Turns Out, Sunflowers and Lawn Fertilizer Don't Mix

[l008com]

I found this out today, sadly. Turns out weed & feed lawn fertilizer kills perennial sunflowers. I had a few small ones I'm trying to grow, but they all shrivelled up after putting down scotts weed and feed. It never occured to me that it would affect "real" plants, but I guess it makes sense.

My lawn was really starting to fill in with weeds, I usually do a weed and feed application early in the spring then again mid summer. But I've only recently started trying to grow a few other plants.

Luckily I have a few replacements already growing because the rabbits keep eating everything I plant.

So going forward, when I put down my fertilizer, how far away from my plants should I keep this stuff? I can spread it by hand in the vicinity of plants but how far away should I put it?

 

[l008com]

Also, this was was my perennial sunflowers looked like. My annual skyscraper sunflowers looked unchanged. Are they unaffected by a normal application of this stuff? Or do they just look unaffected because they're so torn up by rabbits that they are essentially already dead?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Most plants spread approximately as far underground as they do overground, then add a bit to be sure.
Raking is a good, non-chemical, way of controlling lawn weeds, borrow a small dog for the rabbits.

 

[l008com]

Raking isn't going to make much difference. The weeds are spread out pretty evenly over the whole yard and I often pull them by hand. I can be at it for hours pulling bucketfull after bucketfull. It really needs the chemical solution if it's going to be a nice looking lawn, which I do want. Now I just know to stay away from the sunflowers. I've been trying for years but one thing after another ruins them every year. My goal was to have the two sunny sides of my shed "shaded" from the direct mid summer sun but that plan isn't going too great yet :/

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have a small mechanical rake with a separate attachment to turn it into a scarifier. Even when I was younger I found using a wire rake tiring on the shoulder after anything other than a small area. I have to repeat regularly, but even the worst moss and weeds don't like having their leaves ripped up fortnightly, the grass just gets lined up.

 

[Meadowlark]

Have you ever read the "back" of the bag of weed and feed?

Typically it says,

• Do not use under trees, shrubs, bedding plants or garden plants.
• Do not apply on or under the branch spread (root-zone) of trees, both a few feet inside and a few outside of the drip line. Nor should it get anywhere near shrubs, bedding plants, flowers or garden plants.
• Do not apply by hand or hand-held rotary devices.
• Do not apply this product in a way that will contact any person either directly or through drift.

Now after reading that and still using weed and feed ( by hand no less!!!), then I'm sorry to say you have no one to blame but yourself.

 

[l008com]

Nope never read the label, other than the "which setting to put your machine on" part. I do have trees all around and it's never had any negative effect on them. Its possible some granulates have been spreading into my neighbors property line garden. I never gave it a thought, I don't recall it ever doing any damage but I'll be more careful now.

 

[l008com]

Question: Now that I've spread this stuff in my yard and killed many, but not all, of my plants. How long should I wait before I re-plant them? I have a bunch of replacements growing in little pots ready to go but I don't want to plant them too early and have them die also!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Not sure, but I seem to recall one of those bags saying compost made with the grass cuttings should be stored for a year before use, that would imply some time. There are a number of factors, from rainfall to the type of plants which could affect it, but I would suggest you do the bean test.
Plant a bean in a small pot once a week and when they are well germinated plant them out one after another, when they stop falling over plant one of your plants that are growing on. The beans are fairly sensitive , but I wouldn't risk planting everything until I had one of my regular plants that still looked healthy after a few weeks as well.