[victoria_plum]

I am making my first post in a plee for advice! I think I've made my first gardening boo boo.

I have a patch of soil ready and waiting for my runner beans. We have a real problem with ground elder coming through from next door. In desperation I made an impulse buy at the gerden centre, I got a paint brush and very carefully painted sbk on the leaves, there were 5 or 6 in the 'bean' area.

I'm worried that I have scuppered my chances of planting beans there this year. I didn't think it would enter the soil being painted on.

 

[whistler]

Hi Victoria Plum,

I don't think you should worry too much, look up SBK on google and it will explain that the soil will be O.K. as long as you 'allow about 6 weeks between application and replanting. '

Someone else will come along soon who knows a little bit more about it than me.


Good luck

[victoria_plum]

Thank you for your reply 

So that would mean planting out beans the last weekend in may at the earliest - is that the right time for beans? 

[whistler]

Hi  Victoria,

Your beans will be fine planted in the soil at the beginning of June, or you could plant them in pots middle of May and transplant them in June if you are in a very great hurry!

[victoria_plum]

Not in a great hurry - I just didn't want to get behind with my beans because of the sbk disaster!

If they don't go in until June then I'm ecstatic!

Thanks so much for your help

 

[Kristen]

Roundup / Glyphosate weedkiller should do a reasonable job on your Ground Elder, and you can plant "immediately afterwards" (its got to dry on the leaves, so I suppose in practice that means 24 hours later.

We used Roundup to eradicate Ground Elder from our previous garden using the paintbrush technique and, where nearby plants were less critical using small hand sprayers. Had to make several applications over a couple of years, but it steadily got weaker.

Don't use it if it will rain within 6 hours (I think, could be even longer than that).

[Salmo]

The bottle says wait 6 weeks before planting crops.

To be safe why not plant your beans in peat pots, or Richy's paper pots ( see Gardening Stickies) so that they are planted out with minimum disturbance and can wait a bit in the pots if needs be.

If you have only painted the leaves there should be very little chemical on the soil. Cultivate well and remove what roots you can.

[victoria_plum]

Thank you for your replies.

I will get my runner beans going really well in individual pots I think.. and then transplant them at the beginning of June. 

Can't believe I was so stupid to use it near the veg bed!  What an idiot.