lawn weeds organic help

[HappyPlanet]

How do I stop the weeds in jy lawn. Last year I pulled them all out by hand but it was a nightmare.


II don't want to use weed killer like roundup as it causes cancer imo.

Thanks in advance for any help

[imafan26]

The organic weed killers like salt, boiling water and vinegar are even more toxic to the soil than Round Up in the long run, except the boiling water, but that will kill the grass too. You can use preen and green to prevent weed seeds from germinating, but you still have to pull the weeds. It will not stop persistent weeds that propagate vegetatively.

If your lawn is more weeds than grass or it is over 7 years old. I might be time to renovate anyway. Healthy grass competes better than compacted, nutritionally starved turf that has been underfed, underwatered and has not been aerated and top dressed a couple of times a year every year. After 7 years the thatch can build up anyway and it is time to remove the old sod. Kill the weeds, amend and start over.

[AnnaIkona]

I agree with imafan26. Although vinegar is a good natural weed killer, it is not only toxic to the weeds but also the grass and if you use it, you may accidentally kill the grass as well

[imafan26]

As to carcinogens. If you breathe the air, use perlite, breathe in bone dust, consume peanut butter, go out in the sun,eat a lot of BBQ or "burnt" foods, smoked meats, smoke or even stand next to someone who smokes you are being exposed to carcinogens. It doesn't mean every one will get cancer, but cancer has been around for thousands of years. It is just that people are living longer now and medicine has improved longevity and also kept some people alive to reproduce who have 'bad genes', that make them more prone to certain illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The genetic risks are much higher than risk from exposure to substances unless of course you are being exposed to them in large amounts frequently like people who worked with asbestos or worked in mines. Most of the cancer studies are based on rats being fed excessive amounts of things they would not normally eat. Also look at the source of the information you are getting. If it is not from a scientific group, or from an organization with an agenda, take it with a grain of salt. Besides, why would anyone deliberately eat plants sprayed with excessive amounts of Round Up anyway. Isn't that why a lot of us are growing our own?

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on Thursday said glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto weedkiller Roundup, was unlikely to cause cancer in humans, and proposed a higher limit on the daily amount of residue of the popular weed killer that people can safely consume.

EFSA advises EU policymakers and its conclusion will be used by the European Commission to decide whether to extend the current approval period for glyphosate, which ends on Dec. 31.

Environmental groups have been calling for a ban after the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, said in March that glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans". Some businesses and authorities have sought to limit glyphosate use.

"This has been an exhaustive process - a full assessment that has taken into account a wealth of new studies and data," Jose Tarazona, head of the pesticides unit at Parma, Italy-based EFSA, said in a statement.

"Regarding carcinogenicity, it is unlikely that this substance is carcinogenic."

EFSA scientists, who worked with experts from EU member states, said their study differed from IARC's in that it considered only glyphosate, whereas IARC had assessed groups of related chemicals. They said the toxic effects could be related to reactions with "other constituents or 'co-formulants'".

However, they are for the first time proposing a limit on the maximum safe daily dose, of 0.5 milligrams per kilogram (three quarters of an ounce per pound) of body weight.

That means an 175 pound person could safely eat food containing 40 milligrams of glyphosate per day for the rest of his or her life.

[rainbowgardener]

I agree that Round-Up is not very toxic to humans and not highly carcinogenic, in occasional exposure. The main concern about Round-Up for humans is for farm workers who have frequent exposures to higher doses of it and to inhalation (note most of the studies of RU carcinogenicity test oral exposure, but it is broken down in the digestive system, inhaling it is much more toxic). RU is now being linked to increased rates of cancers and birth defects in farm communities.

BUT my main concern about RU is not about humans but about its effects in the environment. Glyphosate can be acutely toxic to non-target plants, including aquatic plants and algae. The effects of this toxicity on natural plant succession alters the ecology of treated areas. In most cases, the plant species diversity will decrease, and along with it, the numbers of insects, mammals and birds utilizing these areas as habitat.

Glyphosate does reduce the growth of beneficial soil-dwelling mycorrhizal fungi, which function to increase nutrient uptake by plants through a symbiotic association with the roots. Mycorrhizae have been implicated in the improved resistance to stress, and are necessary for the proper growth and development of most vascular plants. Glyphosate destroys nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil. Glyphosate, by inhibiting the growth of some microbes, allows the overgrowth of others. This includes microbial plant pathogens. Fusarium is a naturally occurring soil fungus that is a plant pathogen. Fusarium invades the roots of plants and either kills the plant outright or prevents normal growth. Thus plants in areas treated with glyphosate will be more vulnerable to fusarium and other pathogens.

This is a thread I did collecting a lot of data about various herbicides and pesticides used in the garden: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=57653 It gives a lot of the citations where this info comes from.

So if you aren't going to use poisons, then what? Part of my answer to that is not to try to have a grass monoculture, which is a barren wasteland as far as any ecological value anyway. One of the commonest lawn weeds is clover, which is a nitrogen fixer and good for your lawn and it has nectar flowers that honeybees love. Dandelions and violets provide lovely bursts of yellow and purple color and are edible. Dandelion has a deep tap root, so it brings up minerals and nutrients from deep below the surface. Very beneficial in the compost pile, where these are released. Plantain is another common lawn weed and it is a wonderful healing herb, which takes the pain right out of bee stings. So I am happy to let my lawn be a miniature meadow. As long as you keep it mowed, it looks just as smooth and green as anyone else's lawn.

What I do is just dig out weeds that are large, coarse like thistles, etc. Whenever I dig a weed out, I immediately plant grass seed in that spot. In this way, I keep the lawn being partly grass. If in some spots, the ratio of weeds to grass is getting high enough that it isn't looking as much like a lawn any more, I give that patch a good hard raking, to get rid of thatch and expose more dirt and then over-seed with grass seed.

[imafan26]

I agree with Rainbow on that. Grass is very demanding and I would rather plant other things that I can eat and limit grass since I really hate weed whacking.

[rainbowgardener]

Yup

1) I try not to have much lawn, get rid of it in favor of veggies, herbs, flowers, shrubs, etc

2) where I have lawn, I don't worry too much about whether it is grass or other short green things....