Twitch.... the bane of my life!

Twitch is a type of couch that is running rampant through my gardens.. I just cannot get rid of it by pulling it out. I'm scratched and bloody from trying to get underneath large thorny hybrid musk bushes to try and swing the mattock to dig out all the roots thinking this is a bloody waste of time! I have a bottle of Amgrow Winter Grass Killer that is a selective herbicide designed to specifically kill blue couch, common couch, bent grass, and other grasses. Has anyone ever used it around roses and noticed any ill effects? I haven't been game to open the bottle as I hate using chemicals of any kind in my garden... but it is time to get out the roundup and any other weapon I can lay my hands on... there is no information on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] about the effects on any other types of plants.

Oh. THAT couch. Grrrrr

I totally understand.

Over at the old house my cousin uses a little hand sprayer of Roundup in winter around the rose in the middle of the lawn. The rose has survived for many years with this - never shows any signs of being poisoned. She will use it in the garden bed too - and place a shield of plastic or cardboard around plants she doesn't want to kill. I've known her to paint it on in especially tricky locations...
Not an option for me at this place though.

I was thinking of this too, Wendy... it will become difficult to be that fiddly here around 100's of roses spread out over an acre of rose garden I will put the Winter Grass Killer into a small spray bottle and see how I go getting nice and close to it. I get my daughter to stand there with the rake or hoe to pull back the long branches and then I climb in and try and get the weeds out... it's a combination I think might work for the herbicide too. The worst rose to weed around is actually one of my own seedlings nick named 'Sweetflora' (it's a 'Sweet Chariot' x 'Poynton's Multiflora' seedling). This seedling is three years old now and measures some 8ft wide and 6ft high with long limber branches armed with too many thorns that swing like a cat-o-nine tails in the wind. If it wasn't so healthy I'd

What is the active in the 'winter grass killer'
Fusilade and Verdict are the pure "grass" killers.
Simon have you tried 'pestgenie' for the possible 'killers" of your twitch.

I have used Fusilade Forte in and around my roses for couch with no noticeable damage to the bushes. If I had sprayed around them with Round-Up and got the same amount on them that I did with the Fusilade , my bushes would have been buggered.

Good Luck ! I have to tackle the couch around the D.a's on the bank again.

Fusilade is monocot killer which grasses belong to. So no effects on roses which are dicots, David.

Yes , that is why I used it . Worked well but so it would want to; bloody expensive stuff. Cost around $100 for a litre when I bought it in Collie.

Round up with the glyphosate 540 will kill it,....but around the bushes I would brushes it on and spray other areas on a windless day......repeat 3 weeks later as that couch tends to shoot up survival shoots

You can always put a flower pot or bucket over any plants that you dont want to kill. I do that.
Large plants, perhaps plastic or plastic rubbish bags wrapped around them

Trouble is the couch get's itself in right under the bushes and even starts to climb up through them . That's where the Fusilade was good . Once the couch was dead it was much easier to rip out.
Having said that , after nuking the couch last year [and it doesn't seemed to have come back in the sprayed areas yet] the annual grasses have gone FERAL [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I keep telling myself I must spray the bank but it hasn't happened yet
Fortunately all the D.A's don't seemed to be too fazed and have been flowering their little hearts out , God Bless 'em.
They really are the most forgiving roses and tolerate crap care and repay it with lots of flowers.

Durrrrr
WARNING WARNING
blonde moment there .


Forgot to add , active ingredient in Fusillade is "Fluazifop-P , present as the butyl ester."
Actually went down the shed and got the bottle out and had it sitting on the table next to the computer just so I could copy the name down .
ohhhh jeeeeeeez , just bin one of them daze

It's ok Rosalie, tomorrow is Sunday, life will get better

Ive always been told never to use glyphosate any where near roses. If it gets on roses it can cause a hormonal disfigurement that can only be fixed with the shovel. Of course this is only hearsay but I have seen this type of twisted growth where glyph. has been used. Same thing happens with tomatoes. I used it carefully around my roses to combat sorrel with no noticeable harm, and a lot of good BUT my main worry with glyph is that it kills the soil if used too much ie. the good guys living in the soil. I tend to use it mainly on paths, and as a once (or twice ) kill all for a new bed.

I have a friend who had a HUGE garden filled with all sorts of things incl. roses and lots of twitch and she swore by fusilade.

Glyphosate becomes inert when it comes in contact with soil. It requires water of 4.9 to 5.5 to work properly. Any soil particals in water will reduce the effectiveness of it as well.