Weed Help!!

[gamble77]

Just moved into the new house about 2-months ago. I am having a problem in my front yard with the sod we laid. When we originally laid it we failed to address a drainage issue in one part of the yard and it rained heavily about a week later, that grass there is very "patchy". It is centiped (spelling) grass and the front yard is in the sun for most of the day. I am having problems with weeds popping up everywhere and I am tired of leaning over and plucking them up every day.

I am not very up on this stuff, isn't there some type of seed or lime I can throw out with a walk behind spreader to control the weeds? There are too many of them to spray with a hand held weed spray. I have heard that once you start cutting your grass it will help control them as well...BUT I haven't cut my grass yet because I was told to let the centiped really take root and grow 4-5" or so before the first cut. Any advice would be appreciated bucause I am tired of seeing them in my yard!

 

[RonMar]

Well you can spray weed-be-gone(glyophosphate?), available in most garden departments, over the entire lawn, which will attack only the broadleaf weeds(may not be the best thing for a new lawn though). Or use a granular fertilizer with weed control from your drop/rotary spreader. You put this down when the lawn is damp, such as in the morning with dew still on, and the grains, stick to the broadleaf weeds and kill them. Again, you need to check how this aplication may effect your new lawn.

I have a pull behind sprayer, and when the dandelions first come up, I spray everything with 2-4D(basically same as weed-be-gone). later, if any missed the first spray, I mix up the same formula in a 3 gallon, pump-up hand sprayer, and walk around and spot spray with that. You might be surprised how much you can easilly cover with that type of spot sprayer. If it were me in your situation, I would probably use the 3 gallon hand sprayer and just start spot sprayng the individual weeds with weed-be-gone. After a week, the hit ones will be curled and dead, and any ones missed will be readilly apparent. I do this from time to time around my 7.5 acres attacking Nettles and weeds and dandelions. I fill up a 3 gallon batch and go for a walk.

Good luck

 

[anojones]

Just to avoid confusion, glyphospate is the active ingredient in Round-up and is a non-selective herbicide (meaning it will kill your lawn along with the weeds). I don't know what the active ingredient in Weed-B-Gone is off the top of my head, but it's probably not glyphosphate and thus, the advice above is sound.
I usually do a granular weed and feed in the spring and then spot spray with 24D or a Weed-B-Gone premix like product as weeds pop up. It is also true that mowing will help a lot- the grass (once it's established) can take the mowing but the weeds generally can't.

 

[schmism]

ive used general broad leaf weed spays for years for "spot treatment" and it works really well at killing most weeds and leaving the lawn.

i use a pump sprayer and go around and spray the weeds. in heavyly infested areas ill do my best to spray the entire area. otherwise its a squirt hear and there on the weeds.

a couple of applications a few weeks apart at beginning and middle of the year will go a long way.

 

[Western]

I like the "Weed-be Gone" that you connect to your water hose and let it meter itself. I have had good luck with this as a "broadcast" treatment.

 

[RonMar]

Just to avoid confusion, glyphospate is the active ingredient in Round-up and is a non-selective herbicide (meaning it will kill your lawn along with the weeds). I don't know what the active ingredient in Weed-B-Gone is off the top of my head, but it's probably not glyphosphate and thus, the advice above is sound.
I usually do a granular weed and feed in the spring and then spot spray with 24D or a Weed-B-Gone premix like product as weeds pop up. It is also true that mowing will help a lot- the grass (once it's established) can take the mowing but the weeds generally can't.

Yep, you are exactly right. I was spraying with both this weekend and was thinking/associating glyophosphate with the weedbegone for some reason... Anything with glyophosphate in it will kill just about everything green in the lawn that it touches.

 

[Bird]

I like the "Weed-be Gone" that you connect to your water hose and let it meter itself. I have had good luck with this as a "broadcast" treatment.

That's the way I do it, too. I've always used Ortho Weed B Gon, but I've heard so much about 2,4-D that I recently bought a bottle of Amine 400 2,4-D, but haven't used any of it yet. And I use the same kind of sprayer for MSMA for the crabgrass and dalisgrass.

 

[wushaw]

I know the 2-4-D works real well on Sawbriar this time of year.

 

[charlz]

2,4,d works well for broadleaf weeds like dandelions ... won't kill clover, slows it down a bunch but it doesn't kill it (at least not a 'normal' application rates). Whenever I seed a new area I let the grass get a good start and then spray with 2,4,d to kill off the broadleaf weeds, once the grass fills in the broadleaf weeds don't get a foothold... usually takes two applications.

 

[WarrenF]

2-4-D for two and a half gallons is around 30 dollars. Two and a half gallons should be enough to last you for years if your lawn is not too large. Mix it at a 2 ounce per gallon of water, and spray away. You can pull weeds, buy the expensive weed and feed....or simply buy the 2-4-D, mix it up in your sprayer and have a wonderful time.

Having grown up with a hoe in my hand....I realized there is a god when I discovered the joys of 2-4-D, and also Roundup.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Weed-B-Gone and most of the other lawn weed killers are usually a mixture of 2-4-D and some other chemical like dicamba or picloram, etc. The 2-4-D takes care of about 80% of the weeds and the other chemical about 20%. If the weeds you are trying to kill are suseptable to 2-4-D on its own then go for it. It is a lot cheaper than the mixtures. Since your grass is new, I'd be a little careful about spraying weedkillers because it might be a little "tender". Try it on one spot before treating the whole yard.

I'm not too fond of the weed & feed type granular weed control chemicals because they don't seem to work too well for me but anything is better than hand picking weeds ... life is too short for that. A hose end sprayer works well or one of those dial-a-spray hose end sprayers. Then follow up with a pump-up sprayer to get the ones you missed. Your yard will be looking great in a couple of months. Best of luck.

 

[Egon]

I'd suggest a soil analaysis and then ammend the soil as required. In the patchy areas overseed and insure sufficient water is available.

Then start working on the weed problem.

Supposedly grass is at an optimum height at six inches tall. No verification for this.

 

[Bird]

Having grown up with a hoe in my hand....I realized there is a god when I discovered the joys of 2-4-D, and also Roundup.

Yep, it was wonderful to replace that hoe with something else, and also to replace the yo-yo or weed knife with a gasoline powered string trimmer.

 

[WarrenF]

Yep, it was wonderful to replace that hoe with something else, and also to replace the yo-yo or weed knife with a gasoline powered string trimmer.

Thanks Bird....you made me laugh.....good sense of humor!!!!

 

[EddieWalker]

...that grass there is very "patchy". It is centiped (spelling) grass and the front yard is in the sun for most of the day.

...BUT I haven't cut my grass yet because I was told to let the centiped really take root and grow 4-5" or so before the first cut. Any advice would be appreciated bucause I am tired of seeing them in my yard!

Have you read up on centipede grass? It's one of my all time favorite lawn grasses for a few reasons. First and formost is that it grows VERY slowly. In my experience, you only mow it once or twice a year, and I've never seen it more then a few inches tall. I guess it could happen, but 4-5 inches seems a bit much for it.

Once it's established, it creates a solid surface that does an awesome job of choking out all other plants around it. The problem is that it grows so slowly, that it might take 2 to 3 years to cover an area.

When I've had it planted, I also plant bermuda grass with it. The bermuda grows quickly and locks the soil together giving you a lawn while the centipede gets established. Then as the centipede spreads out, it chokes off the bermuda and takes over. In time, the centipede will be the only thing left.

In lawns where this is done, you can see the two grasses competing with each other, but where the centepide is taking over, it's flat and very short. It's also a deeper color of green, which is another reason I like it so much.

For weeds, I've had good luck with Scotts Plus fertalizer for warm season grasses. I just broadcast spread it over a wet lawn and let the granules stick to the weeds. In a week or two, most everything but the grass is dead.

Eddie

 

[WTA]

If you are using 24D it really doesn't take much at all. I usually only mix 1.5 quarts in my 100 gallon sprayer to do about 5 acres. I believe the bottles of it that I get are 46% active ingredient at the feed store. It kills most of the weeds in that field. We have some "lake weed" the locals call it that takes nearly 4 quarts but luckily that is mostly gone now. Some sticker agent in the sprayer really helps it a lot too. The brand name of that I use here is crop oil I think. It's just an oily liquid that goes in the spray tank with it and helps it coat the broadleaves better. Also remember that 24D works best when it is hot and dry outside. Over 80 degrees average it works it's best. It's a waste of money spraying it under 60 degrees I learned. And don't spray it at all if you have any cotton, soybean or any other similar crops growing within sight. Unless you want to be buying that years crop. It takes very little of it drifting on the wind to wipe out a cotton field. My neighbor with his crop dusters and roundup has killed out my crops twice now without even an apology.I try to make sure the wind is blowing away from him though. He's lucky I'm not as stupid as he is.
I don't think I'd recommend using 24D in a handheld sprayer. Read the label and you'll understand. I put the charcoal filters in my cab ac intake everytime I go spraying just about anything now days. Those labels scare me and I've been exposed to enough through 15 years of the Military. I certainly don't need to add to it any.

If you are using MSMA I strongly recommend keeping your animals off the grass for a LONG time. That stuff is super toxic to animals. It was recommended to me to spray MSMA on one of my horse pastures a few years ago to get rid of some johnson grass, then right after I did it I read the bottle. It said to remove all animals from the pasture for at least 6 months after spraying. I was not very happy at all with that knuckle head at the feed store that told me he did it all the time on his horse pasture.

 

[jinman]

Yep, it was wonderful to replace that hoe with something else, and also to replace the yo-yo or weed knife with a gasoline powered string trimmer.

Yo-yo? You mean that "D" shaped thing on the end of a handle that has two sharp edges that can cut you if you aren't careful while moving it from one storage location to another storage location? I haven't used mine in years, but I keep it around for some unknown reason.

I found at my last house that if I just waited a couple of weeks, the Saint Augustine grass would choke out weeds. I watched my neighbor treat his weeds and they would disappear at the same time as mine. He was sure the herbicide was working and I am sure it was just Mother Nature. Year after year, the spring weeds popped up and were choked out by the grass when it got going. I just mowed the weeds to prevent them from going to seed. That was my yard with very thick grass. Others may not have the same conditions. YMMV

 

[Bird]

Yep, Jim, that's that tool I was talking about. The last time I saw one used was in Cool Hand Luke. But I got more experience with one than I wanted in my early teens.