Knowledgebase

How much residual glyphosate remains in the soil after glyphosate is sprayed? #863516

Asked April 06, 2024, 8:55 AM EDT

Our garden space was sprayed with Roundup or glyphosate by landscapers who didn’t know the garden was organic. He was spraying the cover crop and just thought he was getting rid of weeds. Glyphosate breaks down into residual product, too. What can we do to eliminate the chemical? It is not possible to move the garden plot. Is sugar or unsulfered molasses a solution? How much? How often?

Franklin County Ohio

Expert Response

Thank you for your question.  The first source I have included is from PSU extension and includes much information about glyphosate in the environment.  It does not include any specific  help with removal.  I did not copy any info from this article.

https://extension.psu.edu/glyphosate-roundup-understanding-r

This second article does contain some specific suggestions for soil modification and I have included it here.  Nowhere in my research did I see references to sugar or unsulfured molasses, or any other homeopathic treatments.
https://biotiquest.com/blogs/blog/the-longevity-of-glyphosate-in-soil-understanding-its-impact-on-soil-health-and-ecosystems-1

How do you neutralize glyphosate in soil?
The best way to neutralize glyphosate in the soil is to increase microbial activity in the soil. Adding organic matter and compost to the soil helps promote microbial growth, which can break down the glyphosate over time. Roundup stays active in the soil particles for a long time.

How long does it take for glyphosate to decompose?
The time it takes for glyphosate to decompose depends on several factors, including soil type, temperature, and moisture levels. In general, glyphosate has a half-life of around 32-47 days in soil, meaning half of the chemical will break down over this period. However, glyphosate residues can persist in soil for much longer, and in some cases, it may take several years for the chemical to degrade fully.

How soon can you plant vegetables after using glyphosate?
The time it takes to plant vegetables after using glyphosate will depend on the type of vegetable and the soil conditions. In general, waiting at least 3 days after applying glyphosate before planting vegetables is recommended. And remember there are potentially harmful impacts on the soil health and your overall health.
However, it may be necessary to wait longer in some cases, mainly if the soil is sandy or has low organic matter content. And remember there are potentially harmful impacts on the soil health and your overall health.

Does glyphosate accumulate in the soil?
Glyphosate can accumulate in soil over time, mainly if used repeatedly in the same area. The chemical can bind to soil particles, which can make it more difficult to break down. The chemical later affects the root growth of anything planted in the same area. Additionally, glyphosate residues can be carried by soil erosion and runoff, leading to contamination of nearby water sources.



This third source is lengthy.  I have copied  the pertinent parts for your question and have also included the references for the article.  Most are reliable, science based info including several extension service sources.  Good luck with your garden.  If I can help more, please feel free to contact me again.
https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2021/04/21/how-to-neutralise-glyphosate-roundup-herbicide-contamination-in-soil/

Garden Lime Application Rate

How much lime (calcium carbonate) should you added to increase soil pH?

Suggested amounts of garden lime for various soil types

  • Sands …………. 150g per square metre
  • Loams ………… 200g per square metre
  • Clay sand …… 350g per square metre

This is the application rate normally used to treat soils with a pH of 5.0-5.5 to make them less acidic.

Garden lime is virtually insoluble and needs to be dug into the soil to be effective. In an empty garden bed, garden lime can also be sprinkled on the surface and raked in, then watered to allow it to work itself into the soil.

Epsom Salts Application Rate

The advantage of Epsom salts (Magnesium sulphate) is that it is very soluble in water and can be used as a quick and effective soil drench by mixing it into a watering can and pouring it into the soil around the affected plant.

What are the recommended application rates for Epsom salts?

  • For fruit trees and large shrubs, apply 20g (4 teaspoons) of Epsom salts (Magnesium sulphate) per square metre (square yard), spreading evenly around the drip line of the tree or shrub, then water in well. Wash off any granules that have landed on plant foliage. Also, don’t apply any closer than 10cm (4”) to stems or trunks.
  • Another recommendation is dissolving 10g (2 teaspoons) of Epsom salts (Magnesium sulphate) in a litre of water and applying at a rate of 1 litre per square metre of garden bed with a watering can.

Binding Glyphosate in Other Ways

Farmers spraying glyphosate are advised to use clean water, as turbidity, the amount of suspended soil and organic matter particles in the water can reduce the effectiveness of the herbicide.

Glyphosate has a high soil organic carbon sorption coefficient (Koc) of 24,000 mL/g, a measure used to describe the binding strength of herbicides to soil, and therefore is rapidly and tightly adsorbed to soil particles and organic matter.

The figure represents the ratio of herbicide that is bound to soil particles when the herbicide is mixed with a slurry of water and soil. Herbicides with high Koc or values bind more tightly to soil particles.

Which soil materials bind glyphosate best?

Studies in Brazil have shown that adsorption of glyphosate depends on surface area for clays and amount of clays and CEC (cation exchange coefficient) for soils, while organic matter only plays a secondary role in the adsorption of glyphosate in soils. The adsorption of glyphosate on montmorillonite and kaolinite clays decreased when pH increased but remained constant with bentonite clay.

Therefore, bentonite clay, commonly sold in garden centres as a soil amendment to increase water retention in soils, and used in agriculture to line ponds and dams, can be used for adsorption of glyphosate, and its effectiveness is not reduced in alkaline pH soils, which result after adding garden lime as suggested earlier to inactivate glyphosate.

Adding high phosphate fertilisers, such as chicken manure and blood & bone, or synthetic phosphate fertilisers (which an organic gardener should never use) such as superphosphate (which is also very acidic) will liberate glyphosate bound in the soil, but glyphosate is not easily displaced by phosphate from clays. Adding calcium bentonite clay can ensure that glyphosate bound up in the soil stays there!

In this article, we mentioned earlier that the rate of breakdown of glyphosate in soils was found to be correlated with the abundance of Pseudomonas spp. of microorganisms in the soil. With that said, the most commonly found bacteria in matured vermicompost (worm castings) are Pseudomonas, Bacillus and Microbacterium species, though the bacteria associated with the vermicompost vary depending on the food added into the worm farms. Watering in the worm casting leachate (‘worm wee’) into the soil, diluted 10:1 or to the colour of weak tea, preferably with rainwater as it’s not chlorinated like tap water, or digging in worm castings, are a good way to inoculate the soil with beneficial bacteria, and hopefully increase the Pseudomonas species which break down glyphosate.

Many studies have isolated bacteria from glyphosate-contaminated soils and cultured them in large numbers to test their effectiveness at breaking down glyphosate, while not being affected themselves, as bacteria utilise the shikimate biochemical pathway which glyphosate inhibits. Mycobacterium brisbanense, Bacillus aryabhattai, Pseudomonas azotoformans and Sphingomonas pseudosanguinis are some of the many microorganisms tested for bioremediation of glyphosate in soil. Obtaining microorganisms for inoculating soil might not be that easy to do, but adding the liquid and solid products from a vermicomposting system is a much easier process.

It’s important to point out that most bacteria function in neutral to acidic pH environments, and if soil has been made very alkaline with limestone to bind up glyphosate, bacterial activity will be reduced. Using Epsom salts adds magnesium to the soil to bind glyphosate without changing the pH, making it more hospitable for micro-organism activity.

For more information on herbicides and alternatives, see these related articles:

References:

  1. L.G. Costa, M. Aschner, Toxicology of Pesticides, Reference Module in Biomedical Sciences, Elsevier, 2014, ISBN<personal data hidden>383,
    https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801238-3.00208-7.
  2. Henderson, A. M.; Gervais, J. A.; Luukinen, B.; Buhl, K.; Stone, D.; Strid, A.; Cross, A.; Jenkins, J. 2010. Glyphosate Technical Fact Sheet; National Pesticide Information Center, Oregon State University Extension Services. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/glyphotech.html.
  3. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach – Glyphosate, A Review by Bob Hartzler Professor of Agronomy
  4. Purdue Extension – The Glyphosate, Weeds, and Crops Series; Understanding Glyphosate To Increase Performance
  5. Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service – The Influence of Spray Water Quality on Herbicide Efficacy, by Gurinderbir Chahal, Jared Roskamp, Travis Legleiter, Bill Johnson, March 2, 2012.
  6. SynergyAG – How water quality affects herbicide efficiency, by Ikenna Mbakwe, April 24, 2019
  7. Oregon State University – Water quality affects herbicide efficacy
  8. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Glyphosate Chemical Fact Sheet, January 2012
  9. Oklahoma State University Extension – Aquatic Weed Management: Herbicides, Published Feb. 2017|Id: SRAC-361, by Michael P. Masser, Tim R. Murphy, James L. Shelton
  10. No-Till Farmer – Why Your Glyphosate May Not Be Working, by Martha Mintz May 1, 2014
  11. OEHHA, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment California Environmental Protection Agency – Glyphosate to be added to Proposition 65 list of chemicals, Mar 28, 2017
  12. University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Citrus Research and Education Center – Surfactants and Herbicides, by: Dr. Megh Singh
  13. Benbrook CM. Trends in glyphosate herbicide use in the United States and globally. Environ Sci Eur. 2016;28(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s1<personal data hidden>-0. Epub 2016 Feb 2. PMID: 27752438; PMCID: PMC5044953.
  14. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Glyphosate Chemical Fact Sheet, January 2012
  15. Ermakova, Inna & Kiseleva, Nina & Shushkova, Tatyana & Zharikov, Mikhail & Zharikov, Gennady & Leontievsky, Alexey. (2010). Bioremediation of glyphosate-contaminated soils. Applied microbiology and biotechnology. 88. 585-94. 10.1007/s0<personal data hidden>-0.
  16. Marcelo P. Gomes, Elise Smedbol, Annie Chalifour, Louise Hénault-Ethier, Michel Labrecque, Laurent Lepage, Marc Lucotte, Philippe Juneau, Alteration of plant physiology by glyphosate and its by-product aminomethylphosphonic acid: an overview, Journal of Experimental Botany, Volume 65, Issue 17, September 2014, Pages 4691–4703, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eru269
  17. Maeda H, Dudareva N. The shikimate pathway and aromatic amino Acid biosynthesis in plants. Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2012;63:73-105. doi: 10.1146/annurev-arplant<personal data hidden>39. PMID: 22554242.
  18. Mertens, M., Höss, S., Neumann, G. et al. Glyphosate, a chelating agent—relevant for ecological risk assessment?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 5298–5317 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s1<personal data hidden>-1
  19. Blake, Robin & Pallett, Ken. (2018). The Environmental Fate and Ecotoxicity of Glyphosate. Outlooks on Pest Management. 29. 266-269. 10.1564/v29_dec_08.
  20. Kanissery R, Gairhe B, Kadyampakeni D, Batuman O, Alferez F. Glyphosate: Its Environmental Persistence and Impact on Crop Health and Nutrition. Plants. 2019; 8(11):499. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8110499
  21. Blake, Robin & Pallett, Ken. (2018). The Environmental Fate and Ecotoxicity of Glyphosate. Outlooks on Pest Management. 29. 266-269. 10.1564/v29_dec_08.
  22. EFSA (2015) Conclusion on the peer review of the pesticide risk assessment of the active substance glyphosate. European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). EFSA Journal 13(11):4302. https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4302.
  23. Dynamics of Glyphosate in the Rhizosphere: A Possible Threat to Crop Plants? T.Tesfamariam, S.Bott. G.Neumann, I.Cakmak,V. Römheld, Institute of Plant Nutrition, University Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey
  24. University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Plant Pathology Department – U-scout, Tomato diseases, Glyphosate Damage
  25. Treloar Roses, Glyphosate Damage – https://www.treloarroses.com.au/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=115 ;
  26. Cruz, Lútecia Hiera da, Santana, Henrique de, Zaia, Cássia Thaïs Bussamra Vieira, & Zaia, Dimas Augusto Morozin. (2007). Adsorption of glyphosate on clays and soils from Paraná State: effect of pH and competitive adsorption of phosphate. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, 50(3), 385-394. https://doi.org/10.1590/S<personal data hidden><personal data hidden>
  27. University of Hawaii – Recycle Organic Waste through Vermicomposting, by Archana Pant and Koon-Hui Wang



isks-to-human-health
Juanita B, wljbaker@gmail.com Replied April 11, 2024, 4:04 AM EDT
Wow! Very helpful. Thank you very much for some measures to reduce the chemical in garden soil.  This was a one time application so should be less than soil where glyphosate had been used for a long time.


On Thu, Apr 11, 2024 at 4:04 AM, Ask Extension
The Question Asker Replied April 11, 2024, 6:33 AM EDT
I think I agree with you.  Good luck with your remediation.
Juanita B, wljbaker@gmail.com Replied April 11, 2024, 4:59 PM EDT

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