). Perhaps your location doesn’t apply, but healthy soil in may places supports a million earthworms per acre, sometimes many more; each a little sodbuster contributing to the micro life of the soil. If poisons are so safe, why is poisoned soil devoid of earthworms and micro life, and why is the soil so resistant to absorbing water? And why must chemicals constantly be applied to grow anything? While hunting years ago with Dr. Kenneth Oehler, the Chronograph Maestro and a Texan, he recounted something his grandfather told him as a boy: “The Indian was a much better husband of the land than the white man.” Ken Oehler said that his grandfather remembered riding his horse through belly-high grass. Now, grass grows thin on those rolling hills of Central Texas. In his memoir, perhaps the finest piece of presidential writing----certainly among the best in American history----Ulysses S. Grant describes marching through the Texas territory and Mexico. From buffalo “as far as the eye can see” on the plains to the north, to “herds of wild horses” stretching to the horizon, General Grant describes grass growing high as the chest of a man. Buffalo mowed grass from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River, spreading manure on the march. The buffalo then turns around to eat the next crop. That may be a cartoon view, yet the truth immutable, and thousands if not millions of years in the making. Today, I know farmers who switched from chemical to organic dairy farming. They work just as hard as they ever did, but with more money to in their own pocket. Overall, it seems they live with less stress. Their cows live longer, and aren’t loaded with steroids and antibiotics. Soil tests are a start. Mulch is an excellent way to control weeds, providing the mulch is available and sweet enough for what you want to grow. No matter how you slice it, to be a sodbuster is work. David Bradshaw |
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JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,428
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Post by JM on Apr 2, 2018 19:33:53 GMT -5
How about a weed torch like one of these: flameengineering.com/You obviously have to be a little careful with it, but there are zero harmful chemicals I've been considering this approach. Thanks. |
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JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,428
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Post by JM on Apr 2, 2018 19:36:07 GMT -5
Wow! That is very clever. Thanks. |
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JM
.375 Atomic
Posts: 2,428
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Post by JM on Apr 2, 2018 19:45:42 GMT -5
Seeking advice on a way to kill weeds without poisoning food bearing trees & plants. Don't really trust manufacturers claims about safety. How often has something been marketed as safe, only to find out later that it was not? Thank you. ***** John.... the Dustbowl of the 1930’s was created through monoculture and the moldboard plow, kicking the door wide for wind erosion. Confined to an acre, how well your land provides for your table and for animals will probably come down to whether to take a path of sustainability (long term), or profit (immediate gain). Perhaps your location doesn’t apply, but healthy soil in may places supports a million earthworms per acre, sometimes many more; each a little sodbuster contributing to the micro life of the soil. If poisons are so safe, why is poisoned soil devoid of earthworms and micro life, and why is the soil so resistant to absorbing water? And why must chemicals constantly be applied to grow anything? While hunting years ago with Dr. Kenneth Oehler, the Chronograph Maestro and a Texan, he recounted something his grandfather told him as a boy: “The Indian was a much better husband of the land than the white man.” Ken Oehler said that his grandfather remembered riding his horse through belly-high grass. Now, grass grows thin on those rolling hills of Central Texas. In his memoir, perhaps the finest piece of presidential writing----certainly among the best----in American history, Ulysses S. Grant describes marching through the Texas territory and Mexico. From buffalo “as far as the eye can see” on the plains to the north, to “herds of wild horses” stretching to the horizon, General Grant describes grass growing high as the chest of a man. Buffalo mowed grass from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River, spreading manure on the march. The buffalo then turns around to eat the next crop. That may be a cartoon view, yet the truth immutable, and thousands if not millions of years in the making. Today I know farmers who switched from chemical to organic dairy farming. They work just as hard as they ever did, with more money in their pocket. Overall, it seems they live with less stress. Their cows live longer, and aren’t loaded with steroids and antibiotics. Soil tests are a start. Mulch is an excellent way to control weeds, providing the mulch is available and sweet enough for what you want to grow. No matter how you slice it, to be a sodbuster is work. David Bradshaw I won't be raising any animals here. Not enough property. I'm locating folks nearby that raise meat. I'll be concentrating on gardening. I'm told that potatoes were grown here before. Plus the native grasses fed cattle. I think that over grazing took place. The soil looks somewhat sandy compared to what I saw in the Northwest. That soil was either rich/dark soil, or clay. My previous backyard was clay. I mixed worm castings & a variety of amendments in plastic trash cans, then filled 10 gallon pots. The soil would be returned to the covered trash cans each winter before the rains came. PS. Not many earth-worms here. Very dry, high desert, conditions. |
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