Our Little Weed Friends Invade!

Our Little Weed Friends Invade! The good news is that this is a really rich clay loam soil that will grow some great vegetables. The bad news is that it will also grow some really awesome weeds, unless we get rid of these little devils quickly. In general for broadleaf weeds, there are very few herbicide formulations that can be used on a small scale to combat these weeds, but most are very easy to pull at this stage, because most have a simple tap root. On the other hand, there is at least one excellent herbicide product for controlling small grass weeds in any scale vegetable garden. This product is Poast, used along with crop oil concentrate (See Note). The active ingredient in Poast is sethoxydim. Small grass weeds are harder to pull because of their fibrous root system. Regardless of what type of weed it is, it is easier to remove when it is very small. Our plan is to pull these small weeds as soon as possible, add another application of fertilizer and then mulch along the base of our seedlings. The mulch layer, almost an inch thick, will hold moisture during dry conditions and at the same time suppress weed seed germination by denying light to the soil surface and smothering other tiny germinating weeds. (Note: Poast is a product that will not normally be available in big box stores and you must mix the Poast and crop oil concentrate yourself. This takes some planning and effort, but the results are well worth the extra effort.)