OT: Herbicides for chickweed/henbit

This mild winter has been very kind to winter annuals such as henbit and
chickweed in Northwest Arkansas.  I spent yesterday trying to eliminate them
from my newly planted (and mulched) siberian iris, which were fighting
through an explosion of chickweed.

I don't think it is possible to prevent winter annuals from trying to choke
out fall-planted rhizomes with herbicides, and this is another reason why
I'd prefer to plant siberians in the spring.

I concur with Bill Shear that if you need to depend on soil-residual
herbicides, like Treflan and Surflan, you have more iris than you can
maintain.  They are  safe to humans (they're in a family of dinitroanilines,
formerly used as clothing dyes--very safe.)  Prowl--a poor row crop
herbicide (pendamethylthionine), however, is great in the control of
crabgrass and other annuals in turf.

Here are some  reasons why I'll never use them nor advocate their use to a
stranger (or friend) in a perennial, backyard, iris bed:
1.  To get the control level that home gardeners demand you have to use 2-3x
the rates used in row crops.
2.  It's nearly impossible to maintain a consistent rate/square foot with a
hand-held sprayer--or hand strewn granules.
3.  You have to apply them annually.
The combination of the 3 above points will create build-up in certain
spots--there is just no question about this.  This build-up (10x rates) will
affect all plants.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index