What is an Herbicide?
An herbicide is a chemical mixture or substance used to control undesirable vegetation, especially weeds typically known as grasses. Herbicides are extensively used in gardening and in plantations, farming, and landscape turf management.
Herbicides are classified into two categories:read the full list of the botanical names of weeds here
Selective and non-selective. Selective herbicides kill specific unwanted plants while leaving desirable vegetation relatively unharmed. Non-selective herbicides (total weed killers) kill all or most plant species.
An herbicide can be applied directly to the plant, applied to the soil, or sprayed onto the foliage.
Herbicides are applied before, during, or after crop planting in row-crop farming to maximize crop production by diminishing the development of unwanted plants. Herbicides are also applied in ponds and lakes to control aquatic plants, in forests to prepare logged areas for replanting, and to golf courses, lawns, parks, and other areas to clear out unwanted vegetation.
Besides selective and non-selective classifications, a herbicide can also be categorized according to three other characteristics:
Persistence – How long the herbicide remains potent
Mechanism of action – How it works
Means of uptake – How the plants will absorb it (e.g., through the roots, above ground foliage, etc.)
A herbicide’s effectiveness is strongly influenced by its toxic mode of action and the application method.
Herbicides can as well act by inhibiting a plant’s amino acid production, growth, photosynthesis, cell division, or by mimicking natural Auxin hormones to cause deformities. Most modern herbicides are synthetic mimics of a natural plant’s hormones that obstruct the target plant’s growth.
Some plants such as the walnuts produces its own natural herbicide. Organic herbicides are useful and are commonly used in organic gardens, but they are less effective and more costly than synthetic herbicides because they based on natural materials. For effective result in the use of herbicide, I suggest you going to the dealers and there they will explain to you the differences between the various types of herbicides. There are, for record sake there are herbicide for weeds sprayed directly on the weeds without discriminating between crops and weeds that does not affect the crops. Some of these herbicide can systematically kill up to root and germinating seeds. Some wither the same day of spraying of the herbicide, the weeds will begin to wither.
And the application of herbicide is usually done early in the morning at least within three hours before rainfall
In some extreme cases, a combination of several herbicides is recommended when dealing with herbicide resistance. For more information on the various type of weeds or herbs read here
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