Is this crabgrass?

[John61]

Please see the picture here

weed has been spreading in my yard quickly. I used a general weed control liquid bought from Wal-Mart last year, but seems not working.

What kind of weed is this? Do we have to use something special to handle it?

Thanks,

John

[Peter Pan]

you can get Ortho Weed B Gone in a Greenbottle(Its a spray) from Lowes or Home depot. Make sure you do not get the white bottle, that kills everything

[trader4]

It's not crabgrass which has barely begun to germinate in much of the US and doesn't look at all like your picture. Crabgrass won't appear this size till late summer. Yours looks like some type of rough grass. Which is the bad news, because with some specific exceptions, there aren't herbicides that will kill the undesirable grass without killing the good grass too. As you've already found, the typical broadleaf weedkiller doesn't work, because it's not a broadleaf weed.

You can take a sample to a local agricultural extension service, if they have one in your county for identification. IF you do, take as large and mature a plant as possible. But, assuming it's a perenial, it's very likely that the only way to get rid of it will be to use Roundup to kill everything and re-seed. If it's just a few plants, you could also dig it out. Hopefully it's not all over your turf.

[Red]

Very hard to tell from the picture, but it looks a lot like perennial rye grass. A neighbor planted some a few years ago to have a green lawn over winter. Now it's spread over the whole neighborhood & I've been fighting it all spring. Broadleaf weed killer doesn't phase it. Thank goodness it's shallow rooted so it can be pulled up by hand.

Red

[Data]

Hi It's not Perennial Rye grass - which is distinguished by having a very shiny surface - amongst other things. (Looks a bit like a 'Holcus' (Yorkshire Fog her in the UK :-) ) If there is not toooooo much of it about, a neat little trick is to bunch up the weed gradd into a tube - dpending upon the size of the clump, then spray Roundup (Glyphosate) down the tube onto the weed grass. Sure. a little will probably find its way onto surrounding grasses, but nothing that some overseeding can't sort out. Otherwise, just bunch it up and cut it down into the guts of the root system. You may then find that it is not quite the massive job to dig out the root. Hope this helps Regard Data

[Steve]

Data wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Another technique: For isolated weeds, put on a surgical glove, then a disposible cotton glove over that. Wet the cotton glove with the chemical, and carefully wipe your hand over the weed. You have lots of control this way.

For widespread weeds, wrap a flat-ended rake with old cloth, dip the cloth in the chemical, and carefully rub it over the weeds. This only works if you let the weeds get taller that the surrounding plants. It will also require multiple applications, because you aren't getting the chemical over the whole plant.

[Red]

Many years back Ortho made a wax based bar impregnated with herbicide. You attached it to your mower and dragged it as you cut the grass. It worked very well but didn't stay on the market very long. Guess someone had a problem with getting weed killer on their shoes.