HELP PLEASE LAWN GRASS WEED

samuel.c.sparks · May 2022

Hi all,

Any help would be appreciated. I'm trying to remove what I think is a type of grass weed. Picture below. I'm unsure exactly what it is. After a bit of reading people reccomend digging the patches out and reseeding, but I have so many patches at various sizes if I was to attempt this I would end up digging up the entire lawn. I'm looking for a chemical killer that I can spray over the whole lawn that targets this type of weed ? Then when its dead I can re seed all patches. It has thick woody roots, thicker than 'normal' lawn grass and seems to grown from central clumps. After cutting it appears much browner than the rest of the grass.

Any help appreciated!!

Dovefromabove · May 2022

Hello @samuel.c.sparks and welcome to the forum 😊

I’m afraid what you’re seeking doesn’t exist.

There are what are called ‘selective’ weedkillers … however the only way they work is to target either ‘broad-leaved weeds’ or ‘narrow-leaved weeds’ … and as grasses are all ‘narrow-leaved’, anything that kills one type of grass will kill them all … 😢

Fairygirl · May 2022

These coarser grasses often appear in long dry periods, as they're more resilient, and take over from the other less robust ones. As the others have said, you can't kill one type, without killing them all.
If it bothers you a lot, you can dig these sections out and then re seed. That's really the only way.

samuel.c.sparks · May 2022

Thanks for the response. The issue is probably my picture. It isn't just a little bit of variation, there are over 35 + patches of brown thick matted grass that are ever growing on a fairly small lawn. If I leave it growing the way its I can see it taking over the entire lawn.
I think it maybe Yorkshire Fog / Quackgrass or crab grass. Step 1 is for me to identify it before doing anything (manual removal or weed kill). Any ideas what it is?

samuel.c.sparks · May 2022

Thanks! Few pictures below of roots. It seems to grow outwards from clumps that just keep getting bigger consuming more of the lawn, it seems to have what looks like a shallow matted root system. It's easy ish to pull out but there's too many smaller clumps to do by hand 😞

MrMow · May 2022

IN the pro world we use to have a product called Rescue, and it did exactly what you wanted to be able to do, it hit certain grasses but it is no longer available. And was only available with a chemical licence and on golf courses.

So yes you could target certain grasses.

Certain grasses like Yorkshire fog and broad leaf grasses do not like to be cut and thinned out, so little and gentle vericutting (very light scarifying )through the sward can help, also a sharp Stanley blade and regular cutting will refine the leafs. a few minutes with a springbok every time you cut can help as well but do not expect change overnight, its the little and often approach that works.

A few other ways are available but it is not anything I would post about.

I have wild grasses in my lawn you learn to manage them , knife/ rake Good stiff broom for starters.

samuel.c.sparks · May 2022

Thanks everyone for the speedy responses. Sounds like most agree that the manual removal route is the one for me. Looks like a good few days of work to rake out / vericutting

on a regular basis. I may try to weed kill a small patch of it in one of the corners as a tester vs just the manual tear out. Would love to know what the name of the grass is if anyone knows!??

Papi Jo · May 2022

Re verticutting: https://turfcareblog.com/scarification-vs-verticutting-what-is-the-difference/

HELP PLEASE LAWN GRASS WEED

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