Does round up hurt trees?

I have a 25 foot spruce tree in the front yard. There are a lot of weeds at the foot of the tree. I don't have time to pull out the weeds. Could I use some round up to clear them out? Thanks.

Does round up hurt trees?
YES, YOU CAN USE ROUND UP ON THE WEEDS. USE APPLICATION RATE. KEEP THE ROUND UP OFF THE FOLIAGE (NEEDLES) OF THE TREE. IN ORDER FRO ROUND UP TO WORK IT MUST BE APPLIED TO FOLIAGE WITH CHLOROPHYLL OR ANYTHING THAT IS GREEN. ROUND UP WILL NOT HURT THE TREE AS LONG AS YOU KEEP IT OFF THE FOLIAGE OF THE TREE. ALSO, IT WILL NOT HURT THE ROOTS OF THE TREE. JUST SPRAY TOP OF WEEDS AT APPLICATION RATE. DO NOT POUR.
Reply:RoundUp can very definitely damage your tree.





Supposedly the active ingredient in RoundUp, glyphosate, deactivates when it comes in contact with the ground. So you probably don't have to worry about damaging the root system.





However, there is a good chance that it would cause unsightly and unhealthy damage to the foliage.





Since the tree is a spruce consider using a broadleaf herbicide. This won't damage your tree or your grass but should take care of most weeds. Still be careful though because these can damage other landscape plants.





Best time to apply is mid to late fall.
Reply:In my experience it does not kill anything with a woody trunk or stem. I have used it as you contemplate with good results.
Reply:Round-up can kill the tree; go for a weed-type-specific herbicide instead.
Reply:You only need the slightest mist to the foliage for it to work. That will not harm tree roots.
Reply:The round up would definetely take care of the weeds and won't harm your tree.
Reply:it is very antisocial using powerful weed killers like this which kills almost anything





,the rains wash it into the ground and it ends up in the rivers and underground water supplies ,





If enough people use these kinds of herbicides and pesticides ,this kind of contamination changes the PH of the water with some very bad effects such as messing with sexual development ,


as has been proved in Mexico as well as causing malformed babies


not to speak of stomach disorders if it gets into to the crops via irregation,





there is no modern organic or Earth friendly ,farming philosophy that accepts weed killers .


and in most civilized or educated countries these chemicals are forbidden





MULCHING


the best way to kill weeds is to turn out the light.


cover it with leaves ,this produces compost at the end of the day ,stimulates the devellopment of worms (which produce the best compost in the world)keeps the ground temperature even and protects the ground from the impact of the rain ,the drying out by the sun and wind and water erosian ,





A tree in its life time produces its own food(soil)by dropping the leaves ,to take away the leaves by ignorent practices like cleaning (burning )is to go against nature and to steal the trees compost





why do you have weeds under the trees ,when normally you should have leaves


only when people interfere with Nature do weeds devellop,


such as plowing or removing natural mulch





a good book on Earth friendly practices is





the Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison


it cost about 40 dollars.


and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, tagariadmin@southcom.com.au)





Permaculture means permanent agriculture


a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s


which is a complete hand book for environmental design.





some other writers that are on the internet are


david Holmgren


Larry Santoyo


Kirk Hanson





Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,


One-Straw Revolution


The Road Back to Nature


The Natural Way of Farming


http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...





Simon Henderson


and Bill Molisson.





a representitive of the concept in USA is


Dan Hemenway at YankeePerm@aol.com


barkingfrogspc@aol.com


http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....


http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo...





please dont use roundup it could harm the trees or people
Reply:yes you can use round up to kill the weeds might not work well but you can just dont get it on the green part of the tree round up works best when you get full sun it burns up the grass and the roots dont make it to strong we use it a lot here in tennessee but it will kill a small tree
Reply:Yes you can. Keep in mind Round-up is a NONE selective contact herbicide. It will kill what ever it is sprayed on. Within reason. You would have to spray quite a bit on a 25ft tree to kill it.


But if you spray a weed in you lawn and some gets on to the grass as well, bye bye grass!
Reply:It probably wouldn't hurt the tree because it really doesn't work on weeds.





I use "kills all vegetation" but it may hurt the tree