I have the invasive grass/weed shown in the picture in many places in my lawn. The spots of weeds pop up with no apparent source. They do no respond to weed killer, and they crowd out regular lawn grass. I am in the Chicago suburbs. Can anyone tell me what the grayish green grass/weed is and how to get rid of it?
Bob Hofmann
Your weed is lush and green, actually looks much better than your struggling to live puny grass. If you put more effort into your lawn you wouldn't have weeds... regular watering and mowing will do wonders.
I cannot say what it is but why is it so objectionable? Why must lawn be one species?
Yep yep yep. Fertilise, mow, water, drill, roll, water, fertilise, mow, weed, water, fertilise, mow, water, drill, roll, water, spray, fertilise, mow, water, fertilise, mow, water, drill, roll, water, fertilise, mow, water, fertilise, weed, mow, water, drill, roll, water, fertilise, mow, water. That'l fix it.
David
Don't know the name of the weed but, am I'm going solo here, I'd pull as much as possible and then add some round-up on top of the weeds root system. By using round-up please understand that you will be called names as I will. But a little dab will do ya!
Donna in WA
Looks like crab grass. If it is, note the following --
Crab grass generally indicates a lawn that is getting too much water too often. If the summer rains are not sufficient, irrigate deeply and infrequently. Try irrigating only once in 3 or 4 days. When you do irrigate, cut the time in half and then irrigate twice with an hour between; more water will soak into the soil instead of running off. Adjust the duration such that, on the day before you irrigate, the lawn (other than the crab grass) is not wilting.
There are various brands of lawn food that contain a herbicide that is specific to crab grass. The herbicide can be toxic to animals, including humans, if too much is applied to your lawn. Thus, avoid using too much at a time; and don't use it at all if the amount of crab grass is minor.
They needn't be, except depending on the area involved... smaller lawns are not very esthetically appealing when filled with patches of different types of plants.... with larger areas one cannot see the imperfections over great distances. My lawn is compased of probably a hundred different plants but unless one walks about and looks up close and personal they'd never know that not too long ago it was a hay field, there's very little real lawn grass... if not for my regular mowing it would be a wildflower meadow:
The problem is that the "weed grass" turns brown very early in the Fall while the "real grass" stays green for another 6 weeks at least. I'll try some crabgrass killer and see if it has any effect. It is not crabgrass in the traditional sense.
As to the posters who suggested more or less water and fertilizer, I do fertilize my grass lightly, and have not needed to water so far this Spring/Summer. With a 100 x 200 ft property, either in house or lawn, getting down on my hands and knees to pull this stuff out is not realistic. And we don't have any hungry teenagers in the neighborhood who will pull weeds for $$$.
Damn, you know nothing about crab grass. First of all that's not crab grass. Crab grass flourishes in dry hot conditions. And there's no specific crab grass killer... best one can do is to use a preemergent, but once it germinates all one can do is bit by bit attempt to dig it up, fruitless. Any defolient that will kill crab grass will kill everything else. But that's not crab grass, looks nothing like crab grass.
an annual. If so, your choices are mowing practices and fertilizer or chemical warfare.
Mowing/Fertilizer:
I'm 99.9% sure it is not what most of us here in the Midwest call crabgrass. I have a few patches of crabgrass, but nothing like the number of patches of what I showed in the picture. I hope to get a sample to our local Morton Arboreteum, and see if anyone there has any ideas. But, I'm not too hopeful as they are primarily interested in woody plants and trees, not grasses.
If you have any sense inside that skull of yours, you will listen to what Kay Lancaster has told you. She is very good at this stuff. It is your best chance. Do as she says, or it is all on you.
It looks like crabgrass to me. The simplest way to eliminate it is to not let it set seed (mow and compost the clippings) or germinate (pre-emergent herbicide applied in late spring, after cool season grasses have germinated but before crabgrass has germinated).
Mowing is pretty effective, since the seed is produced on stalks above the height of a typical lawn. There won't be much to mow except those stalks, so it may seem like not worth the effort, but mowing pays off the following year. Mowing alone takes a few years to control crabgrass, until the seed bank in the soil is used up.
Una
In news: snipped-for-privacy@u7g2000yqm.googlegroups.com, hr(bob) snipped-for-privacy@att.net spewed forth:
I'm no expert, but it looks almost like St Augustine grass, but I don't think it would survive Chicago winters. Find some MSMA and try it. If it's crabgrass, dallisgrass, goosegrass or the like, it'll kill it. They still have some here
Could be Nimblewill:
You can spot treat with something like Roundup (or try dig it out) and then patch with good seed or sod.
I've got some patches of it way in the back, and it doesn't play nice with the other grasses at all. Nor is it pleasant to walk on.
I think you win the prize!
I have something that looks similar. Up until now I thought it was nutgrass. Based on that I tried (a pre-emergent this year) no luck.
So far it looks like there is no good treatment for nimblewill other than to nuke the lawn (Roundup). Not good. I've been pulling the stuff for years with little success.
Pat is 100% correct with her diagnosis, the photo in her posting looks exactly like my weed. Now if we could only find something useful to do with the weed, I could get rich. I will have to settle for a lot of pulling, I guess, as I don't want to kill all the spots where it is popping up, that would look even worse that what I have.
Thanks to all who responded, especially Pat K.
More info on grassy weeds identification can be looked up here:
That's a google search for nimbelwill and vinagar(sic).
If you have some useful links, please post them instead.
Thanks.
Looks a bit like stuff invading my lawn in spots. Easily pulled and broadleaf killer does not touch it. I think premerge suppresses it as neighbors lawn out back is nearly 100% since he does not treat back. Pulling and premerg are my recommendations.
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