Neutralising effect of lime on Roundup on beds?

Helen Bang

My neighbour's 'gardener', I use the term loosely, persistently uses Roundup on her beds. No wonder nothing grows there. Now he has just strimmed the David Austin rose bushes  I bought her in memory of her late mother, destroying lots of buds that were just coming and leaving the plants with ragged stems. My neighbour is furious and is going to sack him. I would like to plant lots of spring bulbs for her as a surprise, I've read that garden lime can neutralise the effect of Roundup. I also plan to buy some compost to improve the beds - do you think that will be enough for the bulbs and anything else I might plant to thrive? Thank you.

Braidman

Hi.

According to Scotts, the manufacturer of Roundup (glyphosate) weed killer, its safe to plant ornamental flowers, shrubs, and trees the next day; and they say you can plant grasses and edible plants and trees after three days.

As weed killers go, glyphosate is considered relatively safe, because of how quickly it breaks down. However, when using a glyphosate weed killer such as Roundup, I’d always give it a few days to do its job and be gone before you start digging.

So planting bulbs should not be a problem!

Cheers!

Fire

Do you know if the "gardener" sprayed or use a direct gel application?

Dovefromabove

I have used RoundUp to clear a garden of a really bad infestation of Hedge bindweed and then grown flowers and vegetables in the garden. No problem. It may not be great for invertebrates in the soil …. I understand the jury is still out on that …. but it doesn’t stop plants growing in the soil. 

Obelixx

Glyphosate needs 6 hours of sunlight to be absorbed by the foliage and then takes 2 weeks to do its stuff and kill from the roots up.  It can be washed off by rain or water from a hosepipe or can.  No need to neutralise it before planting as it becomes inert on contact with the soil.

I wouldn't personally plant any annuals or perennials for a week or so afterwards but bulbs will be fine.

Loxley

Yep there's no way roundup will affect plants that aren't actually sprayed with it.

Fairygirl

It wouldn't worry me either. The bulbs will be fine, as others have said 

@Helen Bang - hopefully, your neighbour's roses will recover too if she gets rid of him. Most of them are pretty robust.  The problem with many 'gardeners' nowadays, is that they aren't gardeners. 

Nollie

Others have addressed the roundup issue, but just to say, it’s worth taking a sharp pair of secateurs to the roses and pruning off any ragged ends of the canes to tidy them up and prevent disease entering the wounds. Don’t worry about where to prune or what angle, just make a clean cut below the damage. They will recover quickly enough, in fact rose bushes respond well to a good prune, intentional or not!  If the ‘gardener’ has cut down climbing rose canes that would be more of an issue as it will take the rose a season or two to regrow those. 

Kardemom

I worry about the health of the soil after such chemicals are used. The micro biome etc. I would wait a week and add a good layer of compost to build the soil health. Personally, I think the 'gardener' should be sprayed with round up. Where on earth did he get his ideas from I wonder. 

Fire

My neighbour's 'gardener', I use the term loosely, persistently uses Roundup on her beds. No wonder nothing grows there.

My question above was aiming at whether he was using Round Up in a targetted way or general spraying. I wonder if he knew exactly what he was applying it to. Round Up shouldn't affect long term plant health but it would be interesting to figure out why "nothing grows there" if the soil is good.

wild edges

@Fire Pathclear type products are residual and remain in the soil for several weeks or months.