Re: weed control and herbicides

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Robert H quoted me and replied:

>>Chemical weedkillers aren't the only method to
> deal with weeds in a landscape anymore than CO2 and 5 wpg
> is the only way to
> grow plants under water, they're just
> one of the easiest methods.<<
> 
> Then tell me just one method, please! 

Well, believe it or not, blackouts work quite well ;-)  

So does manual labor.  Like algae in a planted aquarium,
keeping after it is much easier than trying to catch up. 
In fact, this tends to be the most effective in flower
beds, imo.

Tolerance is another method, but it's a matter of taste. 
We go to the nursery and spend a small fortune on flowers
and then despise the dandelions on the lawn that look,
well, pretty much like the nursery flats.


>The point is it is
> not just farmers
> using them, it is millions of people. 

If so much is alredy being used, is that a reason to use
more or less?

> Weed killers
> whether chemical or
> biological are the only logical way of dealing with it
> particularly in a
> large area.

It's not a question of logic.  It's not a formal
contradiction to use one method instead of another.  NO
more than it would be formal contradiction to use UGFs or
flower pots and no aquarium substrate.   Perhaps you mean
to argue that herbicides are the most *convenient* or most
*practical* or *financially feasible for a commerical
enterprise given prevailing labor rates."

> But what I want to know is how do you classify a plant as
> an aquatic weed?

I don't I like them all.  Well, I guess I should say, I
don't know any of them well enough to hate them.

> What is a weed? OK, a weed is a plant. It is a naturaly
> growing plant in
> that area. It most likely flowers...why wouldn't I want
> that in my pond? Is
> a weed simply a weed because it is unwanted, undesirable?
> Ask the USDA that
> question and they will say weeds are invasive plants
> which could be
> introduced plants. What is a weed to you?

I think most people mean by "weed" something like "a plant
that flourishes but is in the way  and not wanted" and
often by analogy to that, anything with those properies.  
Often it is used as a referring term rather than as a
pedicate (without intended description) and the referrant
is an item that folks in that linguistic community often
refer to with "weed".  But there is no law about how words
are used -- if there were, I fear country music songs and
tabloid headlines would have fewer puns.  

Now I gotta go spray to kill the deer ticks.  They grow in
the woods like weeds this time of year.

Scott H.

Generally, when I use it, I am referring to nutsedge or
poison ivy or both, depending on context.  


> 
> To a landscaper a weed is a plant that interferes with
> the growth and
> asthetic value of a garden or lawn. Does that same
> criteria apply to a pond?

If I had a pond, I don't see why not.  It's conventional
use of the term.

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