Pennsylvania Game News - Feburary 2011 - 59

wanted grasses and weeds. However, Agent Orange it is not. When Roundup is sprayed on plant foliage, it is absorbed by the plant and then moved throughout the plant’s tissues. Once it is absorbed, Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) prevents the plant from manufacturing certain aromatic amino acids essential for plant growth and life. Glyphosate interrupts the metabolic process in plants, so its effect may not be visible for about four days in annual plants and up to seven days in perennial plants. After application of the herbicide, the plants wilt, turn yellow, and then brown as the plant tissue deteriorates. At the same time, Glyphosate decomposes the plant’s underground roots and rhizomes. Ultimately, the entire plant dies and is incapable of regenerating, providing the added benefit of enriching the soil as it decomposes. Tests have shown that Roundup, when used according to label directions, has no weed killing activity once it comes in contact with the soil. Users can take comfort in knowing Glyphosate will not move in or on the soil to affect non-target vegetation, and it does not move through the soil to enter other non-target plants by the root system. Glyphosate is only effective when it comes into contact with the green, growing parts of plants. About a week to ten days after applying the herbicide, Ryan said the area should be power raked to rid the defoliated area of the remaining dead plant matter. Ryan stated plants grow best where the soil has a neutral or near neutral acidity, and the only way to tell is by testing a soil sample. According to Ryan, most soils in a whitetail’s range are acidic in nature, which means plant growth won’t be maximized and the nutritional value of the crop will be less than what it could be. In addition, the effect of any fertilizer applied to the soil will be minimized if the soil pH is too low. “Before doing anything else, you must first determine the pH of the soil,” Ryan said.
FEBRUARY 2011

Chemists define “pH” as the measure of hydrogen ion concentration in a substance, and the lower the pH, the more acidic a substance is. A neutral substance like water is pH 7and anything below pH 7 is acidic. “Soils with pH between 6 and 7 are considered suitable for planting, but soils deemed too acidic must be brought up to these values or “sweetened” by applying the appropriate amount of lime,” said Ryan. It should be noted that pH is a logarithmic scale, and a change in one unit say, from pH 5 to pH 6, represents a tenfold change in the soil’s acid or basic quality, while a change from pH 4 to pH 6 represents a hundred fold change. Ryan explained that if the soil is too acidic, plants can’t absorb the nutrients in the soil because phosphorus, potassium and calcium can’t bond to the soil’s acidic elements, which makes them unavailable to the plants. This, in turn, means fertilizer and money will be wasted. A dairy farmer we know offered the following advice about applying lime to the soil. “Lime when you know it’s going to rain,” he advised. “Lime does the most good when it is tilled into the soil and soil moisture helps to maximize its effect” he continued. Most county Cooperative Extension Offices around the state will do a soil sample analysis for a modest fee and will provide a report detailing how much lime must be applied to get the soil within acceptable limits. To find the closest County Extension Office in any part of the country go to www.csrees.usda.gov. and look up “Local Extension Offices” on the right side bar. For those wishing to do their own soil testing, Antler King Trophy Products Inc. in Black River Falls, Wisconsin (888- 2685371) offers an economical and easy to use soil test kit. Each kit allows a seed plot developer to perform four separate pH tests. Each test takes 20 minutes to perform and it is extremely accurate. With this soil test kit, there is no need to send in soil samples
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http://www.csrees.usda.gov

Pennsylvania Game News - Feburary 2011

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