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Weed and Feed fertilizers are being advertised every where this time of the year. They are really a bad idea whose time has come.

Even the “chemical guys that think synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are ok have come over to our side and are now saying not to use Weed and Feed products in your landscape.

Pre-emergent herbicides should be applied about 2 months before water-soluble synthetic fertilizers like those used in the weed and feed products

Using the synthetic Nitrogen based fertilizers early in the year allows them too much time to be leached down into the soil or washed into our rivers and streams before the grass starts to grow. Only a small percentage ever gets used by your grass, the rest ends up in our rivers and streams causing algae blooms and other ecological problems.

If your landscape is similar to most of the rest of ours, you also have trees. shrubs and other plants besides just grass.

The Weed and Feed products contain Atrazine, 2-4-D, Mecoprop, and Dicamba in various percentages and combinations. They are all bad for all the plants in your landscape except your grass.

Remember the roots of your trees, shrubs and other plants run under your grass and all over your landscape so when you apply these herbicides to your lawn, you are also applying them to all of your other plants as well.

According to W.T. Thompsons Agricultural Chemicals, Book II “Herbicides” 13th edition. “Atrazine residues may remain in the soil for over a year, may move laterally with water as well as leach down. “Do not apply near desirable plants”. In the same reference he also warns against the use of 2-4-D and the other herbicides because of their effects on desirable

landscape plants with the same quote “Do not use near desirable plants”.

Do these products sound like something you want to use around your trees, shrubs and other landscape plants?

In addition, Atrazine, a cancer causing toxic herbicide, has been banned in seven European countries, including Germany, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands. But in the United States it is the most widely used pesticide, with 75 million pounds used on lawns, corn crops and other commercial crops annually. The other herbicides have similar, if not more

questionable ecological histories.

THE ORGANIC ALTERNATIVE;

Corn gluten meal is a natural weed and feed. It’s an excellent organic fertilizer and an effective pre-emergent weed control for annuals such as grass burs, clover oxalis and over 100 other weeds and undesirable plants. It is available in both powder and granulated forms. The powered ones are usually cheaper and may even work better but are very messy, especially if windy. The granulated forms work well in most ordinary spreaders.

Apply at 15 to 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet of landscape and water in.

Once Corn Gluten Meal has finished its pre-emergent work it breaks down into a very effective 9 or 10 percent organic nitrogen source for your landscape.

Good Gardening