Posted: 27/05/2013 at 20:38
Glyphosate is a risk near ponds because it is usually sprayed, and the overspray gets into the water, where it can be harmful to fish etc.. However, if you are careful and are willing to put a lot of effort in, you may be able to apply glyphosate directly to the leaves without any getting into the water. I use a hand spray using the gentlest of twitches on the trigger when weeding very close to desirable plants. I just get right up to the weed and give it the smallest of applications. You only need to get around 20% of the leafage for it to get right through the plant. It is absorbed within four hours and won't then run off if it rains.
Two weeks ago I applied glyphosate to long grass blades coming out of the centre of a clump of sempervivums. I wore a rubber glove on my left hand, sprayed a few drops of glyphosate onto the glove fingers, rubbed the fingers together so the fingers were wetted but no glyphosate droplets were left free to run off onto the sempervivums, and then drew the grass blades through the glove fingers. Today the grass is dead and i will pull the dead stuff up in a week.