Health Canada’s plans to wind down the sale of weed-and-feed products for lawn and turf uses won’t apply to turf farms.
The federal health department’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) announced earlier this month it will “uncouple” fertilizer/pesticide combination products meant for lawn and turf uses, with a “date of last sale” set for Dec. 31, 2012.
PMRA’s decision — backed up by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which until the end of 2012 is responsible for registrations of “fertilizer-use pesticides” — will be a formality for most Canadians. Several provinces, including Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, have already banned residential weed-and-feed products. Prince Edward Island’s ban takes effect April 1.
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But the agency emphasized that its decision “does not include agricultural uses of fertilizer-pesticide combination products,” specifically referring to their use on turf farms.
It also won’t apply to products that have only a single active ingredient acting as both a fertilizer and a pesticide.
Weed-and-feeds will no longer be available for what’s called “fine turf,” meaning residential, commercial and public lawns (schools, cemeteries) as well as sports and recreational turf (parks, playgrounds, golf courses, zoos, botanical gardens, athletic playing fields).
“Based on consultation with the provinces, experts and registrants, the PMRA has concluded that fertilizer-pesticide combination products for lawn and turf uses do not support the goals of best practices for pest management in turf,” the agency said in a statement.
Weed-and-feeds are usually bought for convenience and ease of use to address separate lawn maintenance issues, PMRA said in its “re-evaluation note” dated Feb. 2.
“However, these products are unsuitable as a delivery mechanism because they support broadcast application of the pesticide when this might not be warranted,” the agency said.
“Fertilizer should only be used if the turf will benefit from additional nutrients, and pesticide should only be used as a broadcast treatment if the pest densities are sufficiently high across the area to be treated.”
Time-consuming it may be, the agency said, but “pest control in lawn and turf can be achieved with careful pesticide spot applications that target only the pests that are present and separate broadcast applications of fertilizers.”
