accidentally used "weed and feed" on hops

[BetterSense]

I just planted 4 rhizomes per lhbs recommendation. I mixed 50/50 natural soil and potting soil then put the rhizome very shallow and covered with mulch. Then I spread a small handful of granular fertilizer in a circle around the plant, and watered it all generously. Then I saw the fertilizer I had from last year us "southern weed and feed".

Am I totally hosed?

 

[BetterSense]

Picture of ingredients

 

[BHebert]

Maybe not. Weed and feed is selective in what it kills and usually only kills broad leaf weeds. I would call the manufacturer and ask. You might be ok, good luck.

 

[BHebert]

I would worry about the 2,4D. Your county should have a county agent affiliated with Texas A&M. They have a wealth of information.

 

[MaxStout]

If you haven't done so, remove all that soil from around the rhizomes and replace with new, clean soil. That will minimize the amount of Weed & Feed, although some has likely been absorbed by the plants already.

 

[BHebert]

I called my brother. He is the county agent here and has a masters in plants. All the chemicals listed are post emergent herbicides. If the rhizomes haven't germinated, you might be ok. If just planted, dig them up and wash them off. Try to remove all you can and flood with water to dilute it. Then start over. He also told me that hops are considered broad leaf and would be killed by weed and feed, especially the 2,4D.

 

[BetterSense]

Man. I wonder if I should just go buy 4 pots and transplant them into pots. The pots would have killed the grass where i put them, so the places I cut out the turf and made the seed - beds will sort of be a waste but not a loss. This is a residential lawn, so who knows how much herbicide is absorbed in the ground anyway.

This project is getting more and more expensive. How big of pots do I need for the first year, and are simple un-glazed ones ok?

 

[EJay]

FWIW when I need big pots and don't care how they look, I just raid the recycle bin at a local nursery for the big plastic ones.

 

[lump42]

I am a county extension agent for horticulture. I would definitely dig up the rhizomes, 2,4-D has a bit of soil activity. I would plant the rhizomes in some larger pots and give it a week or two for the herbicide to break down in the soil. I would test the site with a cheaper plant like tomato seedling that will be fairly sensitive to the herbicides. If the test plants don't show damage in a week or two, you can transplant the potted rhizomes back to the location.

As a side note, I typically wouldn't suggest weed and feed products. I'm not as familiar with warm season grasses, but the preferred timing of fertilizing the lawn usually isn't the same timing of the herbicide app. I would suggest getting a soil test, you may just need to apply a nitrogen fertilizer (i.e. urea) instead of a complete fertilizer. With water quality becoming a bigger issue, there is a bigger push to only apply phosphorous when needed to minimize runoff into water ways. Plus, urea tends to be cheaper.

Texas A&M "E-436 Fertilizing Texas Lawns 10-Point Checklist for Warm-Season Grasses"
http://galveston.agrilife.org/files/2011/05/E-436-Fertilizing-Texas-Lawns-10-Point-Checklist-1-2007.pdf

Rutgers "Growing Hops in the Backyard" Fact Sheet FS992
https://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/fs992/

 

[lump42]

If you can't get recycled pots from a local nursery, 5-gallon buckets with drilled along the side about 1/2 to 1 inch from the bottom should work well for the first season.

 

[BetterSense]

Thanks everyone. I ditched work and made an emergency Lowes run but I was astounded at how expensive pots were. Their cheapest decent size ones (maybe like size of a short 5gal bucket, barely) were still 7 dollars each. Pretty ones are like 20-30. I would do buckets, but this project already has low WAF. I bought a big bag of potting soil that is supposed to have fertilizer in it.