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May 16, 2014 8:27 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Paul
Utah (Zone 5b)
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I plan on using Preen in some flower beds this year and also mulching with compost. Do I clean-up the bed, put down the Preen, and then the compost or do I put the Preen on top of the mulch? What has been your experience?
Paul Smith Pleasant Grove, Utah
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May 16, 2014 8:49 AM CST
Name: Anne
Summerville, SC (Zone 8a)
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I've just started using it and it's amazing .. Preen is the very last thing you want to put on the bed. If you disturb the area, like planting something new, you'll need to reapply more to that area.
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May 16, 2014 9:02 AM CST
Name: Arlene
Southold, Long Island, NY (Zone 7a)
Region: Ukraine Dahlias I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Houseplants Tomato Heads Garden Ideas: Level 1
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Preen has to make contact with the soil, then get lightly watered in. It will release a gas that will kill all annual seeds, weeds or not.

I'd clean the bed, dig out any weeds, rake flat, apply Preen, water it in, then add mulch (not compost). It works!
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May 16, 2014 9:29 AM CST
Name: greene
Savannah, GA (Sunset 28) (Zone 8b)
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There is an organic version of Preen; it does need to be applied a little more often but either type of Preen sure saves a lot of work. Thumbs up

When I clean a new area, I apply Preen and water it in, then add the landscape fabric and mulch and apply a bit more Preen and water again. Sure, it's over kill, but it beats missing a spot.
Sunset Zone 28, AHS Heat Zone 9, USDA zone 8b~"Leaf of Faith"
Last edited by greene May 16, 2014 9:30 AM Icon for preview
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May 16, 2014 9:39 AM CST
Name: Elaine
Sarasota, Fl
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I've used it on my daughter's garden in Salt Lake for a couple of years. It works both on the soil, and on top of the mulch. Being a pre-emergent herbicide, it prevents seeds from germinating, but will not kill any that have already started. You might be a wee bit late for the first application, Paul, but it sure will help as the weather warms up.

Just spent 2 weeks there, weeding until my back gave out every day . . . Phew! Now she has a huge tree in the back yard producing a billion more seeds. Preen will prevent most of those, hopefully! I can't use it in FL as most of my weeds are perennials, and it will just fertilize them . . Rolling my eyes.
Elaine

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May 16, 2014 10:18 AM CST
Name: Anne
Summerville, SC (Zone 8a)
Only dead fish go with the flow!
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Hmmm .. I read that Preen works by smothering seeds with corn glutenate .. have not read anything about a gas or it having to be in contact with soil.
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May 16, 2014 10:24 AM CST
Name: Jennifer
48036 MI (Zone 6b)
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Preen will also keep perennials seeds from germinating.
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May 16, 2014 11:46 AM CST
Name: Anne
Summerville, SC (Zone 8a)
Only dead fish go with the flow!
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Yeah .. you definitely don't want to use it around your Salvia or Monarda.

I put it on my front bed by the road before I planted my main plants .. I covered the perennials coming up with buckets then sprayed weed killer on the bed .. a few days later I hoed everything under then applied the Preen. Usually when I weed my beds I see new weeds coming up from seed within a day or two afterwards .. so far, and it's been about 4 days, I haven't see any new weeds coming up in the bed. I check it every day.

I'm considering doing half my round bed with Preen and the other half without just as a test.
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May 16, 2014 3:31 PM CST
Name: greene
Savannah, GA (Sunset 28) (Zone 8b)
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There are some seeds which are immune to the Preen. One that I know from experience is Oenothera. I cleared an entire area of all vegetation, using the scuffle hoe to cut everything and went back to re-work the soil in case I missed anything. I spread Preen generously and watered it in. The only seeds which germinated all on their own were from the Oenothera which I had allowed to re-seed (on purpose to check if what I had read online was true).

I'm still testing, but I believe that White Sweet Clover /Melilotus officinalis is also immune to Preen; I would imagine that the Yellow Sweet Clover would react the same way if I could ever find seeds for that one.
Sunset Zone 28, AHS Heat Zone 9, USDA zone 8b~"Leaf of Faith"
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May 16, 2014 3:33 PM CST
Name: Anne
Summerville, SC (Zone 8a)
Only dead fish go with the flow!
Plant and/or Seed Trader Birds Cat Lover Greenhouse Tropicals Bulbs
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I wonder if the seed shape or type of seed coat is what makes it immune.
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May 16, 2014 3:49 PM CST
Name: greene
Savannah, GA (Sunset 28) (Zone 8b)
I have no use for internet bullies!
Avid Green Pages Reviewer Keeper of Poultry Vegetable Grower Rabbit Keeper Frugal Gardener Garden Ideas: Master Level
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Still researching (to hopefully save money) but for now I am reading that if I were to obtain corn which has been milled into corn meal and nothing has been removed from it - so 'whole grain', so to speak - it would act as a fungicide as well as a pre-emergent.

Oh, would that save a bunch of money! (Don't tell the people at Preen about this.)
Sunset Zone 28, AHS Heat Zone 9, USDA zone 8b~"Leaf of Faith"
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May 16, 2014 6:14 PM CST
Name: Arlene
Southold, Long Island, NY (Zone 7a)
Region: Ukraine Dahlias I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Houseplants Tomato Heads Garden Ideas: Level 1
Plant Identifier Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Greene - http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UT...

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I'd like to try it, too, and saw Espoma also carries it.
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May 16, 2014 7:01 PM CST
Plants Admin
Name: Kent Pfeiffer
Southeast Nebraska (Zone 5b)
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Plant Database Moderator Plant Identifier Region: Nebraska Celebrating Gardening: 2015
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One note, Preen neither kills seeds nor prevents them from germinating. What it does is inhibit root elongation in most plants that come in contact with it. "Adult" plants can tolerate that (to varying degrees, if I remember right the directions recommend not using it around certain plants), but it is usually a fatal circumstance when a seed germinates and can't elongate its root.
Last edited by KentPfeiffer May 16, 2014 7:03 PM Icon for preview
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May 16, 2014 7:16 PM CST
Name: Anne
Summerville, SC (Zone 8a)
Only dead fish go with the flow!
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Wow .. so much conflicting information on how it works.
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May 16, 2014 7:31 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Paul
Utah (Zone 5b)
Grandchildren are my greatest joy.
Annuals Enjoys or suffers cold winters Plant Lover: Loves 'em all! Garden Procrastinator Hosted a Not-A-Raffle-Raffle Plays in the sandbox
Tender Perennials Tomato Heads The WITWIT Badge Region: Utah Vegetable Grower Hybridizer
I have several Iris friends here that have used it for year with their iris and other flowers and they swear by it.
Paul Smith Pleasant Grove, Utah
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May 16, 2014 7:31 PM CST
Plants Admin
Name: Kent Pfeiffer
Southeast Nebraska (Zone 5b)
Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Plant Database Moderator Plant Identifier Region: Nebraska Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Forum moderator Irises Garden Sages Garden Ideas: Master Level
Xeramtheum said:Wow .. so much conflicting information on how it works.


That's because it's widely used, but the mechanism for how it works isn't exactly a marketing department's dream come true. 'Preen inhibits root elongation!' doesn't sell. But, 'Preen prevents weeds!' does and it's accurate, or at least accurate enough. Smiling
Last edited by KentPfeiffer May 16, 2014 7:33 PM Icon for preview
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May 16, 2014 8:38 PM CST
Name: Anne
Summerville, SC (Zone 8a)
Only dead fish go with the flow!
Plant and/or Seed Trader Birds Cat Lover Greenhouse Tropicals Bulbs
Seed Starter Garden Ideas: Master Level Hibiscus Hybridizer Garden Sages Butterflies
Ok .. Preen is mostly the herbicide Trifluralin. Below is an excerpt of an article, Practical Applications of Herbicide Physiology. Here is the link to it: http://passel.unl.edu/pages/in...

Trifluralin is a seedling growth inhibiting herbicide that is absorbed efficiently by the roots and shoots of germinating seedlings but is very immobile in the plant and soil. Trifluralin inhibits cell division in root and shoot meristems. Trifluralin is registered for control of unemerged weeds in corn when applied after the corn has developed two leaves. By the two leaf stage the shoots of corn and weeds have a well developed outer layer that prevents aborption of any trifluralin that may contact the shoot. Since trifluralin is very immobile in the soil it does not move deeply enough into the soil to come in contact with the immature (meristematic) portions of the root system of established corn or weeds. Emerged corn and weeds are not harmed from this type of trifluralin application because the tissue effective in absorbing trifluralin is not exposed to the herbicide. In contrast the shoots of germinating weed seedlings absorb trifluralin from the surface soil and are controlled.

What Kent said is correct. In reading further I'm seeing conflicting information about how long it persists in the soil. I need to look into that further.
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May 17, 2014 4:25 PM CST
Name: woofie
NE WA (Zone 5a)
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On the Preen website, they don't recommend using it around Clematis. They have a list of plants it's compatible with here:
http://www.preen.com/products/...
I think the list is different for the "organic" version, tho, which is supposed to be ok to use around vegetables.
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Avatar for daleelizabet
Feb 21, 2018 12:06 PM CST
Henderson nc
can you put it[ preen] on theplant bed before the perennials come up?
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Feb 21, 2018 2:10 PM CST
Name: Anne
Summerville, SC (Zone 8a)
Only dead fish go with the flow!
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Hi Daleelizabet and welcome to NGA!

Yes you can. The only thing you don't want to put it on are beds that you have planted seeds in. It has no affect on existing plants, only seeds.
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