Weed killer overspray... please help

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ruby2sday
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Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by ruby2sday »

Urgent prob here - all help and suggestions would be gratefully received.

Some of the "kids" (yep, that's what I call them) looked really sick yesterday, and I was at a loss to explain why.

Then I noticed the masses of yellow patches in the new neighbour's backyard :(

I'm sure they've copped some overspray of weed killer, carried on the current stong wind. Checked with neighbour - spraying was on Saturday and the product used was:

Brunnings Glyphosate Weed Kill contains a lower concentration of Glyphosate, but is still extremely effective as a complete weed killer suitable for paths, driveways, garden beds, lawn edges and rockeries. Glyphosate is not a selective weed killer, so caution should be used around other plants including lawns.

The Glyphosate formulation kills all weeds it contacts but is non-residual enabling plants to be grown in the treated area, normally within 14 days of treatment. This makes it ideal for garden beds.


Image

Those affected are:

Trident Maple forest
Ficus Nerifolia
Little Ruby Fig
Azalea (Rose Queen)
Camelia Sasanqua Hiryu
Serissa
Olive

Can anything be done to stop them any/all from dying?
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by Mojo Moyogi »

ruby2sday,
wait and see is probably your only course of action 4 days after herbicide contact. Tell you neighbour to read the instructions, especially the bit about spraying in the wind. Then get them to write you a cheque/call their insurance company/hand over their car keys. That's negligence on the part of you neigbour, you shouldn't have to suffer this fool.

Cheers,
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Last edited by Mojo Moyogi on February 15th, 2011, 6:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by Matthew »

Isent Glyphosate the main ingrediant in ROUNDUP? if so your trees are in trouble. Round up works on contact it relies on the plants to obsorb it into its pours through leafs etc. If the dose was large enough im afried death is almost certain, yellowing of the leafs is the first sign, the growth may droop than fall off and so on. keep and eye under the bark and see if it remains green. If it turns brown your trees a goner. I would be most pissed with your neighbour if he is defiantly the course, maybe enough for court action depending how much the trees are valued at. Out on the property we use roundup, grazon,mcpa alot. We are always mindful of our neighbours and wind carry etc we wil lonly spray on calm days. good luck :fc:
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by Bougy Fan »

Sorry to hear about the disaster :palm: The only way to neutralise glyphosate is to wash it off the foliage immediately. I think you will just have to give them some TLC and hope that it was just minor spary drift

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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by BoNZai »

Sorry about what has happened to you in regards to the Glyphosate. All is not lost, believe me. A the moment there is nothing that you can do other then lots and I mean lots of water and fertilise. The tree will look sick for a while but with water and fert it will get through it.The more healthy foliage you can save/grow, the better the tree will respond. Photosynthesis is the name of the game here.

Insurance and all that drama will be a pain. You will need to PROVE that your neighbours glyphosate spraying has caused the problem

In the mean time: Do not give up on the tree

Regards

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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by leviathan »

i have lots of future bonsais growing in the ground at work and one day our weed sprayer accidently sprayed the lot of them with round up
i didnt find out till hours later, so i thoroughly washed them with water a few times, i had a cloth and wiped the foliage as i sprayed water on them and they all made a full recovery and were fine :)
just hope u are not too late
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by ruby2sday »

Thanks so much for your replies and support... I've been stressed to the max since I worked out the cause this afternoon.
noah78 wrote:I would be most pissed with your neighbour
I'm more p*ssed at hubby. Neighbour saw him hand weeding a couple of weeks ago and asked for advice on how to best get rid of the new growth of poinciana that their yard is riddled with (they felled a huge poinciana when they moved in a month ago).

Hubby replied that we always hand weed - but failed to explain the importance of why we don't spray weed killer.
noah78 wrote:yellowing of the leafs is the first sign, the growth may droop than fall off and so on
Trident Maple's leaves have turned completely yellow, all the Azalea's leaves are drooping sadly, Ficus has some yellow leaves (but is temperamental at the best of times, so could have escaped it), Serissa is yellowing... Little Ruby, Camellia & Olive are all losing leaves at a rapid rate.

The other kids in our collection appear to be unaffected.
Bougy Fan wrote:The only way to neutralise glyphosate is to wash it off the foliage immediately.
Four days after the event is likely too late :(
BoNZai wrote:A the moment there is nothing that you can do other then lots and I mean lots of water and fertilise.
That was my first thought... but I recalled some herbicides are activated by water (i.e. work better if applied just before rain).
leviathan wrote:just hope u are not too late
Feeling desperate about it... would soaking in a tray of water be better than flushing the soil from above? Bump up the sun... or move into the shade?

Thanks again,

Ruby
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by Mudeye »

Sad news,
if your kids got a good foilage water saturday?? most weed killers say rain or water within the next 24 hours may affect results. So it could have been watered into your soil so a repot could help????but if your new neighbour's lawn went yellow after a few days then the mix was more weed killer then water,and if the leaves look sick try a warm water mist spray in the afternoon/evening only on the foilage don't wet the soil with warm water.

Mud
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by Damian Bee »

Repotting to get rid of the poison wont help, Glysophate works by stopping photosynthesis and also breaking down the plants vascular system. You would have been best to wash off the stuff as soon as you noticed and do a little pruning. Mojo is right, what a fool your neighbour is and yes you should contact the council and insurance about him
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by BoNZai »

Glyphosate is not activated by water.

The chemical has already been taken up by your trees. Washing of leaves is not going to make a difference anymore. Repotting at this time could be detrimental as the trees are already stressed by the chemical uptake so do not stress it anymore by repotting.
Water, fert and keep fingers x'd. Even if all leaves drop of, it could well be that it will come away again next spring

Cheers

BoNZai
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by Graeme »

Your trees will be using water at much greater rate than normal. This is the plants natural defence over Glyphosate as it trys to rid itself of the poison. Your best bet would be to dunk the trees and dunk them as often as possible so the soil will be kept constantly wet. Keep the dunking up for as long as possible, without adversly affecting the tree. To give you some hope, I have used weak Roundup to defoliate figs in the past so all may not be lost. Best of luck with it all.
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Re: Weed killer overspray... please help

Post by ruby2sday »

Thanks to everyone who replied - I really appreciate it.

Too soon to tell yet, but they've all had a decent dash of fertiliser and daily soak baths.

Ironic that this should happen just as they were really starting to adapt to their new environment (we moved up here from southern NSW in September).

Adjusting to the different climate has been, umm, interesting. New pests, hard water... we had a couple of casualties :palm:

Thanks again

Ruby
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