Weeding....

[WebSlave]

Actually got to see the sun shining the last couple of days, and only had a few scattered showers. Of course, the humidity was like 180 percent outside, but surprisingly the mosquitoes weren't that bad. So yesterday Connie and I worked out in the yard doing some weeding.

And a question popped into my mind as I was cutting down stuff that grew from the stumps from the last time I cut them back. From a plant's perspective, what is the difference between "weeding" and "pruning"? I keep on thinking that my cutting back these bushes is doing some good, but the plants just grow back seemingly more vigorous than they were before. So are the plants (weeds!) actually enjoying and benefitting from my efforts trying to eradicate them?

I absolutely despise sticker vines as more than once those darn things have wrapped around my legs and thrown me to the ground, and in the process made my legs look like a wildcat had been at them with a vengeance. But I don't care how many times you cut them, poison them, or try to yank them out of the ground, they WILL be back....

 

[hadenglock]

I think the difference between "weeding" and "pruning" is that when youre weeding youre ripping out the entire weed and its root system from the ground thus ultimately killing it off. Pruning is just cutting back the "overgrown" parts of a plant you dont want, but it will still grow back (some plants will even stem off into multiple growths from one pruning site). You are essentially pruning the weeds right now from the sound of what you're doing, but im not sure how you could effectively destroy the root systems of large sticker vine groups, maybe use a chemcal weed killer?

 

[Lucille]

Although I have read that some plants are developing resistance, I have used Roundup for many years with good results. I buy the dry packets of Roundup available from some hardware stores that one can then make up into a gallon, because the packets are much cheaper than the pre-made gallons.

For small weeds a single application is fine, but for larger plants and especially vines, multiple applications are sometimes needed.
I have a small property so I actually only make up a quart at a time these days.
The way that application is most successful for me in the summer when growth is at its height is simply schedule 15 minutes once a week to spray. The problem is that there are about a million excuses one can make for ones self in August when it is 100 degrees outside to skip the spray session, but if you just as Nike says 'do it' you will find that after a while the larger weeds die, the smaller weeds that are on their way to becoming larger weeds are done in while they are still small, and it all gets easier.