Vines growning from within bushes?

[micky]

That's scarey too. I miss the days when all we did was pour salt on the land.

[dpb]

Well, if you looked into the biological science explanation of how salt kills plants you'd end up with some other similar explanation of the processes it inhibits as well resulting in plant death.

[gfretwell]

There are plenty of weeds that have found a way around that process. I suspect Monsanto splices a gene from one of them into their Frankencorn that is immune to glyphosate. I know I have weeds here that it won't even slow down much. I don't know if it was always that way or whether they have an acquired immunity. The south does seem to be where somewhat benign weeds go nuts because of our longer growing season, lots of sun and lots of water. Something that may seem like a cute dish garden plant up north can become the weed that ate your yard here. Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) is a good example. In Maryland people loved them because it was a potted plant you couldn't kill. Down here it is a weed you can't kill. Glyphosate has zero effect on it, no matter what concentration. I have a hill covered with it. It doesn't really bother me but I do spray for Cogangrass using glyphosate at 2-3 times label concentration and the snake plant is still there. It seems to like it.

[dpb]

There is virtually no herbicide that plants don't have some ability to develop a tolerance for -- the newer ones just haven't had time yet.

And, yes, "Roundup-Ready" crops are genetically engineered to be used with glyphosate; there are other cropping systems using other herbicides as well; just so happens Monsanto (now Bayer) was first so gets all the headlines...

There's nothing that can be shown to be detrimental in the crops produced using these systems.

[dpb]

That's worse than the herbicide for the ground, though, the herbicides breakdown and go away; the salt is there forever until it gets diluted and pollutes the ground around the application spot some, which may stunt growth that is intended.

See what happened in Israel and has happened elsewhere as well by continuing irrigation with water containing excessive salts concentrations...

[gfretwell]

If you live near the water, you get salt tolerant weeds. I understand in B'More that is a foreign concept. The bay is contact solution by the time it gets up there. My river goes from 300 PPM salt to 30 PPT, depending on how much it rains.

[gfretwell]

A lot depends on your soil. Salt washes down into the ground water here pretty fast. In that clay and bank run gravel I had in Maryland a rock salt spill I had 35 years ago still might be killing the grass. We do have an interesting turf grass here that might catch on if they keep loading on the water restrictions. Seashore Paspalum will grow if you irrigate it with sea water and we have no shortage of that. Some plants like a Coconut Palm will grow right on the beach. They like salt water. It may actually promote sprouting from the nut. Brazillian Pepper is very salt tolerant too, competing with Mangroves for the shore line.

[gfretwell]

We are the lab rats for the world for this Frankencorn. It is in damned near everything we eat one way or another.