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Trying a new natural weed killer

The drawback with organic weed killer sprays has always been that they couldn't distinguish between weeds and lawn grass —  they blasted the cells of any plant they touched. A new herbicide, Ortho EcoSense Lawn Weed Killer, is on the market that uses chelated iron to kill broadleaf weeds like dandelions and white clover. It's available on sears.com.

I prefer to garden organically, so I'm looking forward to trying it as soon as the rain stops and the wind dies down around here. I have two very tough broadleaf weeds in my garden: creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea), also called ground ivy; and violets. Tons and tons of violets. Neither weed is listed on the label, so spraying them will be a test of the weed killer's merits. To increase the herbicide's effectiveness, I'll apply it after a few cloudy days —  without sunlight, the waxy coating on the weeds' leaves starts to break down, making the weeds more vulnerable. The label recommends spraying when the leaves are actively growing —  got that down —  and the temperature is under 85 degrees.

I'll let you know how well it works.

In the meantime, I'm trying to find out whether the inert ingredients (which make up more than 98 percent of the volume and don't have to be listed on the label) are considered organic or natural. I've not found much discussion of the product online. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

 Erin Hynes, managing editor, Manage My Life

Posted at 06:32PM Apr 25, 2010 by Admin in Politics  |  Comments[2]