pre-emergent herbicides

Watch Reply
More
Mark unread Print Skip to new
nancysaltsman Livermore, CA Aug 10, 2004

I'd like to hear your opinions on pre-emergents
thanks
nancy

Post #995741
Quote
gardenwife Newark, OH(Zone 5b) Aug 10, 2004

I love them. I've used Preen as well as Wal-Mart's store brand. We have a large area beneath some fir trees which is a real hotbed for garlic mustard (we're talking seeds viable for 7 years here). When we used the pre-emergent, all we had to do was get rid of the existing weeds. Last year we didn't apply it, and we had garlic mustard everywhere, from a few plants that bloomed nearby. Ack!

Post #995874
Quote
echoes Aug 11, 2004

How close to a flower bed can you use that stuff? I'm talking gravel drive.

Post #997319
Quote
AngelSong Victoria, TX(Zone 9b) Aug 11, 2004

echoes - Preen is a pre-emergent designed for flower-beds.

As for weeds in a gravel driveway, I'd go for Round-Up, being careful not to spray the leaves or ground of the flowerbeds.

Post #997353
Quote
echoes Aug 11, 2004

Got to see if I can find some Preen. I use Round-Up too, but maybe I could use Preen or something like on the drive close to the flower beds. I'd rather keep them from starting than kill them and leave that ugly mess.

Post #997446
Quote
gardenwife Newark, OH(Zone 5b) Aug 11, 2004

A combination of the two is what I'd do. An herbicide will only kill plants, not keep new seeds from sprouting. A pre-emergent will not kill seedlings, but will keep seeds from sprouting in the first place. There will always be the odd weed seed blowing into the gravel, so a pre-emergent will keep the weeds away once you've killed any plants that had already sprouted.

If you don't care about your flowers re-seeding in their beds, you could use Preen in them to keep weed seeds from sprouting in them.

By the way...We've seen much, much better results with Spectracide than we ever did with any of the Roundup formulas. Once the herbicide kills the weeds, they shrivel up and almost disappear - they get crunchy and crumble away.

Spectracide started turning the weeds brown within hours and we rarely had to re-apply it. It's even worked on an established bed of Boston ivy! There's just a few small spots we need to hit again.

Thumbnail by gardenwife
Post #997765
Quote

Post a Reply to this Thread

Please or sign up to post.
Back to Forum Homepage

More General Discussion & Chat Threads

Go to all General Discussion & Chat threads
BACK TO TOP