Weeding in plant nurseries without chemicals

Lots of plant nurseries are going organic, which means moving away from herbicides such as glyphosate for managing weeds. 

They also have perfect growing conditions for moss and liverwort, which are pesky to kill with chemicals. 

Plant nurseries have some unique situations, which mean that not all types of alternative weed control methods are easy to implement. 

Plant pots must be kept free of weeds, to allow the intended plants to flourish and the mypex or similar weed fabric put down in the green houses often needs treatment to occur on or close by. 

How to weed hundreds of plant pots?

Plants in pots can be overrun by competing weeds. The size of the pots mean that it is difficult to accurately target the weeds without getting the plant. For this reason, solutions using flames or hot air are not ideal, as they cannot be implemented with the accuracy needed. Typically it is difficult to use hot water or foam for this solution either, as although a more accurate nozzle can be applied to target the weeds, they normally use a boiler that is activated when the trigger is pulled. The nature of going from pot to pot requires spot treatments, where the flow of water can be stopped and started. In a traditional hot water system with a boiler, this will result in cold water, as there is a delay between pulling the trigger and the boiler engaging. 

The new Eco Weedkiller Pro SP uses pre-heated water. It is therefore possible to engage and release the trigger as much as you want without affecting water temperature. This way, weeds in pots can be spot treated accurately and effectively. 

Before and After shots of the plant pots treated with hot water

Weeding around Mypex Weed Suppression Fabric

The second issue in plant nurseries is managing weeds such as moss and liverwort, or other plants which love to grow around the edges of the Mypex or other weed suppression fabrics. We often use hot air to control weeds such as this, but around Mypex this isn't possible as the fabric will melt. There aren't many choices of chemicals that will deal with moss and Liverwort either. Hot water is an ideal solution, which delivers enough heat to kill the plant, but isn't so hot it will melt the plastic matting easily. 

There are often lots of other areas in a nursery setting that need to be weeded too, and using hot water is much faster and more comfortable than hand weeding. 

The Eco Weedkiller Pro SP Series uses electricity to heat water, which is then stored hot enough for about 10 hours of weeding. 

This allows the unit to be transported easily to site and has many benefits, including the ability to spot weed with hot water, silent operation and no emissions being generated during use. 

In fact, if you want, you can heat the water using completely renewable energy sources such as solar, so you can be extremely environmentally friendly. 

More information on the Eco Weedkiller Pro SP Series and Garden Series can be found here.

Check out the larger Pro3 SP version on YouTube here!