Roundup

[Rcjohnsen]

<< Subject: Re: Roundup
From: see.signature at bottom.com  (gary gaugler)
Date: Sun, Mar 19, 2000 11:07 PM
Message-id: <38d55d3f.660033693 at news.calweb.com>

On Fri, 17 Mar 00 23:10:32 GMT, Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk (Neil Jones)
wrote:

>In article <38D298B8.B131B22D at gate.net> viceroy at gate.net "Anne Kilmer" writes:
>
>> Diane, 
>> Roundup is not friendly stuff. 
>> Read the instructions on the package. You see those warnings about not
>> using it near water? That's because it kills the critters in the water,
>> whether plant, animal or in between. Protista, they call them these
>> days. 
>> It also kills the little guys in the soil, and, despite the makers'
>> claims, does some damage to trees, shrubs and forbs whose roots it
>> touches. 
>> Anne Kilmer
>>   
>
>
>Anne is of course right. The poison in Roundup prevents certain 
>organisms with a particular metabolic pathway from producing proteins
>and they die. This includes a large range of soil organisms.
>For those who want more detail Glyphosate is chemically
>N-phosphonomethylglycine and it blocks the action of the enzyme
>5-enolpyruvykshikimate-3-phosphate Synthase which catalyses an important
>step in the synthesis of aromatic amino acids.
>It also hangs around in the environment for a while too.

Since when is a salt a poison?

Where is your data for saying that "it hangs around in the environment
for a while too?"  Exactly how long is "a while?"


Gary Gaugler, Ph.D.
 >>

The Na+ is the poison, for there's alot of plant die back from salting the
roads in winter, not considering the damage cause to cars and trucks.
The Ca++ is less damaging in CaCl2 and Urea is acturally a fertilizer, but it
can burn plant is appied carelessly.
   Roundup is a powerful poison.  It kills roots and all.  An acquaintance of
mine mistaken sprayed a pear tree with gree buds with it thinking it was
dormant spray.  Half hour later during cleanup he realized his mistake and
watered the tree extensively with 5-6 inches of water.  This was repeated for
several days.  That first year there was no fruit and the leaves were dwarfed
and misshapen.
So the were in the second year, but bigger.  Finally in the 3rd year he got a
few fruit and the leaves were nearly normal sized.  The tree has now fully
recovered.
   I'm not so lucky.  There were several ground weeds under my Japanese
Thundercloud plum, so I sprayed  them close to ground lightly with roundup. 
The tree lost its leaves and from all appearences is quite dead.
   Roundup is quite effective and be careful how you use it.
Roger