I am into
weeds. I will apologize upfront. We are
still facing very warm and sometimes hot days, but I have noticed the
appearance of several winter annual weeds starting to emerge in lawns and
flower beds. I have seen a lot of sowthistle, prickly lettuce, and Poa annua popping up the past few weeks which are indicators
that our days are getting shorter and nights are getting cooler. That’s just fine for me as I am more than
ready for a cool down.
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| Cudweed |
If you are
like me, you will not want these weeds getting a foot hold in your
landscape. What can you do? First off, I would be sure to remove or spray
emergent weeds and
not let them flower which will result in the further spread of the unwanted
pests. If they already are seeding,
please carefully pull or dig these out and dispose of them in your green waste
can.
The next
step would include applying a pre emergent herbicide to both the lawn and
flower beds while they are nearly weed-free and allowing the irrigation water
to activate them into the top inch or so of soil. Most of the common pre emergent herbicides
(Amaze, Preen, Surflan, Halts, Dimension, and Barricade) are root inhibitors
thereby stopping the weeds from developing a healthy root system while allowing
existing plants to continue growing with minimal root suppression. The above list controls a large list of grassy and broadleaf weeds, but
often week on the thistle and composite families. Commercial products often combine other pre
emergent products to improve the weed control spectrum and pick up some of the
more difficult weeds missed. This
includes some rather pricey products like Gallery, Snapshot, and Freehand. Ideally, pre emergent products need to go
down mid-September into October to prevent the weeds from successfully emerging
this winter. Complete weed control is rarely achieved.
Another
approach includes the addition of mulch. Mulch can
potentially add aesthetic value, reduce water loss, and reduce weed
pressure. Pulling weeds is often much
easier with a good mulch layer. Generally,
mulch layers less than 2 inches deep are not very effective for weed control
reduction. In order to maintain a 2-4 inch mulch layer, one needs to repeatedly
add more mulch every few years as it breaks down over time.
Before you know it, we will be talking about
crabgrass prevention and other foes like spurge, nutsedge, and green
kyllinga. Meanwhile, now is the time to
plan for the coming onslaught of winter weeds in your landscape. Good luck!
