Keep it off the leaves--no problems.

Don't spray on green bark. In fact there can be some damage even on brown bark. It would be better if there were some kind of physical barrier at least the first few years on new trees. I also don't spray on root suckers.

I've gone to using weed barrier to avoid Roundup. It may not be quite as benign as I once assumed.

It is known to be dangerous for very young trees, especially peaches, but there are wicking non-spray applicators that greatly reduce any risk when applied when its not too hot. There is chlorophyll in young bark that can pick up the herbicide.

I've only managed trees with Roundup when there's hundreds of trees and thought disaster would result at one site when the workers didn't follow my instructions and remove the suckers, which probably got some exposure, but somehow the trees didn't seem to suffer.

Mulch seems a better solution for a small stand of trees.

I use roundup but I use extra care not to get any on the trunk, new shoots, or foliage. The key is to do the spray on a low wind day without much pressure in the tank. I find it easier to control when I set the spray at the point of almost being a steam instead of a fine mist. Good luck. Bill

I don't like Roundup. After killing a bunch of young stuff last year with it, this year I bought a 400,000 BTU flame weeder. Its supposed to be strong enough to burn up the bigger weeds; we'll see.

Scott

I spray Roundup around my fruit trees twice a season for
vegetation control under the tree canopy. I have no problem with it.

On my older trees with thick corky bark I just spray. On my very young trees with smooth tender bark, I use a shield that I place against the trunk and then spray one side of the
area. Flip the shield to the other side of the trunk and spray
the other side of the orchard floor.

Years ago I saw Roundup damage when young Golden Delicious were sprayed at an orchard I worked at. The Roundup did not kill the trees but for several years the trees
had poorly colored foliage and actually went dormant about
about a month earlier than normal in the fall. The apples seemed to ripen ok but not much foliage left on the tree at
harvest time.

Since I only have 21 trees, I just save some big pieces of
cardboard and bend them to make a shield. I dispose of the cardboard afterwards. Some day I should try and make
some type of permanent shield (plastic?) that I can use while spraying around young trees. Cardboard is cheap and my time is limited so that is what I use.

Good idea, SA

I took great care in the beginning to protect the trees and vines when spraying round up but I got lazy this year and I think I got some on a sucker or root or something on one of my favorite Muscadine plants it looks terrible. It will probably die and I will have to replace it. Hurts my feelings to no end. I will go back to being very careful. One mistake and you will pay the price.

Thanks Spartan. You made my day. A lightweight shield that attaches to my sprayer is an excellent idea. Hopefully I will be using my new homemade trunk protector at my next roundup. Thanks again for the idea. There probably is one already on the market but there is nothing more satisfying than making your own.

Thanks for all the good comments, I have a piece of thin aluminum about 2 feet high that I'm going to wrap around the base of the trees as I spray, Hope all goes well.

I've used round up very carefully in the past but found out, no matter how carefully one works, sometimes it happen that some little sucker is amongst the weeds,..hasn't killed the tree but it can stunt it,..then I usually regret that I sprayed.

Commercial growers routinely use Roundup, so clearly it can be used safely. The warnings are always about very young trees and stone fruit. Seems like it shouldn't be too hard to be sure there are no suckers in the weeds if you are only spraying a few trees. It is lowest risk if you use it just before the trees leaf out.

I know, Konrad, that you have more than a few trees, but just saying.

My neighbors' gardener uses roundup all the time around the apricot trees. Are the apricots safe to consume, are there residue of pesticide in them?

Roundup is used to spray food crops that has a gene called roundup ready that protects the plant from the active ingredient in Roundup. If you eat soybeans or corn you are getting much greater exposure to Roundup than from the apricot tree. Roundup is tied up by the soil and not readily absorbed by the roots. However, roundup is a hot button issue.

There are much more toxic chemicals used on fruit trees to keep them producing than roundup. I have to spray fungicide and copper that I think are move toxic than roundup. Remember that all pesticides, organic or non organic are toxic to something. I don't use Roundup around food sources due to the chance of damage to the plant, not because of residue.

Yeah...I'd still eat those apricots, it is still better eat them then potato chips lol. Farms couldn't feed the world without roundup ready herbicide..[unfortunately.]

As a home grower we have a choice, my trees are growing in grass all the way and mowed.

No, a recipe for cancer is smoking or going outside wearing next to nothing and getting a good tan. That has been proven to cause cancer. If someone sprays roundup every day for a living, after a few decades it might,(not proven) increase the chance of cancer.

OH..and farmers who apply fruit sprays every couple of weeks like my dad have a higher live expectancy then the average couch potato Jo blow.

Well, i wouldnt want roundup sprayed around anything i eat. I heard something on tv a few months back saying that roundup was gonna include a label that says "may cause cancer"....

..but most we eat was grown roundup ready crop.

Roundup is used for killing....

"Unfortunately, Roundup has now been shown to affect much more than the EPSP synthase enzyme. The herbicide has been proven to cause birth defects in vertebrates, including in humans, and it may also be the cause of a fatal kidney disease epidemic.

An increasing number of studies are now linking the herbicide to cancer."

The problem in America is we have lost the ability to understand statistics. Tell a young child that an elevator is safe and hardly ever crashes (one in a million chance) That child will be afraid of elevators because it could crash. Yet, he will play in the street because to him it seems safe to him. We are afraid of Roundup and yet there is much more toxic things that can be used. Many people use DE thinking it is safe but will cause lung problems if inhaled. Again, the sun is proven to cause cancer but no one freaks out because the sun is shining. Study any chemical long enough and you will find problems. Even peanuts causes death in some people. Saying it may cause whatever also means it may not.

TLBean:

Roundup is used just about everywhere! If you eat any processed or fast foods you are probably eating food where Roundup was sprayed over the TOP of the plant that produced the food. Not sprayed around the base of the plant like the discussion for fruit trees, but directly on the plant. The genes in the GMO seed prevent the Roundup from killing the plant.

Better exercise caution with Roundup around your fruit trees. Best to spray no more than a couple times a year and not after June. If you hit the trunk or suckers it can damage and even kill the tree. Glufosinate is much safer around fruit trees, but is about 5 times more expensive. Paraquat is safer for the trees, but is a restricted use herbicide labeled " DANGER POISON".

I sprayed round up around the yard to get rid of weed and my apple tree is rotting on the tree coincidence don't know

Picture would help..

'As a home grower we have a choice, my trees are growing in grass all the way and mowed.'

I like this comment.

Then there's not need to use Round Up at all. You'd have to be careful not to bump the tree with the mower but the grass that is very close to the trunk could just be cut off with a pair of hedge cutters.

Round Up is expensive in so many ways.

BTW, Round Up ready just means that they can spray Round Up on a crop to their heart's content and the plant won't be damaged. We'll see be getting it in our systems though. Boo to Monsanto.

Donna

If you mean your apples are rotting, it would not be because of Round Up. There are many apple diseases including black rot, what rot, scab, etc. look up those diseases to see which is the closest to what happens to your apples.

I use pvc about 4 in and 2-3 ft long. Put over young springy plants, spray and move to next one. Don't need it for roses. Wash it good when done.

For people worried about glyphosate being sprayed on Roundup ready food crops, here's what happens with soybeans. When the bean plants are about ankle high, the glyphosate is sprayed all over everything including the bean plants. At this stage, there are no beans. In fact, the beans haven't even flowered yet. The grass and weeds are killed and the bean plants survive. The beans grow to provide a canopy that shades out further weeds from growing. By the time actual beans are harvested in October, it's been months since glyphosate was sprayed. The six inch plants grew to be 3 foot plants. The half life of glyphosate is short enough that there is very little trace of it left.

For spraying around grape vines and other plants that sucker and send up shoots from the roots, gluphosate (Liberty, Ignite) is more useful. It will kill some of the weeds that are immune to glyphosate, but it doesn't translocate within the plant like glyphosate. So, if it is sprayed on a sucker a few inches from the trunk of a vine or tree, it will kill the sucker, but not the main vine. It's used in vineyards for just that purpose, to kill the suckers.

About all farm crops are produced this way like canola, grain crops like wheat, oats barley, corn etc.

But some of the crops like peas I see here when ready they spray kill the plants to dry for harvest. We never did..harvest them green and shipped for processing fresh, [canning].

They do that to wheat in Canada, I guess because of the short growing season and severe winters. Spray it with glyphosate to kill and dry it. I don't think glyphosate is very toxic, but I would prefer not to have it sprayed on a food crop days before harvest.

You gave me the correct spelling of wheat! I always thought that the short wheat was growing and ripening normally without killing it.

I did too. That's how we do wheat here, but we plant it in the fall and harvest in June, so there's no problem with it drying on its own. Then we plant soybeans as soon as the wheat is harvested, so we get 2 crops in one year on the same land. When I first heard somebody said they spray it with glyphosate to kill it for harvest in Canada, I didn't believe it until I did some research. I don't know what short wheat is. Ours here is about 3 to 4 feet tall. I think ours is not typically used for human food, mostly animal feed.

Good to know...Canada is known for some good wheat crop and other cereals. Wheat around here is more like 2 feet tall, back in Switzerland we did the same, ...plant in fall and tall crop like yours. Do you spray kill the soybeans for harvest?

Since you haven't responded I assume you do. Well...in this case the land gets sprayed twice a year also.

Why would you assume that when I said before I couldn't believe somebody would spray glyphosate on a food crop to speed up harvest? You would be correct that glyphosate or some weed killer would be sprayed twice a year, but the spraying is done with soybeans when they are ankle high. Didn't I say that earlier? I haven't responded because I have other things to do. The only thing we spray here to defoliate is cotton.

>>They do that to wheat in Canada, I guess because of the short growing
season and severe winters. Spray it with glyphosate to kill and dry it.<<

I got a answer from one source.....

Welker Farms Inc

Very
very unlikely. In our area glyphosate isn't used before harvest on
wheat and in fact nothing is sprayed on our wheat before harvest. The
only time a crop may get sprayed before harvest is crops that need to
ripen evenly in order for the harvester to handle the plant as well as
reduce loss from natural release of seeds onto the ground. Crops like
these range from peas to lentils to chick peas. But cereal crops such as
wheat/barley/oats do not do this. Also farmers would use something
other than glysophate as it is slow in drying out the crop.

I've been using Roundup in my Orchard for 3 years just make sure it's completely calm when you spray. And stick close to the ground when you spray. It also helps to have someone hold a blanket or rug over the tree while you spray around it.

@tlbean2004 - apparently everything causes cancer. California deemed coffee to cause cancer. loony.