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New Salisbury IN

Anybody have info on pre-Emergence herbicides my seed will
be started in a greenhouse and I dont like to weed

11/16/2004 9:47:18 AM

ENGLAND

DO NOT USE IT. To the best of my knowlege there is no Pre-Emergence Herbicide that is safe to use on ground where any member of the Cucurbit family is to be grown. There may be such Chemicals in the USA but there is non here in the UK.

11/16/2004 10:09:38 AM

Indiana

I have heard of a couple new ones any thoughts on these Tremor http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/newsletters/vpmnews/apr02/art3apr.html

11/16/2004 10:30:03 AM

Indiana

http://www.nevbc.org/sessions/pumpkin_school2/weed_management_pumpkins.pdf

This sounds ok too

11/16/2004 10:42:42 AM

Montoursville, PA

You may wish to give the words (corn gluten) to google and read up. Corn Gluten is available through most organic based suppliers. Corn Gluten also provides organic based nitrogen over a long period of time. I purchase it from Fertrell. Fertrell has a national distributer's list within their web site.

Actually a high PH is a weed preventative. Many weeds do not like the higher PH of 7.0 area we hope to have in our patches. The shade from the canopy is a weed preventative. A light mulch is a weed preventative.

11/16/2004 11:44:03 AM

Alex, IN

I used preen on some of my plants this year. You CAN NOT! put it down until the plant has five true leaves or is two weeks old. But after that it works great, I had no weeds around the base of my plants which is where I put it.

Hope That Helps,
Mikkal

11/16/2004 12:06:38 PM

Oz

mulch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

11/16/2004 3:36:48 PM

That State Up North

roundup

11/16/2004 3:43:07 PM

New Salisbury IN

I use Roundup and it works but I have a lot of weed seeds
that then come up later to close to the pumpkins

11/16/2004 4:09:27 PM

I'm with Gordon... GO UTES!

My wife actually applied Preen all over this year. At the
time the plants were inside hoophouses, and the Preen went
only on the outside of the hoophouses. There was at least a
month in the interim... that is, the plant didn't get onto
Preen-treated ground until a month after. I had my best year
ever, but I have no way know that the Preen didn't hinder
something on the pumpkin plants.

As far as weeds go, there definitely were fewer weeds than
normal. Late in the year, the weeds were back in full force,
(probably just like it is with roundup).

I found that a stirrup hoe, used daily for 5-10 minutes,
went a long way! A stirrup hoe is the way to go!
(Sometimes called a "hula hoe"...) Well, if you don't have
dozens of plants, this is the way to go...

11/16/2004 4:51:28 PM

Indiana

There are several pre-emergents for cucurbits. Preen worked well for a friend of mine.

Tom

11/16/2004 6:02:56 PM

Ontario, Canada.

Welcome back DOC!!!Great work. Don't look back the doc is back. Your organic advice has been missed here at BP.com Land.

11/16/2004 6:19:27 PM

C N Y

something like Preen may prevent secondary roots from forming on the vines of our AG plants...it has the same effect on seeds that are trying to sprout, because i believe Preen creates a nutritional imbalance in the soil that hinders the germination process. however, i wouldn't be surprised if it would be okay to throw-down some UN-treated soil under the vines wherever we are burying them,
so that they can get STARTED and established before they hit the treated soil. maybe a little more labor-intensive, but you would otherwise be....weeding! just m'thoughts.

11/16/2004 6:44:23 PM

C N Y

also, since the tracks here are fresh, Tom B., (or anyone) any chance you know any other names of the pre-emergent herbicides?
i intend to research Pantera, which Boily keeps threatening to use on his football-field-sized test patch, lol....

11/16/2004 6:46:21 PM

Ann Arbor, Mi

I have used these in the field. Curbit Ec, Command, and Sanda. I have not used them in the giant patch. I would strongly caution against using Command on maximas, it will prevent them from truning orange.

Bob

11/16/2004 7:44:53 PM

Tipp City, Ohio

I have also used Curit, as a pre-emergence, in the field but not in the giant patch. I did spot spray Select with Hyper oil, as a post-emergence, to kill some grasses that were missed in the field and in the giant patch....Tom

11/16/2004 9:23:12 PM

Tipp City, Ohio

Curbit not Curit

11/16/2004 9:32:20 PM

Indiana

Pal,
I thought the same thing, but I saw a patch that had 5-600+ pounders that it was used on. Very competitive for our area this year, and site location for the patch was not the best. I would say it had little or no detrimental effect on his plants.

Tom

11/16/2004 11:13:26 PM

ENGLAND

What are the active ingredients in the above named products ?

11/17/2004 8:34:14 AM

[email protected]

Preen is Trifluralin 1.875% Granular which is also marketed under another 30+ trade names in various concentrations usually stronger.

It is a denitroanaline (DNA) herbicide. There are other DNA herbicide like Pendamethalin (Prowl, etc) & Benefin (Balan).

These all work by killing the emerging root hair as it exits a germinating seed. Small seeded weeds are generally prone to good control. Large weed seeds are more difficult because the simply contain enough enegy to survive the chemical attack.

All pre-emergent herbicides cause at least some root damage but carefull application & rate selection will minimize this.

Even though I sell these things I don't promote their use for competitive growers. Here's why:

Commercial Farmers who grow cukes & pumpkins do so on a large scale. Pro herbicides increase their crop yields by reducing weed competition.

They cannot afford to pull weeds & any mechanized weeding they might try would destroy roots & vines & reduce the crop yield more than either the weeds or the chemical herbicide alternative.

The same might be true for the backyard competitive growers like us if we use a tiller too late or are too aggressive with a hoe while weeding.

Pull any large weed from the walking boards & look at all the fat white roots we just disturbed.

It's a balancing act. If we're serious about "the big one", then some means of weeding is mandatory. The least damaging means possible is how the records are set & broken.

11/17/2004 11:23:01 AM

Braeside,Ontario

I used Devrinol on my AG patch this year - not directly at the planting site but within 3 feet of the stumps. Covered the area where the majority of the work usually happens. Will experiment with Treflan and Dual Magnum II on market pumpkins next year. Had pumpkins grow wild amongst sweet corn sprayed with Dual PPI - did not seem to effect pumpkins at all but seemed to control virtually all other weeds. Glenn

11/18/2004 7:09:57 AM