Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
sallydraper

Weed ID needed: tall leafy weed

sallydraper
12 years ago

Another stupid ass weed to waste my valuable time...

This one is tall-ish and grows quickly to about two feet. It pops up everywhere in my yard and doesn't seem linked together by the root so I'm not sure how it spreads. It's got a weak stem that hollows out as it dries and makes it hard to pull up the root. The leaves are pale green, and look like lettuce. I have not been able to ID it. Suggestions? Ideas how to stop it? Ideas how it got in my soil in the first place? Thanks!!

Here is a link that might be useful:

Comments (5)

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    12 years ago

    Birds, squirrels, and the blowing wind are the most common vectors for the spread of weed seeds. Weeds in general are easier to pull when the soil is soft and moist, and when they are very small and have not formed deep root systems. If you pull a weed and it grows back, digging out the roots can be necessary. You can try pouring boiling water on them if they are not too close to desirable plants.

    Not sure what your weed is. Has it been sprayed with herbicide? Does it have any odor when you tear a leaf? Is the sap inside clear or colored or sticky? Any details you can observe can help determine what it is.

    Weeds sure are annoying, but the use of foul language is not necessary or appreciated on these forums.

  • Naturalchick27
    12 years ago

    I'm in Philly too and have plenty of those taking over my yard. Mine get taller. If left to grow, they can get over 6 ft. The stem thickens and eventually you will need to chop them down and try to kill the root. I have no idea what they are called, but they are really popular in this city :(

  • ReallyRed2222
    10 years ago

    I live in Northeast Philly and have the same exact weed as described by Naturalchick27 making me crazy. Does anybody know what it is and how to kill it? One person told me to just keep chopping it down and eventually it would die out. That was about 10 years ago and, surprise, it's worse! Just keeps growing and the stem keeps getting thicker and thicker. And over the past few years, more and more of these things have cropped up all over the place, actually so strong that it's pushing through and bending my chain link fence. Can somebody help, PLEASE!!

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    10 years ago

    Red, after you cut it off the next time, can you pour boiling water on it? I might stick a long screwdriver or other similar object in the ground right around it before doing so also, to help it penetrate around the root while still hot enough to be lethal. Will make a dead spot in the grass, but that's easy to fix, much easier than trying to dig something out of a fence.

    Killing something by the method you describe requires doing it often, daily for some things, and can take a long time. You have to remove any growth faster than it can be reproduced, so the roots eventually run out of stored energy. Anything large and woody enough to move CL fence is not going to die from occasional beheading. I share your frustration. I thought I'd killed a Mimosa stump *in* our CL fence and then planted a rose in front of it. Then the stump kept growing, so I can't pour boiling water or I might kill the rose too (or I wouldn't be surprised if it killed JUST the rose, this stump is determined!) I pull/rub the foliage off of it almost daily and it won't die, after 3 years of doing that. I know I could take other measures, but at this point I'm kind of fascinated and am just seeing how long it can do that. I can keep killing it, I don't mind.

    Natural, if you put a pic of the plant that's troubling you, someone should know what it is. Are you having trouble with this weed in a lawn or bed? If you have just a few, sometimes a large rock can be the demise of a weed. Sometimes that just makes it come out of the side eventually. Check often because if it does, it can start producing energy again. If it pops back out, know it spent a LOT of energy finding the light again, and is now weaker. Move the rock, 'kill' it again, put the rock back. If it sounds like something you'd like to try if few enough plants (and plentiful enough rocks,) sometimes works the first time, sometimes takes a few tries to exhaust it, the bigger/flatter the rock, the better the chances.

    Feel free to start a new discussion, many who already looked at this and couldn't diagnose the original pic might not return to notice a new pic from a new person.

  • florauk
    10 years ago

    sallydraper - just a note of warning. The link you gave allows us access to all the material on your the hosting site. If you copy and paste the html code into your post we can see only that picture and not all your private documents.

    Thus:

Sponsored
Hoppy Design & Build
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars9 Reviews
Northern VA Award-Winning Deck ,Patio, & Landscape Design Build Firm