Grass from HELL
 

I've got some sort of broad leaf grass that has moved into my garden
from God only knows where. Its bad enough that I have to live with
my neighbors @#$&*&^&* Chinese Elms coming up everywhere, but now
this grass. As I said, its broadleaf, has a root system that goes
way down even for tiny growth above ground making it impossible to
puill out unless the ground is very wet. When it comes up it
typically unfurls the leafs(blades) and lays flat on the ground. It
does not send out feelers that reroot from the stems but sends
several blades out. Any idea what type it is?

Grass from HELL
 

Try visiting www.scotts.com

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...
I've got some sort of broad leaf grass that has moved into my garden
from God only knows where. Its bad enough that I have to live with
my neighbors @#$&*&^&* Chinese Elms coming up everywhere, but now
this grass. As I said, its broadleaf, has a root system that goes
way down even for tiny growth above ground making it impossible to
puill out unless the ground is very wet. When it comes up it
typically unfurls the leafs(blades) and lays flat on the ground. It
does not send out feelers that reroot from the stems but sends
several blades out. Any idea what type it is?

Grass from HELL
 

"madgardener" wrote in
:

it's crabgrass. It likes poor packed soil and if you were to topdress
your lawn and fertilize it, and not cut your good grass lower than
three inches, your good grass will choke it out. By cutting the grass
too short actually allows crabgrass to get a better hold on the soil
as it has more ground to estabilish. spot treating with herbacide
would do like RoundUp as it breaks down once applied to individual
clumps, or wetting the area down and pulling it up, then put rich
topsoil in the spots and seed with a good grass to reclaim the area.
At least you don't have the insidious Johnson's
grass...........madgardener

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...
I've got some sort of broad leaf grass that has moved into my garden
from God only knows where. Its bad enough that I have to live with
my neighbors @#$&*&^&* Chinese Elms coming up everywhere, but now
this grass. As I said, its broadleaf, has a root system that goes
way down even for tiny growth above ground making it impossible to
puill out unless the ground is very wet. When it comes up it
typically unfurls the leafs(blades) and lays flat on the ground. It
does not send out feelers that reroot from the stems but sends
several blades out. Any idea what type it is?


I had some grass-like stuff in my yard, too. If I recall correctly, the
leaves were oval, about 2" in length, light green color. After reading
about crabgrass (I forget the other names for it), I came up with pretty
much the same things madgardener wrote. Although I think there was
something about corn gluten being a good herbicide or pre-emergent, not
sure. Anyway, was probably last month that I dealt with it, it hadn't shot
up any flowers yet. IIRC, crab grass is dormant in the fall, so maybe
it'll come back next year. This might be a stupid or 'asking for trouble'
way to deal with it, so use at your own risk, but what I did was weed whack
the crab out of all the foliage, right down to soil level. Lawn looked
like a couple of goats came through, but the next day Mother Nature dumped
half the Indian Ocean on me (sorry for the rest of you having droughts;
it's been swampy here), and now the regular grass is growing back nicely.
I did hand pick off some stragglers and the roots were not deep at all
(about the same length as the leaf), so either it hadn't established itself
or my stuff wasn't the same as yours.

For what it's worth I "aerated" the soil last fall. I put "aerated" in
quotes because it wasn't core aeration, but the other kind with rotating
blades (that some people say compact the soil rather than aerate). Anyway,
it also had the side benefit of ripping up some huge layers of thatch,
which might have been aeration enough. I only mention it because of the
comment about liking poor packed soil.

-- Salty

Grass from HELL
 

it's crabgrass. It likes poor packed soil and if you were to topdress your
lawn and fertilize it, and not cut your good grass lower than three inches,
your good grass will choke it out. By cutting the grass too short actually
allows crabgrass to get a better hold on the soil as it has more ground to
estabilish. spot treating with herbacide would do like RoundUp as it breaks
down once applied to individual clumps, or wetting the area down and pulling
it up, then put rich topsoil in the spots and seed with a good grass to
reclaim the area. At least you don't have the insidious Johnson's
grass...........madgardener

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...
I've got some sort of broad leaf grass that has moved into my garden
from God only knows where. Its bad enough that I have to live with
my neighbors @#$&*&^&* Chinese Elms coming up everywhere, but now
this grass. As I said, its broadleaf, has a root system that goes
way down even for tiny growth above ground making it impossible to
puill out unless the ground is very wet. When it comes up it
typically unfurls the leafs(blades) and lays flat on the ground. It
does not send out feelers that reroot from the stems but sends
several blades out. Any idea what type it is?

Grass from HELL
 

Salty Thumb wrote in
:

dormant in the fall, so maybe it'll come back next year. This might
be a stupid or 'asking for trouble' way to deal with it, so use at
your own risk, but what I did was weed whack the crab out of all the
foliage, right down to soil level. Lawn looked like a couple of goats

he he, not such a good idea. Being blind, I did not notice (and the leaves
haven't unfurled yet), but the 'crab grass' came right back with the rest
of the 'good grass'. Back to square one.

Grass from HELL
 

"Salty Thumb" wrote in message
...
"madgardener" wrote in
:

it's crabgrass. It likes poor packed soil and if you were to topdress
your lawn and fertilize it, and not cut your good grass lower than
three inches, your good grass will choke it out. By cutting the grass
too short actually allows crabgrass to get a better hold on the soil
as it has more ground to estabilish. spot treating with herbacide
would do like RoundUp as it breaks down once applied to individual
clumps, or wetting the area down and pulling it up, then put rich
topsoil in the spots and seed with a good grass to reclaim the area.
At least you don't have the insidious Johnson's
grass...........madgardener

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...
I've got some sort of broad leaf grass that has moved into my garden
from God only knows where. Its bad enough that I have to live with
my neighbors @#$&*&^&* Chinese Elms coming up everywhere, but now
this grass. As I said, its broadleaf, has a root system that goes
way down even for tiny growth above ground making it impossible to
puill out unless the ground is very wet. When it comes up it
typically unfurls the leafs(blades) and lays flat on the ground. It
does not send out feelers that reroot from the stems but sends
several blades out. Any idea what type it is?


I had some grass-like stuff in my yard, too. If I recall correctly, the
leaves were oval, about 2" in length, light green color. After reading
about crabgrass (I forget the other names for it), I came up with pretty
much the same things madgardener wrote. Although I think there was
something about corn gluten being a good herbicide or pre-emergent, not
sure. Anyway, was probably last month that I dealt with it, it hadn't
shot
up any flowers yet. IIRC, crab grass is dormant in the fall, so maybe
it'll come back next year. This might be a stupid or 'asking for trouble'
way to deal with it, so use at your own risk, but what I did was weed
whack
the crab out of all the foliage, right down to soil level. Lawn looked
like a couple of goats came through, but the next day Mother Nature dumped
half the Indian Ocean on me (sorry for the rest of you having droughts;
it's been swampy here), and now the regular grass is growing back nicely.
I did hand pick off some stragglers and the roots were not deep at all
(about the same length as the leaf), so either it hadn't established
itself
or my stuff wasn't the same as yours.

For what it's worth I "aerated" the soil last fall. I put "aerated" in
quotes because it wasn't core aeration, but the other kind with rotating
blades (that some people say compact the soil rather than aerate).
Anyway,
it also had the side benefit of ripping up some huge layers of thatch,
which might have been aeration enough. I only mention it because of the
comment about liking poor packed soil.

-- Salty

I used a weed-eater and cut the crabgrass in my lawn down to the roots also.
Then I sprayed a 20% vinegar on the roots, waited a few days then watered
the area heavily to leach the vinegar deep down into the ground

Most of the crabgrass has not come back and the Bermuda grass has spread
into the bare areas and is growing nicely. About 15% of the crabgrass
treated this way has started back slowly and I will have another go at those
plants this week end.

Shepherd

Grass from HELL
 

The problem with the stuff is that its in my garden, nowhere in my
lawn or on its edges. The weeds etc are easy to pull out but this
grass is a real bear!

madgardener wrote:
it's crabgrass. It likes poor packed soil and if you were to topdress your
lawn and fertilize it, and not cut your good grass lower than three inches,
your good grass will choke it out. By cutting the grass too short actually
allows crabgrass to get a better hold on the soil as it has more ground to
estabilish. spot treating with herbacide would do like RoundUp as it breaks
down once applied to individual clumps, or wetting the area down and pulling
it up, then put rich topsoil in the spots and seed with a good grass to
reclaim the area. At least you don't have the insidious Johnson's
grass...........madgardener

"John DeBoo" wrote in message
...

I've got some sort of broad leaf grass that has moved into my garden
from God only knows where. Its bad enough that I have to live with
my neighbors @#$&*&^&* Chinese Elms coming up everywhere, but now
this grass. As I said, its broadleaf, has a root system that goes
way down even for tiny growth above ground making it impossible to
puill out unless the ground is very wet. When it comes up it
typically unfurls the leafs(blades) and lays flat on the ground. It
does not send out feelers that reroot from the stems but sends
several blades out. Any idea what type it is?

Grass from HELL
 

"Shepherd" wrote in
:


I used a weed-eater and cut the crabgrass in my lawn down to the roots
also. Then I sprayed a 20% vinegar on the roots, waited a few days
then watered the area heavily to leach the vinegar deep down into the
ground

Glad to hear I'm not the only one trying the weed-whacker approach!
Although I've read someone here mention that bacteria like acetic acid a
lot, so I wonder how much of the vinegar is left after a few days.

Most of the crabgrass has not come back and the Bermuda grass has
spread into the bare areas and is growing nicely. About 15% of the
crabgrass treated this way has started back slowly and I will have
another go at those plants this week end.

Most of my stuff seems to be coming back identically, so I might try some
vinegar, too.

- Salty

Grass from HELL
 

"Salty Thumb" wrote in message
...
"Shepherd" wrote in
:


I used a weed-eater and cut the crabgrass in my lawn down to the roots
also. Then I sprayed a 20% vinegar on the roots, waited a few days
then watered the area heavily to leach the vinegar deep down into the
ground

Glad to hear I'm not the only one trying the weed-whacker approach!
Although I've read someone here mention that bacteria like acetic acid a
lot, so I wonder how much of the vinegar is left after a few days.

Most of the crabgrass has not come back and the Bermuda grass has
spread into the bare areas and is growing nicely. About 15% of the
crabgrass treated this way has started back slowly and I will have
another go at those plants this week end.

Most of my stuff seems to be coming back identically, so I might try some
vinegar, too.

- Salty

Thinking about using a propane torch on the crabgrass roots instead of the
vinegar. Have you tried this?

Shepherd

Grass from HELL
 

"Shepherd" wrote in
:


Most of my stuff seems to be coming back identically, so I might try
some vinegar, too.

- Salty

Thinking about using a propane torch on the crabgrass roots instead of
the vinegar. Have you tried this?

Shepherd

Not yet (also don't know where my torch stuff is), but I was musing about
covering them with some old glass window panes. The last time I accidently
did that, it made a nice brown square that lasted for over a week. I don't
recall how long I left the glass sitting out though. Also, I think I read
that crab grass likes heat, so I'd like to get some more info first ...
wondering if the crab grass will just laugh at me while I'm shriveling the
good grass that I'd like to have crowd out the crab grass. It's going to
be rainy here for a while, otherwise, I'd do a little experiment.

-- Salty

Grass from HELL
 

Down here in Florida, we call it a lawn!

--
gloria - only the iguanas know for sure