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Crab grasses.....
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Posted by Vera_EWASH z5 EasternWA (My Page) on Thu, Apr 15, 04 at 21:54
Crab grass or quack grasses? I'm clueless to which is which but annoying they are!
I've noticed some of these coming up in my 12x60 1st season area. Should I just leave them be and get out the weed wacker when the time comes or pull them up or what?
Speaking of which it's far from time to be mowing the area, but what if the weeds/grasses (I don't forsee many) are taller before the annuals are through or just beginning to bloom?
Thanks
Vera |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Crab grasses.....
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| Crabgrass shouldn't be much of a problem in a meadow planting. Real crabgrasses are reasonably low and are only annuals. A problem in high-end, impress-your-neighbor lawns, but not much of a problem in real native-species meadows (at least after full establishment of same). Quackgrass is another matter. This foreign species is particularly aggressive and needs to be checked early on. As soon as you see it (it's growing profusely now, in the cool spring -- it goes into dormancy in hot summer, then resumes again in cooler fall) zap it with glyphosate (Roundup and others). Unless you do, it's likely to overtake an entire field. But make sure it's really quackgrass, not some desired species. Dig up a small root clump and see if it has lots of runners with many nodes where new stems will sprout. If so, it's quack. Zap it. |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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Ok thanks John!
I think with your description that it must be crab grass. Vera |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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| crab grass can linger around for a while. its also a warm season annual so it does persist management techniques of cool season grasses. but after a few good strong grow years, crab doesnt have much of a show. soil should be filled up. fyi...it REALLY burns fast :) froggy |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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It pulls up pretty easy and the seed is still attached...they musta blew in from the neighboring field full of weeds...geeez I got a weed field to the north and a wheat field to the east! Should get that farmer to run his tractor over that weed field next time and round it all up...even disk at the same time...then seed it with wildflowers.... LOL
I'm dillusional :) Vera |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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| No, the seeds aren't necessarily from the nearby farm field. These tiny seeds can blow in from miles away (or be brought at night by seldom-seen Weed Faeries that drop unwanted grass and weed seeds everywhere). And once again, seeding anything with mere "wildlfowers" will only provide a perfect habitat for more weeds. Except in real desert, "wildflowers" (properly, forbs) need to grow among and supported by grasses. The planting of forbs without grasses is unnatural and leaves opennings between the flowers where weeds will soon grow. One must create an authenic multi-element natural ecosystem, not a mere garden. |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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| .... I DID sow the wildflower seed along with grasses..side-oats gramma and LBS and I scattered BBS as a backdrop....none of these are up as yet.....the forcast is for 70's and 80's for the next couple weeks and is likely to stay...the area gets morning and mid-day sun. Vera
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RE: Crab grasses.....
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| At the risk of touching off a firestorm of protests from the organic gardening crowd... I would throw in an additional piece of information. Bayer has come out with a new post-emergent selective herbicide that works wonders on undesirable grasses in the lawn. I've found it to be effective against both crab grass and quack grass. Not much help in the meadow, but a great alternative to glyphosate and starting from scratch in areas of the lawn that become infested. The key is to spray in early-mid summer before these grasses go to seed, and timing is difficult because you really don't spot quack grass unitl August when it starts to really stand up. You can find the Bayer product at Lowes. |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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| Will buffalo and Blue Grama survive a Crabgrass infestation? I have a new seeded area that has been kept wet by heaver than normal rainfall this year. It's definately not been the optimal dry weather that those grasses favor and the crabgrass has gotten thick. The established areas from last year are doing okay with just an occational handweeding.
Just checking to see if I need to plan to either re-seed or overseed next year. |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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| Thank You John_Blakeman! "And once again, seeding anything with mere "wildlfowers" will only provide a perfect habitat for more weeds. Except in real desert, "wildflowers" (properly, forbs) need to grow among and supported by grasses. The planting of forbs without grasses is unnatural and leaves opennings between the flowers where weeds will soon grow. One must create an authenic multi-element natural ecosystem, not a mere garden." I didn't think of this and am in the process of beginning to reclaim former lawn. |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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| Well whatever the grass was is gone now...It was either cut-low or pulled up...must of been a cool-season annual. The only grassess I can see now are LBS and the 2 BBS 'clumps'and the volunteer Scribners Panic Grass...there are some others but I'm not sure what to look for with the SOG seedlings.. Vera |
RE: Crab grasses.....
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in my smaller plantings, i hand pull both crab and quack grass... i think using chemicals should be minimized - particularly if one has started a native planting to be environmentally friendly... after several hand pullings, the native plants mature to the point that it hasnt been a problem - at least for me anyway.
i wouldnt recommend any preemergents either, particularly if one is planning on your plants to reseed themselves and spread...
and since i recently started composting i need the green weeds to feed my pile.... |
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