How to Remove Weed Killer Roundup from The Soil Naturally
What is Round Up
Roundup is the popular herbicide made to kill both broadleaf plants and grasses according to the National Pesticide Information Center. This herbicide, used by farmers, gardeners and everyday people, contains the active ingredient glyphosate. There are also other chemicals in Roundup that encourage uptake of the glyphosate by plants and then force it to stay in the soil longer after rain or water comes into contact with the plants. Currently, the most controversial of pesticides and herbicides could easily be glyphosate.
What is Glyphosate
Glyphosate, a nonselective postemergent herbicide, the most prominently used herbicide in the world today, is a form of salt called N-phosphonomethyl glycine. What a mouthful! Glycine is the basic form amino acids protein. the n-phosphonomethyl part of the name contains the unique chemical attributes that set glyphosate apart from other amino acids and herbicides.
This nonselective herbicide is special for the weed control crowd, due to it’s ability to dissolve in water: yes, it’s a salt form and water soluble! This means when you spray glyphosate on a plant and a rainstorm comes, instead of being washed off, the herbicide will penetrate deeper into the plant (It is for this reason and the findings of glyphosate in public water that concerns have been raised about how to keep clean water with herbicide runoffs from contaminated soil).
Glyphosate is sold under many trade names besides just “RoundUp.” Other glyphosate-based herbicides include Departure, Weed Wrangler, Showdown and many more.
How Glyphosate Works
Glyphosate doesn’t work by just “killing” a plant but by stopping certain enzymes from creating vital amino acids in the plant tissues. It stops the growth process needed for life.
A 2019 study called “Glyphosate: Its Environmental Persistence and Impact on Crop Health and Nutrition” explained the way glyphosate enters and kills a plant.
“Generally applied to foliar parts of weeds, glyphosate can enter plants through four potential routes: the leaves or other green tissues, the roots, the trunk, or shoots emerging from the root or the trunk [2]. After entering the plants, it is rapidly translocated to regions of active growth within the plant. The mechanism of action of glyphosate is to block the activity of the enzyme called 5-enol-pyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), which catalyzes the sixth step in the shikimic acid pathway [3,4]. By blocking the enzyme, it prevents the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids, viz. phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, produced through the shikimate pathway [5]. Plants treated with glyphosate normally die within a period of 1–3 weeks, and because of its even distribution in the plant, no plant parts can survive [6].”
-Pub Med Central ( See study Above)
This means that in order for glyphosate to succeed in killing a plant, it must be used on a healthy “growing” plant. The sprayed area must be the plant leaves or other green area to kill the plant. This ensures the penetration to critical growth processes happening in the plant.
Even if it doesn’t penetrate the plant, the herbicide can still seep into the soil, causing microbiota imbalance.
Harmful Effects of Glyphosate
In recent years, glyphosate has become a controversial topic and gained more attention of media, health professionals and social media influencers, when multiple court decisions awarded millions of dollars. Mansanto was forced to award cash to John McKivision and William Melissen after both developed cancer following several years of the herbicide usage. Currently over 4000 Roundup cancer related lawsuits await their chance at court.
Other studies suggest the possibility that acute “Roundup” exposure at low doses lower male fertility. This other study looks at the connection between neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and glyphosate due to herbicides being the main environmental factor.
Yet another study concluded that maternal glyphosate exposure before and after gestation could be the cause of depressive like behavior seen in offspring.
One of the consistent aspects of the studies was oxidative stress to the body. On the other hand, one of the leading arguments for glyphosate being safe for human use is the fact that it targets the enzyme pathway called the EPSP synthase which is important for creating three essential amino acids. Scientists can now identify which plants will respond to glyphosate’s exposure by if the plant has this “shikimate pathway.” Here’s what researchers say:
Glyphosate is thought to be safe to use because shikimate pathway is found only in plants, fungi and bacteria. However, glyphosate may have a strong impact on bacterial species in the human microbiome, and several recent studies have shown that perturbations in the human gut microbiome are connected to many diseases. Therefore, the widespread use of glyphosate may have a strong effect on gut microbiomes as well as on human health.
University of Turku, 2020, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201120095858.htm
Toxic effects on immune systems in both humans and wildlife have caused authorities to question glyphosate’s safety.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has pulled their longstanding identification of glyphosate as not posing risk to human health until more research can be done. They state on their website:
“the Agency is currently updating its evaluation of the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate.”
Because of these lawsuits and other anecdotal evidence suggesting common herbicide injury with even small exposure over time, you may be asking “how do I avoid exposure?”
Ways to Neutralize the Glyphosate
If glyphosate has been applied to or discovered in your soil (perhaps a previous owner left empty pesticide containers for you), there are certain things you would think may help. but in reality, they won’t!
The first is water. Because glyphosate is so stable it won’t break down in water and has a melting point of 0ver 350 degrees Fahrenheit (189.5 C).
Using pH and Hard Water
The best way to battle the effects of glyphosate are to combat the disrupting paths this weed killer uses to kill plants. Deep Green Permaculture recommends people use a positively charged salt (e.g. Epsom salt or magnesium) that will attach itself to the negatively charged glyphosate molecule.
When glyphosate is not bound with the salts it was originally formulated with, but is bound with calcium or magnesium salts instead, is less readily absorbed by plants, and this reduces the effectiveness of the glyphosate.
The pH of a substance is considered either acidic ( below 7.0) or alkaline ( above 7.0). Why is this important? Because glyphosate and other herbicides are generally weak acids meaning they will lose some H+ ions and partly split apart when mixed with water. The hardness of the water decides how many H+ ions will split apart from them and the more that come apart results in less of the herbicide working.
The goal then, to prevent the harmful affects of glyphosate is to mix the entire area of direct application with a hard water, or one that will be alkaline ( have a positive charge). This would be waters mixed with molecules such as calcium, magnesium or iron.
Garden Lime
Garden Lime is a slightly alkaline Calcium Carbonate that can be used adjust glyphosates potential effects. As mentioned above, calcium bound to the glyphosate can prevent harmful affects in the soil. The thing to be careful of when using garden lime is how it WILL change your soil. This garden amendment is generally used with the understanding that the soil pH will change.
Look to the package for instructions on how much Lyme to add to change the pH.
While it can be helpful for plant growth in some circumstances, this may also wreck the ideal soil pH for your garden. Because if this, I recommend using a growing season to neutralize and irradicate the glyphosate in your garden and then do a soil test the following season and amend as needed for a healthy garden.
Epsom Salt
As previously mentioned, glyphosate is a salt when applied to the soil surface. Another salt that will help to neutralize glyphosate is magnesium salt, also known as Epsom salt.
I use Epsom salt multiple times a week in our house and have shared how to protect your tomatoes from disease by planting with Epsom salt in the soil. You can see that post HERE.
Here’s the recommended recipe for using Epsom salt to battle glyphosate in the soil. Mixing in about 2 teaspoons of Epsom salt per quart of water, run over the affected area. Try this with about one quart of magnesium water for every 10 square feet.
This step can be combined with first adding garden lime for even better results.
Bentonite Clay
The binder bentonite clay, can be a helpful addition to the mix of Epsom salt and garden Lyme. Bentonite clay naturally binds to molecules or ions and also contains calcium, magnesium and iron. Remember all these are needed for glyphosate removal.
While bentonite clay doesn’t “remove” the glyphosate directly, it does keep the chemical in place, preventing it from seeping in deeper or running off into water sources etc. Once bound, glyphosate can be removed by using helpful bacteria as shown below.
How to Remove Glyphosate and other Toxins
The fact that glyphosate has a certain life and the amount of glyphosate found by researchers when measured becomes less over time, shows breakdown in the soil. A healthy soil life corresponds to successful breakdown and removal of glyphosate. This takes time, mind you. Something we often forget about in our fast paced world.
Helpful Bacteria Species
In recent years, certain bacterial strains have undergone testing for effectiveness in breaking down glyphosate. In one study, Pseudomonas sp. is used to successfully break down glyphosate into Glyphosate is degraded into harmless products such as glycine, phosphate, NH3-N and NO3-N. In both of these studies strains of bacillus were used to also break down glyphosate. There are numerous research studies finding the success of bacteria species breaking down glyphosate into other more usable molecules. The name for this use of plants or microorganisms for breaking down harmful chemicals is phytoremediation.
Where in the world would one get “bacillus” for their garden?
This was my question.
Good news for the common person: Vermicompost, or worm castings happen to contain a high amount of these bacteria and are easily applied to the soil!
Other options would be to add a soil amendments or “plant food” containing the right types of beneficial bacteria such as Mikrobs by Microbial Applications. This one contains bacillus megaterium, a bacteria studied for it’s ability to break down glyphosate. When looking at ingredients, keep your eyes out for other strong glyphosate destroyers such as bacillus subtillis and trichoderma fungi (study here).
It’s great to have good soil microorganisms in your soil no matter what, but very helpful if you are attempting to rid your soil of dangerous chemicals or herbicides such as glyphosate.
How Long Does it take
When remediating soil, the time it takes for glyphosate to be broken down is connected to what the soil is made of, the pH, how much glyphosate must be removed, and more. What I’m trying to say is it’s hard to know. Error on giving the soil more time to heal. It may only take a few weeks, or it may take a few months.
If you’re planning a new garden, allow the soil time this year to break down the glyphosate, then take another soil sample in the fall and add amendments as needed for planting the following spring. I’m sorry to say, you may not be planting your dream garden right away, but you will have the advantage of much healthier soil resulting in healthier food and more desirable plants.
I’d love to hear if this helps and the experience you’ve had remediating Glyphosate.
From the Hilltop,
Krista
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