Selective Herbicide
Non-selective Herbicide
This is really good question and can mean the difference in a weed free lawn and a grass free lawn. Many people, including one of my employees, do not know the different between Round-up, and Weed-B-Gon. To start off, Round-up is made exclusively by Monsanto, Inc. They are a rather large company out west, that specialize in this product. They are developing certain crops that are round-up resistant to help farmers save time and money growing crops. I think it is pretty cool. I have heard many of you think this company is the devil. Weed-b-gon is product made by Ortho. I have never been to Ortho like I have Monsanto, so I don’t know much about the company, except for the product. Ortho makes a tremendous amount of different products for the home and garden.
Let’s start with Round-up. Round-up is made of glysophate as its primary ingredient. Long story short, it is a high powered salt water. It works really well. Round-up is called a non-selective herbicide. Ever heard that term before? Non-selective means that it does not care what it is, it will try and kill it. Herbicide is the medical term for weed killer. Just like fungicide, miticide, insecticide, etc. Now, something that people are mistaken of is Round-up does not do anything to the soil. You can soak the dirt and as soon as it dries you can plant flowers in that same spot. Also, Round-up does not prevent seeds from emerging. Round-up is a foliage killer, meaning that the chemical has to touch foliage in order to kill that plant. Plants take in their nutrients and such through their ‘skin’, so that is where the round up needs to touch them. Round-up will kill just about everything it touches, so do not spray anything that you want alive. (In my opinion, usually a little overspray on a shrub will do nothing to damage the shrub!).
Now for Weed-B-Gon (wbg). Wbg is made of the active ingredients Triclophy and Dicamba. That means nothing to even me, except that it is different than Round-up. We call Wbg a selective Herbicide. Selective means that this product will target certain types of weeds and leave other plants alone. This product is designed for you to spray all over your lawn, it will target the broadleaf weeds, such as dandelions and clover, and leave the good grass alone. It can damage flowers in the flower bed if you get too much on them, and can burn the grass if you over concentrate an area. This product is not designed to use on driveways, or anywhere that you are wanting complete kill of everything. That is Round-ups job.
So now you know the difference between and selective and non-selective herbicide. Don’t be scared of these products, they do not harm the environment if used properly, and are virtually harmless to animals once they are dry.
Happy Spraying
#1 by Laura on June 26th, 2009
| Quote
I'm a WBG gal but this year it isn't very effective – Doesn't seem to work on broad leaf weeds like it has in the past
#2 by KevinPigg on June 26th, 2009
| Quote
I have noticed it being a little more difficult this year due to the weather. I think that it is more due to the fact that new weeds pop up as fast as the WBG kills the existing weeds. I have had to make two applications on some clover already and it is still blooming out in one of the properties I maintain.
#3 by courtney on June 26th, 2009
| Quote
good info, thanks!
#4 by squeaky082 on June 26th, 2009
| Quote
I use wbg on my lawn. Works great on unwanted dandelions, clover, creeping charlie and whatever other weeds are in my lawn. I use Round-up on my driveway and sidewalk cracks. Round-up also works great. I prefer the foam application. Thanks for the information and reassurance.
#5 by Rebecca on June 26th, 2009
| Quote
Do you work for Monsanto? I’ve never heard this much information about round-up other than from the company themselves. Round-up is laden with copper, to the point of being extremely toxic to humans and animals. I personally have seen it sprayed, and very soon after, grazing goats came through. Within hours the goats were bloated and the three that ate from the grass were dead. You might do well to understand the organic chemistry of this product prior to espousing its greatness.
#6 by KevinPigg on June 26th, 2009
| Quote
No I don't work for Monsanto. I would never recommend for someone to spray a field that a grass eater will come right behind the spray. Any chemical, that would be toxic. Goats eat a lot of grass extremely quickly. If I ate a lot of pizza right out of the oven, I would be very sick too. The average homeowner, who is my target audience for this blog, has a dog and cat, which do not eat a lot of grass! It is harmless for kids to play on, for animals to walk on once it is dry. It is a great product to do what they say it does and I highly recommend it if you need grass killed!
#7 by Matt Wilson on June 30th, 2009
| Quote
I would like to hear some advice for people that don't want to use these kinds of chemicals in our yards.
#8 by KevinPigg on June 30th, 2009
| Quote
I will get that to you soon. Thanks for asking!