Satansbos (Solanum elaeagnifolium

[alisonb]

Great news for anyone that has Solanum eleagnifolium infestations, have found a herbicide that knocks it off - PLENUM 160 ME

 

[ga.prime]

I see that Plenum 160 ME uses picloram as the active ingredient. Picloram has a strong residual and the manure from cows that eat grass that has been sprayed with herbicides containing picloram will possess toxic levels of herbicide. You don't want to use that manure on your garden. It's a great chemical, it just requires extra caution and forethought using it because of the residual effect. I use it to kill prickly pear cactuses and to treat cut stumps to prevent re-sprouting. It's the right thing to use for that kind of weed. You have to have a good residual, contact herbicides won't do the job.

 

[JWBrahman]

I see that Plenum 160 ME uses picloram as the active ingredient. Picloram has a strong residual and the manure from cows that eat grass that has been sprayed with herbicides containing picloram will possess toxic levels of herbicide. You don't want to use that manure on your garden. It's a great chemical, it just requires extra caution and forethought using it because of the residual effect. I use it to kill prickly pear cactuses and to treat cut stumps to prevent re-sprouting. It's the right thing to use for that kind of weed. You have to have a good residual, contact herbicides won't do the job.

You don't want to use picloram near pecan trees, either. Probably not a problem in South Africa but Pecans are big money in Georgia. It blocks the transfer of zinc between cell walls, causing plant life to suck it out your soil at a ridiculous rate. You can kill an entire pecan orchard with the residual effects of picloram.

 

[ga.prime]

Good info, JW. It's unsafe for the health of any kind of trees to use picloram where it can get into their root zone.

 

[alisonb]

Thanks for the advise. Have a patch of Satan's bush in the middle of a land and it has just got bigger and bigger... Luckily no trees and no animals near there.
Am a little worried about my orchard area even though I'm being extra careful, am treating kweek & kikuyu grass with Lynch(Panga) Plus 540 SL(glyphosate). It very effective on the grass though. The rows are flood irrigated, could it damage trees?

 

[ga.prime]

Ali, glyphosate quickly becomes inert upon ground contact and therefore has very little to no soil or root zone activity. There is no residual. What you're doing will not hurt the orchard trees as long as you keep the spray down on the ground and not drifting up into their canopies. Obviously you wouldn't want the spray to get on the trunks of very young trees with thin, tender bark as it could travel through the bark directly into the vascular system of the tree. Glyphosate will not travel through the thick, hardened off bark of older trees.

 

[alisonb]

That's reassuring, thanks!