Ken and forum members, I very much appreciated Ken's intervention as it coincides well m with my nursery experien ce. Simazin and Casoron are in my opinion too harsh. The more re ommended chemicls are CPIC (chlorpropham) in combination with Goltix (metamitron). Allways preceded with contact herbicides (Paraquat or Glyphosate) during the domant season and a last treatment just before emergence. For large cale cultivation I could not go without the use of pre emergent chemicals. But there are other means to ruce the weed population: Especially for the summer growers I have drastically reduced the frequency of irrigation, without a noticable reduction in growth and resulted in far less weeds. The use of drip irrigation tubes positioned under the mulch has been interesting improvement for Cannas, Crinum, Hedychium, Dahlias and other summer growers (2 drip tubes on a 110cm(50") wide bed. Also a general use of a thick layer of mulch has very much reduced weed growth. Both for summergrowers and winter growers; in some cases in the open ground (and in allcases in containers) I use 1- 2cm of gravel mulch. Of course as Ken also stated, thereis also some had left to do, butit remains acceptable this way Regards from France (where we have just finished getting our remaining stock into the ground) Lauw de Jager http://www.bulb'argence.com/ South of France (zone 8 Olivier) le 9/11/03 4:04, Kenneth Hixson à khixson@nu-world.com a écrit : As a followup to the pre-emergent weed control discussion, some of the > techniques I have used here might be interesting > Those of us with dry summers can also reduce weeding by using drip irrigation > instead of overhead sprinklers. There is still some weeding, but in truth, I > rather like to weed--a little. > Ken, western Oregon Lauw de Jager Bulb'Argence