OK I know roundup is bad and I would never purchase or use it in my garden but can some of you help me with some concrete facts why one should not use roundup. The reason I'm asking is my partner insists on continuing to use it in our yard he sais for the poision ivy... I just cringe when I see him out there spraying...
Help!
rockhead

Sorry should have looked around first...found some info in the recipe forum...

Yes round up is one of the safer herbicides out there. Is it practical to use in your garden out back....probably not. Id do the manual pull the weed trick much cheaper! Trouble with round up is it kills everything green. So you may kill more than just the weed you dont want.

Take what you read on web sites with a grain of salt. That goes for both sides the chemical company sales pitch and the anti modern farming crowd. Some claim its harmful to the soil and worms etc. I spray round up on the grain fields every year and I bet I have more worms per hand full of dirt then anyones organic garden. Its amazing there must be a zillion of them in an acre of land! The biggest killer of worms is steel.

Round-up has a half-life of days (18 or 36, can't rmember... likely the 36)
This means that half the product has broken down in 36 days.
When round-up breaks down it is converted into phosphorus, not too bad.
When treating poison ivy, I would not just pull the runners, the roots will generate new growth. Besides, even with gloves, it would just be foolish if you get it as bad as I do! I use round-up at home and for clients, on poison ivy only. It is the lesser of all evils- being the weed or other chemicals.
Many people are opposed to using the product because it is made by monsanto- the head of all evil companies in many minds (mine included).
HTH
Livvie