Killed a plant in error

whodafunk

Hi,

Rookie mistake but I put a very small amount of roundup on a large weed which was growing within a plant which was flowering in the garden. I’ve learned from this and not planning to use roundup again in this way. I have 2 questions- can somebody name this plant please and will it grow again next year or have I permanently killed off tgis part of the plant?


Thank you

whodafunk

whodafunk wrote: »

Hi,

Rookie mistake but I put a very small amount of roundup on a large weed which was growing within a plant which was flowering in the garden. I’ve learned from this and not planning to use roundup again in this way. I have 2 questions- can somebody name this plant please and will it grow again next year or have I permanently killed off tgis part of the plant?

Thank you

Pics attached now

whodafunk

whodafunk wrote: »

Pics attached now

Second pic to show damage to plant

looksee

I think it is a cerastium, aka snow in summer. Unless you sprayed all of it it is unlikely to be completely dead, though it might look a bit patchy till it recovers over a couple of seasons. Roundup gets into the roots to kill them, so it is usually fairly terminal for a plant, you will have to wait and see how much survives.

If you are very quick to wash and possibly cut off sprayed leaves in future, if the plant is worth it, you might get away with it, roundup does not kill leaves instantly.

whodafunk

looksee wrote: »

I think it is a cerastium, aka snow in summer. Unless you sprayed all of it it is unlikely to be completely dead, though it might look a bit patchy till it recovers over a couple of seasons. Roundup gets into the roots to kill them, so it is usually fairly terminal for a plant, you will have to wait and see how much survives.

If you are very quick to wash and possibly cut off sprayed leaves in future, if the plant is worth it, you might get away with it, roundup does not kill leaves instantly.

Thanks for your reply. I only sprayed into the main root of the weed and very liberally - I was very careful not to spray the plant at all. I really hope it can survive.

looksee

I do not know whether Roundup can be directly taken up by roots, the usual experience is that there needs to be a fair bit of actively growing foliage to take the poison back to the roots. Since yours does appear to have been affected, and if there is only one main root, then its likely it will die.

Jim_Hodge

Cut it back to the soil level and hope for the best. Needs doing immediately.

whodafunk

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Cut it back to the soil level and hope for the best. Needs doing immediately.

Many thanks - will give that a try. Good tip

standardg60

whodafunk wrote: »

Many thanks - will give that a try. Good tip

Don't do that at all! Wait and see what happens.

I'm not sure Jim is a fan of nature.

Jim_Hodge

standardg60 wrote: »

Don't do that at all! Wait and see what happens.

I'm not sure Jim is a fan of nature.

Not sure what you mean but I'm hugely in to nature.

If the herbicide is on the leaves it's better to cut them out before it is fed through to the roots. Trimming Snow in Summer right back does no harm. Trimming now will prevent killing the roots.

looksee

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Not sure what you mean but I'm hugely in to nature.

If the herbicide is on the leaves it's better to cut them out before it is fed through to the roots. Trimming Snow in Summer right back does no harm. Trimming now will prevent killing the roots.

The op said quite specifically that he sprayed the root of the plant, so cutting off the leaves presumably would not make any difference.

Jim_Hodge

looksee wrote: »

The op said quite specifically that he sprayed the root of the plant, so cutting off the leaves presumably would not make any difference.

It doesn't work directly on roots, and he didn't dig down to apply it. That plant clearly has foliage damage from it. But, just let it be and die if must, be rather than play safe and do some virtually harmless cutting back.

standardg60

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

It doesn't work directly on roots, and he didn't dig down to apply it. That plant clearly has foliage damage from it. But, just let it be and die if must, be rather than play safe and do some virtually harmless cutting back.

Not necessarily damage from the weedkiller, Glyphosate is only active on foliage and the OP applied it to the ground, in which case it's deactivated.
Also it was applied some time ago, in which case the (doubtful) damage was already done. Cerastium can always look crap and die off after flowering, and will regenerate from the base itself when it feels like it.
Hence my advice to just leave it be.

I was referring to the advice you gave in another thread about also cutting something completely away in my above post. No offence meant at all but cutting everything to nothing would never be my advice.

blackbox

If you definitely didn't get Roundup on it then something else has it looking like that.

Could it have simply got too dry, or maybe it's just "over".

It looks like you have several plants there.

Hocus Focus

Just because you carefully avoided spraying the plant, and just sprayed around the base of the weed, is no guarantee that you did not affect the plant. As I discovered to my cost when doing exactly as you did, there is more to high presure spray than the spray you can actually see. Remember these Covid-bearing aerosols we have all been hearing about?
The answer in a situation like this is to spray a bit of Roundup onto a tissue, or a piece of sponge, and rub this onto the unwanted foliage, with no danger of overspray. It works.
Good luck with the recovery of the affected plant, as stated above, cutting back, watering and feeding will give it a chance.