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Friends,
Leone’s comment about not leaving a hole around dead foliage before spraying with Roundup may well be right on target. I regularly spray my daffodil beds with Roundup after the foliage has died down. I lost a number of bulbs in a couple of my beds where the soil was often cracked open when I sprayed Roundup. Until the bulb loss a couple of years ago, I had not really considered the danger of Roundup entering the cracks and ending up on the bulbs. I have noticed that when I dig bulbs there is often still some nose tissue that looks very much alive; therefore, if Roundup did make it down through a crack in the soil to the nose, it very well could be absorbed into the bulb and kill it. No, I have not run a controlled experiment to test the hypothesis that Roundup making contact with bulbs through cracked soil might damage/kill them. However, I do wonder, and I will close up the cracks this year before spraying Roundup to control summer weeds.
Ted
Ted, 101 Water Oaks Drive Mississippi |
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Ted,
I use round-up on my daffodil beds for the last 10 years or so to control the grass and weeds, however, this is after the daffodils have died back and disapperared.
I usually take a “scuffle” hoe and cut the foliage and inch or so below the bed surface. This process closes up the “hole” that can allow round-up or other insects into the bulb location. The scuffle hoe makes fast work out of the de-foliation of the daffodil bed. The how can be sharpened with the common flat-file.
I use the term scuffle hoe for a garden tool that has a flat blade that points out from the handle at a slightly upward angle, not the common garden hoe that is at 90 degrees from the handle. The scuffle hoe made for sliding on top of the bed (or slightly under the crust), instead of digging into it. Merrifield Garden center in VA has sold them in the past, I’m not sure if they still do.
Clay
Clay Higgins
