Am I being unreasonable?

[rancher hicks]

I will grant you I'm not chemist but, I have a friend whose idea of fertilizer is a bag of 10-10- whatever. You can't tell him anything about gardening cuz that's what his (dead) father in law did. And of course he had a great garden, which I contend was full of poisonous vegetables.
It doesn't matter that this friend is sickly. We also have another friend who has a big garden and who I think uses the same chemical fertilizing method and has lukemia or was diagnosed with it.

My point being if anyone knows for certain that this stuff isn't dangerous then please educate us all. One can not ignore the "cycle" of the water system of the earth. Nothing that goes into the soil disaapears. Being a science major I can absolutley say that what you put on the soil gets washed by the rain into the water system which evaporates into the clouds which rains it down on the earth again. My research also has shown that even the best filtration systems can not entirely remove 100 % of the dangerous chemicals from our drinking water.

Mister "round up" is eventually going to drink his own medicine as will we all. This stuff should be used as sparingly as possible.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:

Love it!

 

[Mattemma]

Iread the round up chemicals will stay in the soil for quite a while.I even hesitated using it with poison ivy even though I am not planning to grow produce in the PI area. I would not feel safe eating produce that was grown in round up soil. I understand that weeds are extremely frustrating.This year I have plantian(sp) taking over.While I love clover I hate plantian.I too have thought of the chemicals,but what if one day I want to turn that soil and grow some veggies? I pull when I feel like it and ignore the rest.

For piece of mind I would look up the MSDS on round up,or contact groups that could tell you how long it take for the herbicide to break down.

As for dh is there any way that you can break up the yard so there is an area for you that is chemical free? Chemicals in the compost will surely kill the organisms needed there. Hope you can work something out!My dh only ventures into the yard if he is having a smoke!

 

[anbhean]

I think I'd tell him if he didn't want Round Up ending up in his food he better stop spraying it on your vegetables. Then I'd find every bottle of Round Up in the house and throw it away. After about the third or fourth bottle he has to keep buying... he might get the point. But then I'm kind of mean like that.

Truth be told though, I agree with other posters-- it's a blatant disrespect for what you are trying to do and your wishes for how to do it. There is something more there than the man can't quit it with the chemicals. Either he's OCD, weed-phobic, or he's just screwing with you to be mean. I'd try to sit him down and see what's really going on there.

 

[cluckcluck42]

I would be livid! And tell him to go make his own darn dinner!!!!!!!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The main problem is the relationship between you and your dh.

THere is a huge amount of disrespect by him towards you. There are also significant disagreements on priorities and goals in what seems to be a joint project. And as was stated, he is using passive aggressive techniques to enforce HIS ideas, completely ignoring yours. Well, not ignoring them, deliberately antagonizing them.

As for selling your produce, you cannot label it organic or even say that you are as trying to be as close to organic as possible. Not when he is also working in and on your garden. You can say home grown. But you need to look at the roundup label to see whether it is approved for weeding fruits and vegetables. If not, the entire crop is trashed. For insecticides, there is a length of time specified before harvest; not sure whether there is any such thing with a herbicide. BTW, I am pretty sure there are organic herbicides and preemergents.

 

[Frosty]

Ok, to clarify... I was not insinuating that I would sell the produce as organic after that (though I will also add that you CAN call yourself organic without certification if you sell less than a specified amount). I was musing what to tell folks. When a few asked today I told them that 'I would be if DH would leave the roundup alone'. I won't call the company for info because I really don't think that I can trust Monsanto to tell the truth. I have read cases where there is residue in the soil longer than there was supposed to be, and Denmark has at least a partial ban on the stuff because they found glyphosphate in the ground water at level 5 times the acceptable level. It can be very difficult to find good information because most sources seem to be either pushing the stuff or radically against it. I don't think that you will get the whole story from either of those groups. It may not be harmful, I don't know but I don't want it in the garden.

He claims (as usual) that he 'forgot' and that he was just trying to get ahead of the weeds. He had a small stroke about 10 years ago, no lasting effects except he says that he can't remember stuff because of it. But the memory loss is selective... And I quit jumping to fix dinner so he picks up 'quick fixes' (yuk!) for the days that I don't cook. Lately I fix dinner maybe once a week.

And I just explained to him that all of that roundup he sprayed, we still have lots of weeds but my enthusiasm for the garden is now completely dead so it worked on that!

 

[Frosty]

And an added note that you guys may or may not know about roundup... There are crops on the market listed as 'roundup ready'. That means that the crops were developed to be resistant to roundup so they can spray the stuff for weed control. And if a wheat field isn't drying off evenly in the field they spray it with roundup to complete the kill so that it drys. How much of the stuff do we eat?

 

[BC_Farms]

I would be furious especially with the negative vibes people have with Round-Up because of MonSanto.

ETA For an organic pre-emergent they make products made out of cornmeal. You can also use newspaper (not organic but recycling) as mulch once your plants are "up" to help block weeds, keep in moisture, and will decompose and help fertilize.

I would show him the info on organics and tell him how it is beneficial in the long run. I.E. Less problems.

All round-up and herbicides do is kill plants it doesn't make them disappear. Then you leave them, the rain comes down and washes the pesticide into your garden....


And I'm sorry.

ETAA that I'm not sure what a previous poster was talking about fertilizer being hazardous to health. The numbers only tell you the levels of Phosphorous, Nitrogen and Potash...not what it's made of. Organic to the most chemically constructed fertilizers use the same numbering system.

 

[Wolfwoman]

Silence is golden. Say nothing and do this....

So is taking the chemicals and throwing them away... making sure the DUMP the liquid ones down the drain or toilet so he can't reach in the garbage can and get it back. If he buys a new bottle, soon as it comes outta the bag, DUMP it. He'll get the hint eventually.