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Wanted to see what people thought. I attempted 3 years ago to plant grass seed.... I irrigated the yard, installed edge pavers and everything. It was a total bust and only grew in patches... now im getting ready to sell the home and want to plant sod so it looks appealing.
My question is after 3 years of fighting weeds by spraying weed/grass killer on the dirt (this is in phoenix), is that going to effect me tilling the back yard and laying down sod? I hate to do through the work and spend the money only for it to not survive....
I still need to research exactly the best way to lay sod but I wanted to see if I was thinking too much into this.
Hosic,
First, DON"T TILL THE DIRT.
When you till, you are bringing up all the weed seeds that have been in the soil that are
waiting to grow out.
Don't bother sodding the yard just to sell the house. It's a lot of work, water, prep time,
you really have to be dedicated to wanting a beautiful lawn to get it to look nice.
You just want to sell the house, so the dedication is not there.
Just sell it.
Or mow the existing grass that you already have and seed it now. You will spend alot of money
on water even for seed. But it may look nice in a month.
Good luck to you.
In answer to the OP question, every weed killer has different environmental properties. Some are eaten by soil bacteria and quickly inactivated. Some are easily washed away by rain. Some like roundup stick so tightly to the soil that they never can be weedkillers again. But every weed killer would be essentially "gone" after 3 yrs or it would never have a government permit allowing it to be sold. But obviously from your question, you must have applied weed killer recently as well. Do you remember the name of it? I am guessing that if the last time you applied it was last year you will be fine, but a shorter interval might also be ok depending on what you used.
Here's what you can do. Till up the soil, maybe 3-4 inches, making it as fine as possible. Then rake it smooth. Roll out the sod, tamp the sod into the soil so there is good contact, and keep watering every couple of days for 3 wks, then water twice a week. Beautiful lawn!
This type of tilling and planting will not give the weed seeds in the soil a chance to germinate (requires light plus moisture) and the sod will smother any that try. Seeding will only allow the weeds a chance to come up, but sod will absolutely prevent it.
OP it depends on what type of weed killer you used. Regular Round-Up (glyphosate) has no residual effect in the soil so there would be no worry there. But if you used a soil sterilant like Pramitol or Ground clear those chemicals can be active for up to 10 years in the soil.
What if potential buyers don't want grass. You might want to dress the area up with decorative rock or decomposed granite which is common and very popular in the deserts of AZ.
Pramitol half life is estimated to be 1.5 to 6 months. Imazapyr, the long life ingredient in Ground Clear, has a half life of 1 to 5 months. So saying that these herbicides are active for 10 yrs is somewhat of an exaggeration unless the person who applied the herbicide applied way more than he should have.
Pramitol half life is estimated to be 1.5 to 6 months. Imazapyr, the long life ingredient in Ground Clear, has a half life of 1 to 5 months. So saying that these herbicides are active for 10 yrs is somewhat of an exaggeration unless the person who applied the herbicide applied way more than he should have.
That half life is for heavy rain areas that dilute it quicker, in low rainfall areas it takes much longer to travel down into the soil to be safely used. That information comes from the U of A agricultural dept.
quote: Soil sterilant herbicides are “total kill” products that last in the soil for long periods, sometimes for 10 or more years, particularly in arid environments. They have the potential to unintentionally cause significant damage to desirable plants... unquote
That half life is for heavy rain areas that dilute it quicker, in low rainfall areas it takes much longer to travel down into the soil to be safely used. That information comes from the U of A agricultural dept.
quote: Soil sterilant herbicides are “total kill” products that last in the soil for long periods, sometimes for 10 or more years, particularly in arid environments. They have the potential to unintentionally cause significant damage to desirable plants... unquote
Sorry, but no. Unless the herbicide is highly water soluble, the amount of rain is not the big factor, it is the pH (soil acidity), the amount of soil organic matter, and the soil microbes that count. Also, a soil sterilant herbicide was not used here. Very few herbicides kill all the weeds for a long time, and those are only allowed in places like rail road tracks or other critical weed-free areas.
It is possible that the low rainfall and other adverse factors will mess up the microbes however, just to be fair to the good folks at UNV.
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