Roundup overspray

[snagfinder]

Pretty sure the land renter oversprayed my sweetcorn patch. Anyone now how long it takes to know if it will die or pull through? Started out with spots, now its been a week. Its still alive but yellowing.

[delcecchi]

I don't suppose it is roundup ready sweet corn? 

[snagfinder]

No its not. I thought about that but easier or not dont really wanna eat roundup.

[Dotch]

A lot of variables to consider. Depends on how direct the overspray was, rate, temperature, stage of growth, yada, yada, yada. Usually takes 3 - 7 days for the initial symptoms to show up. Generally you'll have a pretty good idea what the outcome will be within a couple weeks of the blessed event. Have seen dozens of overspray cases including being involved with some eventually settled by insurance companies and no two have been exactly alike. Sometimes the corn just croaks especially when it takes a relatively direct hit along a fenceline. Sometimes it's stunted, looks pukey and stays that way, doesn't shoot a tassel or develop and ear. Other times it looks like something from outer space with no ears but a malformed tassel with no pollen. And still others, it grows out of it and produces a normal ear. Sometimes all these symptoms are present when wind gusts blow the glyphosate off target farther into a field and the concentration becomes less the farther away from the field being sprayed. One other compounding factor is when the overspray comes from a field of soybeans and the operator has also tank mixed a product with the glyphosate (Roundup) to control volunteer corn. This typically does not end well for the sweet corn. If one product doesn't kill it the other one generally will. Was a tough spring to spray. Very windy and people were doing things they probably shouldn't have.

[snagfinder]

Suprisingly it looks like it survived hopefully now it grows.

[Dotch]

Good to hear it's made it this far. Keep us posted on what happens.

[Hoey]

I suggest fertilizing and over watering for awhile to dilute any residual chemicals.

[snagfinder]

I would love to water it but its about a mile from a hose hookup

[delcecchi]

And roundup degrades/dissipates in a few days in the soil...

[snagfinder]

Lets hope  but sounds like that may not be true. You can plant through it in a few days but have read that some chemical changes in the soil last for well we may never know.

[snagfinder]

Looks like its finally out of its funk and started to grow. U can see where it got sprayed the hardest on the right

[snagfinder]

On Friday, June 24, 2016 at 1:56 PM, Dotch said:

A lot of variables to consider. Depends on how direct the overspray was, rate, temperature, stage of growth, yada, yada, yada. Usually takes 3 - 7 days for the initial symptoms to show up. Generally you'll have a pretty good idea what the outcome will be within a couple weeks of the blessed event. Have seen dozens of overspray cases including being involved with some eventually settled by insurance companies and no two have been exactly alike. Sometimes the corn just croaks especially when it takes a relatively direct hit along a fenceline. Sometimes it's stunted, looks pukey and stays that way, doesn't shoot a tassel or develop and ear. Other times it looks like something from outer space with no ears but a malformed tassel with no pollen. And still others, it grows out of it and produces a normal ear. Sometimes all these symptoms are present when wind gusts blow the glyphosate off target farther into a field and the concentration becomes less the farther away from the field being sprayed. One other compounding factor is when the overspray comes from a field of soybeans and the operator has also tank mixed a product with the glyphosate (Roundup) to control volunteer corn. This typically does not end well for the sweet corn. If one product doesn't kill it the other one generally will. Was a tough spring to spray. Very windy and people were doing things they probably shouldn't have.

Unfortunately i think alot of what you said could happen did. Some look good, some tasseling ony knee high, some no cobs and alot of the tassles are weird looking almost like a ball. At least the pheasants and deer like it.

[Dotch]

That's a bummer and I'm sad to hear that. I have very little time for those who spray when they know full well it's too windy or are generally careless when it comes to what's on the other side of the fence from their crop. From what I could see in the photo, looks like you had plenty of buffer area too.It's a matter of respect and common courtesy on the part of the operator. My sweet corn will be ready in about 3 weeks. Welcome to some if you live close enough.  

[RebelSS]

51 minutes ago, Dotch said:

That's a bummer and I'm sad to hear that. I have very little time for those who spray when they know full well it's too windy or are generally careless when it comes to what's on the other side of the fence from their crop. From what I could see in the photo, looks like you had plenty of buffer area too.It's a matter of respect and common courtesy on the part of the operator. My sweet corn will be ready in about 3 weeks. Welcome to some if you live close enough.  

Or dumb azz neighbors that haven't a clue and kill your tomato seedlings and plants.      Back to corn topic.

[snagfinder]

On Friday, June 24, 2016 at 1:56 PM, Dotch said:

On Wednesday, August 03, 2016 at 2:22 PM, snagfinder said:

Dont know why these quote things are showing like this but anyway. Went and looked at the corn yesterday before the monsoon and it still gets me wondering how it is so wierd. For every 7-8 stalks with no cobs there is 1 with 3-4. If a little overspray can cause that how messed up is the dump we eat that can take a direct shot.

[delcecchi]

Not messed up at all.  The roundup is long gone, and it, by GMO design, didn't affect the plant you are eating part of. 

If you like to eat pigweed or lambs quarter or other weeds, don't pick them near farmer fields.....

[Dotch]

The general idea is not to have weeds by your field Del!  This gets back to why herbicides work on the weeds and not on the crop. Simplified version: In most cases the herbicide is metabolized by the crop and not by the weeds, messing up the target weed's enzyme synthesis systems, enzyme transfer systems, disrupting cell membranes, germination, etc. In the case of herbicide resistant crops, the gene for resistance is transferred into the plant using artificial means and not by natural selection. There have been exceptions such as Imidazolinone corn (natural selection) but most are gene insertions. As far as toxicity to humans, it gets to be a matter of concentration. Minuscule amounts of glyphosate while deadly to sensitive grass family plants like non-GMO corn won't harm humans especially after it's broken down. Does this mean I trust chemical manufacturers completely? No, I don't trust anybody completely (not even Del ) but the bulk of the evidence says that the product and system is safe.   

[delcecchi]

That's what I was saying, and besides the roundup is metabolized by the crop so it's gone.  The part about the weeds was supposed to be funny, since weeds are what gets messed up in some way by the roundup, also non roundup ready sweet corn.  

Besides, as I understand it, glyphosate (for some reason I want to type that as glyphosphate) degrades to nothing in a few weeks or less.   Now about the poison produced by bt corn....

[Dotch]

It has a half life of anywhere from a couple days to up to 197 days and there are metabolites such as AMPA. It like any chemical is not totally benign. I sill remember some neighbor kids (they're adults now) squirting each other with Round Up while they were riding the bean buggy. They got sick afterwards but recovered from it. In fact they quit milking cows after that so it might've actually helped.