General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Monsanto's Roundup Weedkiller Linked to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and ALS [View all]jmowreader
(50,524 posts)Licensed applicators can get it, but gardeners cannot.
War story follows: Home Depot at least used to sell gallon jugs of Roundup Pro. They still might, but the only reason I go to that part of Home Depot anymore is it's where they stock the green scouring pads I clean my plate processors with. You're SUPPOSED to dilute the living shit out of Roundup Pro; the ag mix rate is 22 ounces Roundup Pro to 10 gallons of water, which is enough to spray an acre of field. So...in comes a customer who bought four gallons of Roundup Pro. Okay, no real problem; we were cheaper than a farm supply store so quite a few farmers were buying it from us. Uh-uh, not this maniac: This fucking guy sprayed it at full strength and wound up killing all the trees in his yard. And then he comes to see ME - me, who's never seen him before in either of our lives because I sold lumber - to scream about how we sold him the most dangerous thing in the entire world.
"Yes sir. Could I ask how you used the product, please?"
'I poured it into my spray bottle and sprayed it on my weeds.'
"Directly out of the jug?"
'Yeah. How the hell are you supposed to use this?'
"You put a tablespoon of Roundup in a quart of water. At most. Lots of people use a third of that and still kill all the weeds they want. This is super strong farmer Roundup."
We very quickly learned to put the farmer Roundup in a place the customers couldn't get to, and to qualify the customers who thought they wanted it.
The other problem with Roundup in the hands of an amateur gardener is the way they tend to use it. Roundup is a post-emergence herbicide - which means it must be sprayed on plants that have come through the soil. There are pre-emergence herbicides you can spray on the ground to keep weeds from coming up in the first place. I've had customers spray Roundup pre-emergence. Pre-emergence Roundup doesn't work at all, but that doesn't stop people.
There are things homeowners should not have, and Roundup is REAL high on the list.