If you own a vegetable garden and don’t like hand-picking weeds, you should consider using Preen. This product was designed by the Lebanon Seaboard Corporation to stop weeds from growing in your garden.
You should learn how to use preen in a vegetable garden before you apply it. There are certain specifics that you should know such as when to apply the product. Is Preen safe for vegetables? Absolutely, since it doesn’t affect your produce, it only prevents weeds from germinating.
Would you like to know what plants you cannot use Preen around? Continue reading this post as we will answer this question and several others.
Can you put Preen down in a Vegetable Garden?
Caring for a vegetable garden requires a lot of work. You will deal with several types of intruders including weeds. Several methods of dealing with weeds exist but you must pick one that doesn’t harm your vegetables. This brings us to the question, can you put Preen down in a vegetable garden?
Preen is a natural pre-emergent herbicide for controlling weeds in a garden. Unlike chemical weed killers, this product isn’t toxic as it was manufactured from 100% corn gluten.
What this means is that Preen is safe for vegetable gardens. But that’s not all, it is also great for herb and fruit gardens, shrubs, trees, and flower beds.
This information brings us to the next question, “what plants can you not use Preen around?” The herbicide helps to prevent the growth of grassy and broadleaf weeds. However, you can use it on a variety of plants such as snap beans, corn, and other garden vegetables.
If you are planting seeds, then you should apply Preen after putting the seeds in the ground. Doing it the other way round may damage the chemical barrier beneath the soil making it easy for the weeds to germinate. On the other hand, if you are transplanting your vegetables, then you need to apply the product first.
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Can you put Preen around Tomato Plants?
We have already answered the question, is Preen safe for vegetable gardens earlier. But one question that seems more pressing is, “can you put Preen around tomato plants?” The answer to this question is a resounding “YES!” However, you just need to know how to use Preen in a vegetable garden.
As we mentioned above, Preen is safe for vegetables including tomatoes because of its contents. It was designed specifically for vegetable gardens so it is safe for your tomato plants too. Asides from tomato plants, you can use Preen around broccoli, peppers, eggplants, and celery to mention a few.
For this group of vegetables, you have to transplant them so applying Preen should be before the transplanting. In the case of cucumbers,
watermelons, and cantaloupes, you should allow the plants to have five leaves before transplanting. Also, you should note that Preen doesn’t work on already established weeds. As such, if you have existing weeds, you should pull them out first before applying Preen.
Check the guidelines below to learn how to use Preen in vegetable garden:
- Sprinkle one ounce of the product per ten square feet.
- For organic Preen, use five pounds for 250 square feet.
- Put your seeds in the ground before applying Preen.
- Apply Preen after transplanting vegetables, not before.
When should I put Preen in my garden?
This is one question that we must answer when discussing how to use Preen in a vegetable garden. Gardeners that use this product always want to know the best time to apply it to their gardens.
According to experts, the best time to apply Preen is just around the beginning of the growing season. You should apply it around both existing plants and transplants.
Never use the product on flower seeds because they wouldn’t germinate. Remember that Preen is a pre-emergent herbicide so it prevents seeds from germinating. Wait for the flowering plants to germinate to between two and three inches tall before application.
You can also incorporate Preen into your garden soil after mulching beds or when seeding vegetables. Dealing with weeds is a difficult job so it is best to fight them before they germinate.
Because of this, you should apply Preen early enough to avoid the stress of hand weeding. A single application of the product prevents the germination of more than 200 grassy and broadleaf weeds in three months. Finally, you should reapply Preen every nine to twelve weeks to protect your garden from weeds.
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When can I plant after applying Preen?
In learning how to use Preen on vegetable gardens, you should find out the best time to plant after application. Do you plant immediately after application or wait for a few weeks?
The safety of planting after application depends on the kind of plant. However, the general practice is to wait for up to twelve weeks before you sow seeds or transplant them into the garden.
There are certain crops that you can plant immediately after the application of the product. They include:
- Broccoli,
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Radishes
- Peas
- Celery
For the following, you must wait a minimum of twelve weeks after application before you can plant:
- Watermelons
- Cucumbers
- Cantaloupes
Your best bet for these plants is to allow them to germinate first before applying Preen. As such, they should have a minimum of five leaves before applying the product.
How to Use Preen in Vegetable Garden-Conclusion
In this post, we have shown you how to use Preen in a vegetable garden. We have also answered the question is Preen safe for vegetable gardens and how long Preen lasts. If you have any questions, you can drop them in the comments section.
