From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Eugene,OR

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Roundup inhibits plant’s ability to uptake certain nutrients…particularly magnesium.

4/20/2025 8:04:53 PM

Roseville CA

Oh, what do you recomend?

4/20/2025 9:34:59 PM

Eugene,OR

If you want to be successful as a giant pumpkin grower I recommend that you not be lazy! Do the work needed to get rid of your weeds, which probably means that you need to get on your hands & knees & pull some weeds! Roundup will chemically “lock up” your magnesium & it won’t be available to sour plants…then that 500 pounds of epsom salts you are planning to add won’t do for your plants what you are hoping it will. Things you do to your soil will have an impact.

4/21/2025 12:53:19 AM

Eugene,OR

Google “Roundup’s impact on magnesium.”

4/21/2025 12:55:02 AM

Eugene,OR

One thing you could do is kill your weeds by smothering/cooking them with your tarp, and then use a propane burning torch to burn the dead weeds & their seeds.

4/21/2025 1:01:48 AM

Eugene,OR

Check out my diary & you can see the weeds & pulled last week!

4/21/2025 1:05:16 AM

Grittyville, WA

Some growers use/ have used round up. It won't bind up 500 lbs of magnesium unless you use 500 lbs of roundup. But cardboard works great, keep your eye out for large sheets of cardboard. Let the worms & the sunshine do all the hard work.

4/21/2025 3:34:52 AM

Lloydminster/AB

Ok. If roundup affected nutrients we be in big trouble in agricultural areas. It doesn’t.
Giant pumpkins are affected and it doesn’t take much to ruin a plant. I spray around the outside edges of my greenhouse once every couple of years and if the plant touches a spot that didn’t get washed off, the affects are immediate. And that is months later. I’ll probably get to show you because this is one of those years.

4/21/2025 10:41:26 AM

Bethlehem CT

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4392553/

I did a quick google search and found this disturbing study. (it is about human health not plant health)

4/21/2025 1:51:24 PM

Syracuse, NY

I won't make a joke about reading a long-ass article, butt just about ANY of the paragraphs will make you think more than twice about using Genuine Roundup; I use a 41% concentration of a Tractor Supply Brand that is about $90 for 2.5 gallons and works very well at like 8 ounces per gallon, which is very strong. Smells like freshly-unrolled vinyl or plastic, so I know I've been bad about it. Probably ineffective, I wear a Covid mask and hope the breeze is just enough to not waste it nor too weak to have me standing in its wake, lol. I am also working toward using a dye to see where it has been sprayed, to not further waste it nor my efforts. I have plenty of ideas and fewer plants this year may facilitate more time for them to develop. eg

4/21/2025 3:07:46 PM

Grittyville, WA

"Glyphosate chelates iron, zinc, copper, manganese, magnesium, calcium, boron, nickel and others, essentially removing them from the pool of nutrients available for plants, animals, and humans. Glyphosate-induced mineral defciencies can easily go unidentifed and untreated. Laboratory tests can sometimes detect adequate minerals, but miss the fact that glyphosate has rendered them unusable."

4/21/2025 5:17:15 PM

Roseville CA

I'd like to clarify two important points.

First, the study you mentioned, Bigmoon, is purely correlational and hypothetical—it does not establish causation in any meaningful way. After just five minutes of reading, it's clear the study is essentially placing one graph over another to imply a relationship. Even when I ran it through ChatGPT, the same issue came up. This is classic correlation without causation—just like how you could plot the rise of organic food consumption against cancer rates and see a pattern. That doesn’t mean one causes the other.

Second, while it's true that glyphosate can chelate certain micronutrients, it's not nearly at a scale that significantly harms the plants. Multiple studies support this, showing only minimal nutrient loss. And in my case, I’m supplementing with so many additional micronutrients that any loss becomes practically negligible.

And lastly, if I simply minimize the amount of Roundup that contacts the soil, that potential issue is even further reduced—if not eliminated entirely.

4/21/2025 5:26:10 PM

Grittyville, WA

https://responsibletechnology.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/damaging-effects-of-roundup.pdf

This is interesting. Worth a read. But farmers may continue to use glyphosate because despite all the alarming info about it, there are no doubt even worse chemicals.

As for other ways to kill weeds I might try some "quick solarizing" to kill the surface weeds using clear plastic on a sunny day. I've found that deeper solarizing seems to mess up my soil biology too much.

4/21/2025 5:34:31 PM

Grittyville, WA

Choose the least worst option/ what works for you! Facts can be elusive, but we all have our opinions :)

4/21/2025 5:38:43 PM

Upa Creek, MO

What about Spectracide? Thats what I have been using as it is a contact killer and not a systemic herbicide. I am not taking out a lot of weeds though. It kills grass and weeds withing 2 days of spraying.

I had a "residual" Roundup mishap in 2012 and lost my plants.

4/21/2025 6:39:44 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Smallmouth I would check that active ingredient label on the Spectracide that typically is a lawn weed killer with Dicamba and 2-4-D. That contains a broadleaf killer pumpkins are a broadleaf.

[Last edit: 04/21/25 9:31:18 PM]

4/21/2025 9:28:18 PM

Roseville CA

Any ways, my biggest problems are with crabgrass and grass in general. Are there any systemic that are "better" than glyphosate that yall use to take out grass?

4/22/2025 1:58:34 AM

Syracuse, NY

Just spray your weeds, Y'all and if you're worried about residual effects as the plants grow into it, you can have sprayed just water a day or two post-herbiciding and problem solved. It is not a mystery. Have the room wayyyy-done being painted before Baby arrives, lol---eg

4/22/2025 2:21:40 AM