Glyphosate (Roundup)

[IamtheZombie]

May Zombie please ask for your views on using Roundup to clear grass (and the odd weed) from a vegetable patch?

There is a reason for the question but she'd prefer to hear some opinions before discussing that.

don't use it.
it's nasty stuff and should be used with caution and only where manual work doesn't cut it. (invasive plants)

It is very nasty stuff.

Better to put some layers of cardboard/newspaper/straw down and block the light, which weakens the plant and lets you dig it out much easier.

All it does is breed stronger weeds.

Personally I prefer not to use it; if you're going to grow your own veg it seems weird to me to drench stuff in nasty chemicals. My only attempt at using it at the allotment (in the very early days) was a failure - i.e. nothing die, and I still felt guilty. So now I just clear everything by hand and never ever let bare soil go uncovered for any length of time.

I've used it to clear perennial weeds out of an overgrown garden before and I'm currently laying waste to a patch in my garden which is shortly going to have raspberry canes in it. As an ex industrial chemist, after looking at the data on it I'm happy to use it from a safety point of view (it's toxic if you drink it, and there's a suggestion that people who work with it in bulk might have a raised risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but in the context of other chemical nasties that we use such as paint, acetone, petrol, I'm happy to use it). I do think there are limitations on its usefulness though - because it only works on growing plants, it takes a while at this time of year to have any effect (I sprayed my patch 3 weeks and the couch grass is only just turning yellow). I'd also only ever use it for clearing ground - in an established garden there's too much risk of hitting something that isn't a weed, and on paths and stuff it's cheaper and easier to just put boiling water down.

I admit, I used it to clear bindweed at my allotment. I hadn't read up on it beforehand. No way would I use it now that I know a bit more about it. It's not the fact that it's carcinogenic that bothers me so much as the wider environmental impacts, including effects on insects and soil microorganisms and aquatic ecosystems. When you can clear soil with more organic, environmentally friendly methods, like those Doreen suggests, why do this?
www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/press_releases/foee_5_environmental_impacts_glyphosate.pdf