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Can someone please explain roundup damage (for my husband)?

18 years ago

I have argued with my husband for years over using roundup. I've even gone so far as to hide the roundup bottle. My next step was to just throw it away. All that did was make him angry that he had to spend more money to go buy more. He insists it will only kill what it comes in contact with. Now that I think it has possibly damaged my roses, I have asked him once again to please, please not use it anywhere near my roses. He refuses saying it is ridiculous to think that roundup caused any damage to my roses because he never sprayed them. How exactly does it damage the roses? Does is just drift to them in the air? What causes the wierd growth after this happens? Why don't the plants die, is it just because enough roundup didn't get on them? If I can explain to him exactly what happens I will be more successful in getting him to quit spraying. Now, I may have caused some of this damage myself since I did brush some roundup on weeds very close to my roses. I thought brushing would be safe, but I didn't know about the "drift" problem

Comments (24)

  • 18 years ago

    Yes, round up does "drift" when sprayed. Roundup works by disrupting the water transport up into the canes, leaves, and buds. When there's no water transport, the growth isn't getting any nutrients either. So, if there is just a little roundup on the leaves, they look sick but not dead. If there's a lot of roundup, then they're dead.

    I accidently got some roundup on a ground cover rose last year - I was just painting some poison ivy growing behind it with roundup, obviously got some on the rose. It is coming back up from the root this year, though still pretty scraggly. Fortunately, it's own root, so eventually it should be okay.

    So, what's up with this guy that he feels the need to spray roundup when you expressly asked him not to? Sounds like some stubborness going on

  • 18 years ago

    What I've done with my roundup is to buy the fancy sprayer bottle, and then attach the top half of a 2 liter soda bottle to the end of the sprayer. That way I can stick the 'funnel' right on top of the weed and spray without any drift. It works great and I haven't hurt anything that I didn't want to.

    You might want to see if your husband will let you take over the roundup duties yourself. I wouldn't let my husband spray anything anywhere near my roses. Even with the lawn stuff he knows to keep it away from my gardens and not let any of the little granules near anything of mine.

  • 18 years ago

    Do a search for round up damage to roses or "Abiotic Disorders of Roses." There are a lot of sites that should pics of the damage. Here is one. http://members.tripod.com/buggyrose/iabioticdisorders.htm

  • 18 years ago

    I have seen herbicide drift up to 30' away. It does not take much.

    Find Grass-B-Gone, or a herbicide with Fluazifop-p-butyl ("floozie-flop"). Easier on the roses, but still need to be careful.

  • 18 years ago

    Does your husband know anything about poison ivy? Is he allergic to it or know anyone who is? If so, he knows that one does not have to touch it but be in the general vicinity, 40-50 feet in order for the spores to reach the dermis and start the reaction.

    RoundUp is a much worse problem. A friend is engaged in litigation with a farmer who sprayed his laid-by crops with RoundUp, killing our friend's roses. It was almost an acre away.

  • 18 years ago

    I would just get a really strong bottle of cheap perfume and go into a room where he is sitting and start spraying it in another corner of the room till he start to choke and gag. Then tell him that it's ridiculous to complain because you are not spraying him.

  • 18 years ago

    rocky, that is really funny! Now, I know I have made it sound like my husband is just horrible, but he really isn't at all! He is just a very factual person and apparantly somewhere on the roundup bottle it says that it will only harm the plants that you spray it on (or something to that effect). He just isn't buying that roundup is floating in the air and the only thing that it landed on and caused problems with are my roses. He wonders why everything in the yard isn't having problems too. I will admit, it is kind of a valid arguement since I can't give him an answer! Does amyone know if roundup damage causes the new thorns to be very soft and bendable? I'm still not sure if I'm dealing with roundup damage or RRD and I don't know if I should cut off all the funny looking growth or not.

  • 18 years ago

    If he wants facts, they are available in reams. There are state laws and regulations about spraying Roundup or glyphosate because of the drift to non-Roundup immune crops. This is a well recognized and documented problem in agriculture especially in rice. Various states are trying to balance the economic need for spraying with damage due to drift.
    Different plants have different sensitivities and there are so many variables that it is hard to prove that there is Roundup damage to one plant and not another. I can tell you that the only rose in my garden that doesn't bloom is a China that is planted on the property line where my neighbor's lawn guys spray his lawn and beds. Can I prove it's glyphosate damage? No.

  • 18 years ago

    From my days of crop scouting I became very familiar with round-up on large field scales, but it can be brought down to garden and yard size as well. Roundup is a contact chemical. While some smells of chemicals just make garden plants sick, roundup is not like that. Roundup will only kill the part of a plant that the particles touch. Oftentimes with round-up damage you'll see speckeling. Keep in mind that cool wet days will make the plant look worse that it may really be, whereas warm sunny days you may not even notice you had spray drift. It all depends on the conditions at the time of spraying.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Garden and Landscape Ideas

  • 18 years ago

    So how does roundup cause damage to new growth? My roses are currently only affected on the growth they've put out since the last time I deadheaded them. I'm pretty sure we haven't used roundup since then. The rest of the plants look fine. The more I read on the web the more convinced I am that my roses have RDD. I read one article that said rubbery thorns on new growth is a sign that the problem is definitely RDD. My roses have rubbery thorns. I really feel like I could cry right now!

  • 18 years ago

    I had herbicide damage and it looked like this:

    {{gwi:260128}}

    {{gwi:260133}}

    This was on my Reve d'Or. It's find now. I kept cutting off anything that looked weird.

    I don't let my husband use RU. Not because he's sloppy, but he can't tell the difference between a weed and a plant I planted. Plus he hates anything viney and pulls out stuff I'm trying to grow.

    I made the mistake last week end of allowing him to cut down some wild willow that was growing next to the fence (if they get big enough, our cat will use that to climb over the fence). Luckily I took what he pulled/cut over to the compost pile and saw that he pulled out a lilac bush I was growing. I was able to replant it and it seems fine.

  • 2 years ago

    My husband thinks round up will hurt his necklace that I bought him . will it ???

  • 2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    I spray vinegar, dish soap, and salt rather than Roundup. While it will also be toxic to rose bushes, it is not so toxic to humans. How to Make and Use a 3-Ingredient Homemade Weed Killer with Vinegar (marthastewart.com) It works best when sprayed on a warm sunny day.

    This article will curb one's appetite for spraying Roundup: "Monsanto has settled over 100,000 Roundup lawsuits, paying out about $11 billion as of May 2022. There are still 30,000 lawsuits pending." Roundup Lawsuit Update – Forbes Advisor

  • 2 years ago

    Just be aware That salt in the soil will harm it for future planting also.

  • 2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Yep. I don't want stuff growing below the fences of my vegetable garden, or under the fence with my neighbor's lawn -- otherwise he comes by with a flaming propane tank which has killed my blueberry plant. He planted blueberries on the other side of mine after we talked, and he replaced my burnt plant. So, if one is spraying Roundup around a garden, it usually is to wipe out all plant life at its perimeter, I think. At the perimeter of my vegetable garden and rose beds, I don't want stuff creeping inside.

  • 2 years ago

    Exactly, VaporVac. I am opposed to the salt thing. I use very little weed killer of any kind, prefer to pull or dig weeds wherever I can. I use minor amounts of glyphosate in select areas with great caution. I don’t need any more salt buildup in my soil.

  • 2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    I happened to come across this article in the NYT today about a large cluster of New Brunswickers who are experiencing an unexplained neurological condition. Glyphosate is posited as a potential cause. Here's an unpaywalled link:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/14/magazine/canada-brain-disease-dementia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.C04.d0TE.GSVRhZZ-ZfFR&smid=url-share

    "Recent studies have shown that glyphosate crosses the blood-brain barrier and that chronic exposure can lead to neurological inflammation that can trigger Alzheimer’s disease."

    I know there is a lot of conflicting information out there on the safety of glyphosate. I'm sharing this article only because I found it interesting, not because I think it offers any definitive answers.

  • 2 years ago

    What was water also worth Boiling water Also works However It is difficult to keep it boiling!

  • 2 years ago

    If he keeps using roundup he will die of one of the many diseases associated with glyphosate exposure and then you can garden however you like.

  • 2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Roundup discontinued using glyphosate in 2023. The primary chemical is now triclopyr. Any overspray will indeed impair your roses.

  • 2 years ago

    All the RoundUp I looked up online still say glyphosate as the active ingredient. Where are you getting triclopyr?

  • 2 years ago

    Ben, I didn’t check every product but it does seem they have moved to triclopyr, for example see the specs here:


    https://roundup.com/en-us/roundup-dual-action/roundup-dual-action-365-weed-grass-killer-plus-12-month-preventer-concentrate


    And their official reasoning seems to be to reduce litigation as outlined in their 5-point plan:


    https://www.bayer.com/en/roundup-litigation-five-point-plan


    I don’t spray and don’t judge those that do but please do your reaserch and know these companies don’t care about you, they just care about their bottom line. They switched chemicals to reduce litigation - not because it’s less dangerous or more effective, just because the new chemical has less negative perception so far.

  • 2 years ago

    Triclopyr overspray will affect roses, the leaves will discolor and distort. The affected foliage can can be removed and new foliage will emerge if tbe overspray is minimal.


    Unless you are spraying in zero wind and strategically with a suitable nozzle, you want to avoid spraying this close to your roses. Best bet is manual weed picking around them.


    The new formula is way more effective on broadleaf plants compared to glysophate.


    All Round-up products for residential use no longer contain glysophate.