Two Old Gardeners and a Blog

If by chance you are using a weed killer and it accidentally gets on to your plants you should hose it off immediately. The sooner you can do this the less chance of damage affecting the condition of your plant.

Sometimes while we are spraying elsewhere a wind can carry the spray to other plants and it won’t be until sometime later that the damage from this appears.

This damage will appear as leaves that have become smaller, narrowed and twisted.

Once this damage is seen there is nothing that can be done other than to remove the damaged portions of the plant and hope that more damage will not occur over the following days. Often a plant will recover if it has only received a light residual amount of weed killer that has blown over from a breeze. It really depends on how much weed killer it was exposed to and how big, or how durable the plant it. Some plants are a lot more susceptible to weed killer than others and only a small amount of exposure to this will be enough to kill the plant.

You really need to take care when using weed killer to ensure that none of it drifts to areas where it shouldn’t be. Only use weed killer when there is no wind and hold the sprayer close to the weeds so it will only go on them and nowhere else.

It is also wise to have dedicated containers for weed killer and other sprays in the garden as residual weed killer left in a container that you would use for other things in the garden could ruin your plants. If it is not possible to have more than one container for poison and another for other garden sprays then you should always ensure that you clean it thoroughly after use to remove all the poison.

 Oh, and the best way to avoid weed killer damage? Don’t use any! Go organic!