posted 6 years ago
There are relatively new herbicides out there based on iron chelate. I'd like to get some thoughts on them. As far as I can tell, they contain iron in an organic, easily absorbed form, thus giving sprayed plants a fatal, systemic overdose.
What would the fate of this herbicide be in the soil? I assume that it would quickly become part of the 100,000 pounds of unavailable iron already in the average soil, particularly if the soil is alkaline?
What do you all think about the safety/ permie compatibility of this herbicide? It sounds like it would work better than the organic acetic acid herbicides available, since it is systemic. What would be the downsides?
I'm interested in this because to my mind one of the big problems in permaculture is removing spreading perennial weeds from established landscapes. Once a complicated landscape is in place, sheet mulches are not an option and hoeing/ hand pulling may be ineffective, particularly if the weeds are emerging from rock or masonry elements in the landscape, or near woody plants.
