# Weed spraying hop beds



## jbaker9 (26/8/18)

Hi all,

My hop bed is a bit overgrown at the moment. While the hops are dormant would it be safe to spray with roundup?

Cheers
James


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## wide eyed and legless (26/8/18)

Roundup neutralizes when it hits the soil so it would be safe, always better to pull out weeds though.


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## Belgrave Brewer (26/8/18)

I don't use roundup anywhere near my hops. There's an organic weedkiller called Slasher that I will be trying this year around the hop field, but not on the hops themselves. It's a bit of work, but I weed by hand. After several rounds of weeding, you should be able to get most of them.


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## altone (26/8/18)

Belgrave Brewer said:


> I don't use roundup anywhere near my hops. There's an organic weedkiller called Slasher that I will be trying this year around the hop field, but not on the hops themselves. It's a bit of work, but I weed by hand. After several rounds of weeding, you should be able to get most of them.


That's always my plan around anything I might consume in one way or another. 
If you keep on top of the weeding it gets easier.

Glyphosate for me is only used in non productive areas eg. driveway and paths away from growing areas.
It may be fine, but didn't they say DDT was for decades?


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## FarsideOfCrazy (26/8/18)

Do not use glyphosate type weed killers anywhere near food, i'm not using it anymore anywhere. 

Latest research shows it's a carcinogen and it doesn't 'break down in the soil' like the manufacturers claim. It's now being found in the food we eat.

I've started using 'slasher' from the eco organic company. Works on most weeds, some really quick (20 min and their black and shrivelled). Have had a couple of things that it doesn't seem to kill so I pull those. This stuff breaks down in the soil in 7 days or so.


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## koshari (27/8/18)

I place a thick layer of straw over the hops which pretty much snuffs out any other weeds.


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## garage_life (27/8/18)

You can buy an extension wand attachment for butane / Mapp gas torches at bunning to kill weeds. Works well and no chemicals.


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## wide eyed and legless (27/8/18)

FarsideOfCrazy said:


> Latest research shows it's a carcinogen and it doesn't 'break down in the soil' like the manufacturers claim. It's now being found in the food we eat.



Over 50% of males will get cancer at some stage in their life, it will warm the cockles of your heart to know most everyday things have some carcinogen in them. Vegetables and fruit we eat has naturally occurring pesticides in them much like Pyrethrum, Derris Dust and Rotetone which is a carcinogen. Then we have radon gas, the sun which cause cancer, but we are most likely to get it from apart from the sun, red meat, barbecued meat, smoked meat, processed meat smoking, worrying about getting cancer and our very own favourite class A Carcinogen alcohol. 
Koshari's suggestion is a good one as is a weed mat around the plants, but weeds are best pulled out put in a large tub of water and drowned using the water later on as a weak liquid compost tea mixed with some power feed will work a treat. And if you like to play around, add some dry leaves or straw to the water and weeds, pump air into the mix for a couple of weeks and get your very own supply of nematodes, only trouble with that is there are good nematodes which help plants and real bad arse nematodes which can destroy a plant.


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## altone (27/8/18)

What WEAL says is all true, but I try to avoid chemicals and inorganic fertilisers as much as possible
Most of the weeds i pluck go straight into the compost bin except anything really invasive like couch grass
which I use to create a weed tea as he suggests.

I just have 2 buckets with lids that I fill for odd and even months, so the weeds are underwater for at least 4 weeks.
Keep the lids on unless you hate your neighbours


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## wide eyed and legless (27/8/18)

Most peoples households are full of carcinogenic chemicals and just forgetting the group A alcohol carcinogen, another one most of us spray around is'no rinse sanitiser containing Dodecylbenzine Sulfonic acid, a carcinogenic chemical we gladly consume. Lets face it we have to die of something, it may as well be something we enjoy. Bottoms up.


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## BeyZia (28/8/18)

I often use a sheet of black plastic if a bed gets a little out of control
For: 
No chemicals
Lack of light helps light kills the weeds
Heat from the plastic helps kill the weeds and dormant seeds
May even keep the hop runners under control a little (maybe)

Against:
You may need to do some soil conditioning once the plastic is removed as there will probably be some collateral damage to the soil and the upper microbiome 

I think there are many ways to do it other than Round up. I avoid it at all cost around my food plants and soil


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