# Pre-em for landscaped beds?



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

I intend to plant several ligustrums, loropetalum, and arborvitate this week.

This is my first time with any of these plants.

I am trying to discern whether I can apply any pre-ems, such as prodiamine, simazine, or oxadiazon, to reduce the amount of weeding I have to do in the future.

Do you all use anything as a pre-em in your landscaped beds? Preen? Fabric weed cloth? Mulch? All of the above?

Just trying to plan on the front end to make sustaining this easier.


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## high leverage (Jun 11, 2017)

fabric, cedar or pine bark mulch, and Preen for me. Preen can be used in mulch, I don't think the normal Pre-m we use for lawns would work very well in mulch most need soil contact to be effective.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

high leverage said:


> ...I don't think the normal Pre-m we use for lawns would work very well in mulch most need soil contact to be effective.


Preen Southern Weed Preventer is just Dimension (Dithiopyr).

I spray around the shrubs in my mulched beds with Prodiamine when I'm doing the lawn.


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

Ware said:


> I spray around the shrubs in my mulched beds with Prodiamine when I'm doing the lawn.


Ditto. Works great.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Occasional Preen but have found that the heavy pine bark nuggets I use are a very good weed suppressant.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

high leverage said:


> fabric, cedar or pine bark mulch, and Preen for me. Preen can be used in mulch, I don't think the normal Pre-m we use for lawns would work very well in mulch most need soil contact to be effective.


How long ago did you use the fabric? I was trying to figure out if was going to be something I regretted later. Regarding the mulch, are you removing and replacing each year or just adding more on top?



Ware said:


> Preen Southern Weed Preventer is just Dimension (Dithiopyr).


Exactly. Although the other version contains trifluralin.

I already have prodiamine and simazine on-hand and would prefer to use something I have if it will safely do the job.

According to the label for simazine, it's friendly for use in ornamental plantings and specifically lists arborvitae, but not ligustrums or loropetalum.

For prodiamine, the label lists several ligustrums, one type of arborvitate / thuja occidentalis, and one type of loropetalum.

By comparison, oxadiazon lists ligustrum spp., thuja spp., and nothing on loropetalum.

One way to find out what works! Just figured I'd solicit input before finding out the hard way.


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## high leverage (Jun 11, 2017)

I should have prefaced I use the Preen with trifluralin


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