# Glyphosphate and Trees



## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

So I have a customer I'm doing sod for, and as part of the prep I sprayed the grass with glyphosphate. We have had zero rain since I did if that matters.

She has a maple tree in that area that lost its leaves. We have had a heat wave in SC and no water.

Is there any chance the glyphosphate killed the tree? To my knowledge it wouldn't kill a mature maple tree. But a drought and heat wave would absolutely make it drop leaves.

She's asking if I plan on replacing the tree for her for free.


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## stotea (Jul 31, 2017)

How big/old is the tree? I can't imagine it would be affected by incidental glyphosate unless it's very young. When I killed my lawn for my reno, my maple was not affected whatsoever even with exposed roots.


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

Well smear my ears with jelly and tie me to an ant hill ...

I had started to post that tress do not absorb Glyphosate through their roots but that is / I woulda been WRONG!

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/effect-glyphosate-tree-roots-29076.html

"_*Glyphosate can significantly damage the overall health of a tree that absorbs it into its roots*. The compound interferes with uptake of several important micronutrients, including manganese, zinc, iron and boron, elements that help support the tree's ability to resist disease. As a result, glyphosate can increase the likelihood a tree will develop one or more fungal diseases, including root rot, wilt, rust and Anthracnose. The latter is especially damaging to hardwood trees such as ash, birch, elm and hickory._"

Man, I feel for ya if it is "one of those customers" ... if they are "one of those customers" I wonder if a local nursery has some leftover or surplus maple stock they can cut you a deep discount on? Either that or see if she can hold off til after Labor Day (crazy discounts on trees at the big boxes, etc. then AND fall is a better planting time anyway.

Best o' Success!


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## krusej23 (May 8, 2018)

I would just tell her that she needs to wait and see if it actually dies or not. It could just be the drought or it could be that it impacted the tree a little and it could come back from it.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

stotea said:


> How big/old is the tree? I can't imagine it would be affected by incidental glyphosate unless it's very young. When I killed my lawn for my reno, my maple was not affected whatsoever even with exposed roots.


Probably 6-8" diameter.

I think it's the 103 degrees for 5 days with no water.


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## Herbi Side 4 Life (May 9, 2019)

I sprayed around my 9' diameter oaks with concentrated glyphosphate a couple of weeks ago and haven't noticed any decline. Though we did have significant rainfall here.

The only precautions i took was removing any suckers from the bark that could absorb the herbicide and made sure to avoid any parts of the trunk where the bark looked weak.


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## smurg (May 30, 2018)

440mag said:


> Well smear my ears with jelly and tie me to an ant hill ...
> 
> I had started to post that tress do not absorb Glyphosate through their roots but that is / I woulda been WRONG!
> 
> ...


Glyphosate has little to no soil activity, it must be foliarly absorbed. That article's references are broken and a google search of multiple university articles say similiar. Use "site:.edu" to target those types.

Although I'd be surprised for a tree that size to see significant damage from 5 day heat wave (I'm no expert though).


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## krusej23 (May 8, 2018)

@SCGrassMan Any update?


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

krusej23 said:


> @SCGrassMan Any update?


Not yet, but the small branches are still springy. I advised her to water the crap out of it.


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