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Overgrown weeds

phillipsteadphillipstead Posts: 6
in Problem solving

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What do I do?

live got weed killer but once done do I have to dig them out or just cover to kill them? Get a rotavator, will the roots regrow? Please I need a step by step. I just want a nice lawn.  

Thanks in advance 

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,088

    If you use a glyphosate weedkiller it will take 2 weeks for the active ingredients to work their way down to the roots and kill the weeds but some are very persistent and may come back and need a respray.   It is not a good idea to rotavate live roots of couch grass, bindweed and so on as they just become so many little cuttings that grow into new plants.

    Check your weed killer for the words glyphosate and systemic to make sure it does go down to the roots or you will end up with dead surface material, probably within days, but living roots that will re-grow.

    Once you're sure it's dead you can rotavate the soil to prepare it for levelling and treading before either sowing seed or laying turf.   You can hire a rotavator if you don't have one.  Seed is cheaper but slower and is best done in April or September as that is when temperatures and rainfall are at their most favorable.  

    Whatever you do, don't hurry or skimp on the preparatory process, even if that means trying to sow in May or June.  There's bound to be a cool patch that will do for sowing.  Just avoid a heatwave and have a sprinkler handy in case it's dry.

    Here's some advice from the RHS - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=424 

    Last edited: 05 April 2017 19:01:10

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • phillipsteadphillipstead Posts: 6

    Thanks. So once dead I can rotorvate without having to dig them all up?

  • GrannybeeGrannybee Posts: 332

    Doesn't rotovating make things worse? I always thought it creates lots of root cuttings which grow back vigorously.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,146

    Once the glyphosate has travelled down into the roots of the plant and the plant is brown it and the roots are dead.  That will take 2 to 3 weeks after  spraying.  

    It will then be fine to rotavate. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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