New Grow Bed?

timeless

I have a ton of seedlings and newly rooted cuttings that I want to put in a grow bed for a few years.

I recently moved to a new location which has several overrun (with weeds) flower beds. The beds are bordered with RR cross ties. My question..can I spray the weeds with roundup to kill them? I have already mowed them down with the lawn mower and they are a foot tall again in a week. If I can use the round up, how long after using it can i safely transplant the stock? I plan to till the soil in the beds as deeply as possible when I get rid of the weeds. The beds are approximately 8ft x 8ft. What is the best amendment for a bed this size (for drainage)?

I have lots of grow boxes, but I quickly ran out of room on my benches. I still have several hundred cuttings to do something with and thought this would be the best option.

Thanks in advance for your usual helpfulness!

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FredL

If it were me, I would not use RoundUp. I would use a Roto Tiller or even hand spade the beds, which is laborious, but that's how I do things. I find that weeds decrease over the years and make good mulch when dug under. I have a great distrust of Herbicides, probably way overdone, so you would not be mistaken to discount my advice.

Fred

bmor

My answer is "it depends". It depends on your timetable for utilization of the beds. Round Up will kill things quickly but there may be more seeds lurking in the soil. You could then till and safely plant fairly quickly then after seeing that the stuff has killed the weeds.
Tilling is a must regardless of what you do and could work as Fred has pointed out providing a mulch but some of the weed seeds will linger in the top few inches of soil. I understand that weed seeds can last many years without germinating.

my two cents would be to pull as many weeds as possible ( by hand ) and discard (not compost). then leave the bed a week or two to see what else surfaces. You can then either continue to pull by hand or Round up the selected weeds. I prefer to spot spray weeds given that nature of Round Up and it's potential to kill anything nearby with one missed shot. I'd then, rototill the soil and add compost, peat, sand or whatever your soil is lacking. Compost is typically a great thing to add as it helps will all soil types.

hope this helps and again, it's just my two cents.

bill

TreeBay

Roundup was supposedly actually developed as a rooting stimulant. When it hits the foliage it sends the plant into a tailspin. Some folks were advocating its use as a rooting hormone awhile back, and International Bonsai's Bill Valavanis was discussing using it on weeds in bonsai pots sevearl years ago, but that went over like a lead grafting knife.

Anway the roundup site says you can plant within 24 hours of application


http://www.roundup.com

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jeremy_norbury

But it's really nice getting down there on your hands and knees and pulling the buggers out one by one...

And if Bill said it's OK, I'd be tempted to have a go with some weed poison afterwards.

Whatever you do, it's necessary to till the ground, adding humus, drainage medium etc.

Jerry
Amsterdam

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timeless

Thanks for all the replies. I will get all the weeds out hopefully this week. We had a lot of rain today from the outer bands of Hurricane francis. I just checked and the bed does not appear to be overly wet. I have access to about a semi load of composted sawdust (app. 1/4 inch chunks) would this be suitable for adding to the bed? And also what other kind of material should I add for extra drainage?

jeremy_norbury

1/4 inch is real-men's sawdust!

As long as it is composted, it sounds ideal.

In my beds I put in a load of 4-6mm sharp granite grit (that's like 1/8-1/5 inch) granite grit.

Also whenever I'm repotting I throw my old pot contents in there too - Akadama and/or Seramis (turface).

Jerry
Amsterdam

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FredL

I would definitely add the sawdust or any other organic material I could find. I add all our kitchen waste, yard trimmings, even newspaper to ours.

There is an old belief that sawdust or other low Nitrogen organic material will "rob" the soil of Nitrogen. I think this was thought because bacteria and fungi contain a much higher proportion of Nitrogen than do green plants. From what I have seen recently, that belief seems to be discredited more recently. I have been "trench composing" for many years and never found it to be a problem. My approach is to get everything I can of an organic nature into my soil. I have found this to be very successful over the years.

Fred.

vance hanna

All in all...drainage is the key to a successful bed. I've not had a growing bed for nearly 20 yrs now, but prior to that, yes, for about 10. It was placed in a naturally occuring gravel/sand slope. All I really had to do was fertilize every so often. At that, the old saying that Kieth Scott told me 30yrs ago: cheap and on sale.

Yep that is about it.

Some sharp shooting of the roots once a year is a must. I wired in ground and pruned them regularly.

Best of luck. That is the best thing anyone who's starting out can do: put up a growing bed!

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vance hanna
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