Taming Wild Grasses
Noticing different grasses in your yard? Nothing is more aggravating than looking out into your lawn to see a grass that you didn’t put there. Florida soils are abundant with wild grass seeds. Often brought in during construction when the soil is bare, the seeds eventually emerge when conditions are perfect for germination. The two most common wild grasses found in Florida are: crabgrass and Bermuda grass and are not typically the variety that homeowners want to promote.
So how did they get there? Seeds transfer via wind, water and people. They may travel in garden soil or new sod. The tiny seeds can blow or wash away and onto your lawn during a windy day or a rain storm or commercial landscapers can unintentionally transfer the seeds to your lawn by mowing someone else’s who has it.
Preventing Weed Seeds From Entering Your Lawn
So what can be done? For starters, there are a few things you can do to help reduce the chances of wild seeds, but the truth is there is no real long term prevention. Aside from proper watering, the single most important thing you can do is to mow at the proper height for your grass type. Improper mowing (ex. scalping, repeatedly mowing in the same direction, etc.) all contribute to undue stress and wear on the “good” grass. When this happens, the grass that you want begins to decline and the grass you don’t want starts to take over. Proper watering is another important factor in discouraging weed seeds from establishing themselves in your lawn. Too much water leads to various types of crabgrass or Torpedo Grass, as well as promotes moisture-loving weeds. Conversely, lawns that have suffered even a few days of drought stress can rapidly decline and start to thin out thereby leaving an open area for seeds to germinate and grow.
According to the Florida Lawn Handbook, the single most damaging factor to a lawn is improper mowing. After that is too much or too little water. You’d think that chinch bugs would take the number one spot, however, improper mowing and watering actually lead to and encourage chinch bug activity as well as in increase in weeds or wild grasses.
Keeping Wild Grasses At Bay
So if you already have had them, how can you keep wild grasses at bay? Unfortunately there is no single cure, however, there are a couple of considerations we look at as lawn professionals. One of the first things we do is to review what we call ‘cultural practices.’ Example: are you mowing more than 1/3 of the leaf blade each time you mow? Are you alternating your mowing patterns each time? Do you do regular checks to ensure adequate coverage of water?
Using weed killing products is the only solution to killing unwanted grasses, however this will also kill desirable turf. Products like Roundup do not stop wild seeds from growing and pre-emergent weed controls offer little help, as well so it is likely that even after laying new sod, unwanted grasses will return. The bottom line is that there is little, if anything, that can be done to truly control established wild grasses from an application standpoint.
Dormancy in the Cool Season
At Slug-A-Bug, we often receive calls during the winter months when customer begins to see some browning of the grass in their lawn. But it is important to know that this is a natural process for these types of grasses. These varieties of wild grasses go dormant during the cool season, often when we get our first cold snap. They will naturally brown out because they prefer the warmer temperatures and essentially ‘shut down’ for the winter. If the wild grasses do brown out for the winter and you would like to plant new sod in its place, the best time to replant the new turf is before they start to green back up in the spring, typically around March and April.
If you have small areas of wild grass that you would like to discourage, a product like Roundup can used and the dead wild grass should be removed with as much of the root as possible before placing new sod on top. Then be sure to water the new grass frequently. Once the roots established, continue to water and mow as normal.