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Nj

Ever sense I tilled, thousands of weeds have been popping up! How should I keep them down, now, and through the season? I was thinking of putting newspaper down, to block the light from them, in turn killing them, or do you think I should use some kind of herbicide?

Thanks
John

4/22/2004 3:20:56 PM

Spanish Ontario

if you are not plantingfor a couple of week,s spray with ROUNDUP when green
growth turns brown till under again
do NOT spray when it is wet at least 6 hr,s before rain

4/22/2004 3:57:03 PM

Wisconsin

Congratulations. You just figured out what you are going to be doing all summer - weeding.

There are not many short cuts. I use grass clippings for mulch to hold the weeds down a little but I wonder if I am not creating an environment for bugs to live in within the clippings. Otherwise I use a rake and knock them down when they are small (before the roots gets too deep).

4/22/2004 8:08:30 PM

Nj

lol Jim, I will not spend the summer weeding! :) in between vines, I am putting hay down I think, and at the end of the year, I can till it in for OM.

John

4/22/2004 8:55:56 PM

[email protected]

Careful with the grass clippings too.. the nitrogen from the fresh clippings can be harmful (burn your plants) if you are not careful too.. It heats up pretty darn good..

4/22/2004 11:19:04 PM

Pulaski Tn [email protected]

if you spray roundup and "dont" till it under you wont have as many weeds come up from my experience..when you break the soil, thats when the weed seed become exposed and sprout.. there is a new generic roundup out that is way way cheaper than the brand name roundup..

4/22/2004 11:32:47 PM

Caceres, mid west of Spain

All the advices from the best heavy hitters I have collected coincide in good traditional gardenning practices as the key for the success in harvesting a real Giant. In my region one of the indication of good gardening is to have always the patch free from weeds.
In some of the diaries now shown here you can observe some weeds close to the little plants. For me that is amazing. People don't realize the effect of weeds, because they appear like thin small green things. We want to get the maximum! don't we? and in order to get it, we analyze the patch, add to the soil all we can, bid for great seeds, pay a fantastic watering system, and then are we going to use a herbicide that can slow down our beloved plant growth??? (I am not talking on ecologism, but in pounds).
Please growers, take the hoe, it won't harm your hands nor your back, and your pumpkins will appreciate it. You will get a bigger pumpkin with two well cared plants than with 200 bad cared ones.

Carlos

4/23/2004 4:01:06 AM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

John goodluck with the hay as mulch unless its salt marsh hay otherwise Hay = Weeds. It will be just waiting for you to till it in. Now Rye Straw or Threshed Oat straw is not so bad.

4/23/2004 5:09:57 AM

Itzetown City

Well said Carlos, but I would not use the hoe between the vines. So long as the Patch is free or at space where the plant is not grown, there it is very easy to remove the weeds with the hoe. And where is the problem? Near the vines, most of the weeds have no chance to grow in order the leaves take the most of light away from it. And that little weed what grow near the vines you can remove easely if you make pestcontrol.

4/23/2004 6:26:04 AM

Montoursville, PA

Carlos is right on target again. Just because Round-Up biodegrades in a day or two does not make it a friendly product within the growing medium. There are many during and after biodegrading facts that are not on that label. There is little talk and data provided that reveals the harm it can do the the biological side of the patch in addition to rubbing out the plant life it touches. Round-up is a most questionable product. I am not really impressed with the fact it is approved to grow cum quats in the Garden of Eden.

4/23/2004 6:29:58 AM

C N Y

i've yet to look-into a product called Sideswipe, a type of spongey roller on a stick thing that looks like a hockey stick that you put RoundUp in, and anything the spongey part touches gets Roundup on it. also, Boily told me to
get a weed-free hoe (no jokes, please) lol, and i think that was the same thing----AND there is another thing called a circlehoe, which is just that, a circular piece of metal
with a sharp edge on it that supposedly just BARELY "scratches" the surface and only gets the weeds, not the roots just under the surface....justacouplethings...'pal2 i used a hoe in 2001,
actually on my 845 plant (produced my 728.5), and discovered the roots WERE just below the surface, which i did not know about yet...the edge of the hoe was sharpened with a grinder and did a nice job of removing the surficial weeds...it was like dusting the furniture, looking real nice when i got done! but, at what expense....you know what i think??? i think the root system that is just below the surface is only the tip of the iceberg, and a LITTLE damage such as what i was just mentioning is probably not a big deal. of course, i am not recommending that ANYONE go out and start doing what i did, but at the same time, if you HATE weeds like i do, a good head start can be obtained
in such ways to make the rest of the weeding not seem so intimidating. and another thing, as my own sprouting day approaches, what if we were to plant something ALONG with our pumpkin plants that was a very low-growing ground cover that only got to be a few inches high, was NOT a heavy nitrogen feeder, and therefore just by being there prevented any other weeds from forming---you know, BURDOCKS,
GOLDENROD, and those spiny little monsters that you can't pull-out because they basically sting you, lol,.....what if, oh what if......ground cover.......hmmmmmm......'pal2

4/23/2004 6:27:23 PM

Kenyon, Mn.

Anybody here(besides me) own a flame thrower? I love my handy-dandy propane torch, The weeds don't! Of course Ya can't use it after the vines grow near, but a quick pass over the lil boogers and they are history

4/23/2004 7:18:41 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

I'm with you Bumpy...mine works great too.

4/23/2004 9:41:12 PM

Independence, MO

Interesting concept!
Now I have to get mine out and ready for this season!

4/23/2004 10:36:09 PM

Kenyon, Mn.

Heck yes, all the farmers around here that have "gone organic" have retro-fit there spray buggies and made themselves "FLAMERS" (Hmmmm, different meaning in San Fran.):o)

4/24/2004 7:01:24 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

small flamethrower...it really does save *alot* of time, extremely useful and fast (saves the back too)

4/24/2004 7:59:00 AM

West Chazy,N.Y.

If you do not want to use chemicals to kill
the weeds, Boiling water will do the trick too!!

4/24/2004 10:32:16 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

That sounds like work lugging boiling H2O around, scary too. You'd kill any pumpkin roots also if you get too close to the plant.

4/24/2004 11:11:47 PM

New Brunswick

I used straw last year. I layed it down thick all over the patch and right up to and around each plant. I pulled it away as the vines grew. It worked wonderfull well....no weeds! What few weeds that grew right next to the plants were easily pulled.

4/26/2004 8:42:50 PM