Question about Quackgrass

Question about Quackgrass

We notice that the grass areas are being over run with "Quack Grass".  Seems to be a problem throughout Millcroft.  Is there a lawn maintenance product that can take care of the problem ???  Would you please advise me about the "quackgrass."

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Hi Dennis

First, is to determine what it is. Quackgrass, crabgrass, bentgrass?

If it is crabgrass, this is an annual weed, comes up from seed, dies every winter. Nowadays, only application is to put a seed germinating preventer on before crabgrass germinating season.

There are also a couple of other annual grasses, foxtail, barnyard grass. Treat more or less as you would crabgrass. This time of year- manual removal to reduce the seed production. Then cultural practices to help fight it. Mowing height is especially important.

Quackgrass, on the other hand is a perennial grass. It doesn't die in the winter. Crabgrass preventer products may reduce germination, but do nothing for existing plants. Normally quackgrass doesn't go to seed in regularly mown turf.

The only product that will control quackgrass is a non selective herbicide like Roundup. This product is not legal to be used in this manner under McGuinty's current Pesticide Ban legislation.

So, if it is quackgrass, digging it up is possible, but the underground stems or rhizomes can be up to 12" deep. A small piece of the root (as small as a few inches long) left behind in the soil has the ability to grow into a new plant. These rhizomes on an established plant can grow sideways and pop up a foot away from the original plant. This is why it is hard to eradicate by digging. You may dig up the mother plant as well as the daughter plant, but if the underground rhizome connecting the two is left behind, it will re-infest the lawn.

Quackgrass tends to grow more upright, while crabgrass tends to grow more horizontally (which does allow the seedheads to develop below mowing height and produce thousands of seeds per plant.)

Quackgrass tends tio grow faster than the regular grass. After the mowing, the quackgrass will be up above the rest of the lawn in a day or two.

Cutting the lawn more often will help the lawn to better compete against quackgrass. This is not something can be done for a couple of months and make the quackgrass disappear. The problem is that a hot dry summer allows quackgrass with its deep roots to survive better during drought conditions.

Is My Crabgrass Up Already in April?

If you are seeing some wider bladed grasses at this time of year, it is not crabgrass. Crabgrass is an annual grass. It dies in the fall and comes up from seed in the late spring. It usually is not visible until the end of June. So what you are seeing now is definitely not crabgrass.

Quack grass is another wide bladed grass. It however is a perennial grass and will be starting to grow this early. 

Crabgrass is normally treated by putting on products that reduce its germination from seed.
Because quack grass is already alive and growing, putting on something to reduce germination rarely of benefit.

See the following articles on Quack Grass

http://www.hamiltonturfking.ca/gerrys-blog/64-thick-bladed-grass
http://www.hamiltonturfking.ca/lawn-library/28-weed-grasses-quack-grass

Chinch bugs hate the shade

The King of Green has always said that chinch bugs are "Sunny Weather" friends. They prefer the sun and dislike the shade.
Not sure if you can see this well, but this lawn has a hedge running east-west along the southern edge of a lawn. So the lawn along the hedge is shaded most of the time because it is on the north side of the hedge. The chinch bugs have decimated the lawn. All they have left are the quack grass, crabgrass, and a lot of dead grass. The lawn damage is extensive.

Hard to tell if the weeds are there because the chinch bugs left them behind or if they jumped into the lawn because the chinch bugs destroyed the lawn, and reduced the turf density.

If you look closely you will see that there is a strip of lawn about 2 feet wide along the hedge that (while far from good), is not as damaged as the rest of the lawn.

Call Gerry Okimi at Turf King 905.318.6677.
Lawn care at its best. http://bit.ly/3ehXf

We have treatments available for chinch bugs.

We can also repair the lawn by our overseeding treatments.

Renovating spots of thick bladed grass, cont'd

When these grasses grow out by the farmer’s field, I don’t worry about them at all. They’re green and they don’t have yellow flowers. Around the patio, I’m a little more particular.

Last year I had a couple of clumps of thick bladed grasses growing near the back patio. In early April, I sprayed some glyphosate (Roundup) on the patch, then simply sprinkled grass seed into the grass. A day later, once that spray had dried, I watered the patch to wash the seed down to the soil level. In about ten days the unwanted grasses, along with the good grass in that spot, had turned yellow and started to die. Maybe it was the right weather, but by the end of 4 to 5 weeks, the new grass had sprouted and the patch slowly turned from a dead yellow patch into a spot of fresh new lawn. My memory is not as good as it was, so I won’t say that I didn’t throw some more grass seed down at a later date.

In your lawn, once the unwanted grass has turned yellow, (it should take 7-10 days), you can repair that area by putting in a piece of sod or by seeding that area with a good grass seed mix.

If you are going to seed and if it is a small area- slit the ground with a spade and drop the seed into the slits. The seed in the slits should be protected from drying out. You can see the slits I have made in the second photo. I'll try to remember to take pictures as the seed sprouts.

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:

Turf King Home

Click here to Request a Quote Online -

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

If you would like more information, please Contact us

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Thick bladed grass.

What do you do when you have patches in your lawn of a thick bladed grass? There are various types of grasses that can spoil the appearance of your lawn. With the touch of snow this clump seems to stand out more than it might if the snow wasn’t there. Some people say, “at least it’s green and doesn’t have yellow flowers.” Some, however, are adamant that the grass has to go.

By the way, if this unwanted grass is visible at this time of year (April, May or early June), it is NOT crabgrass. And, putting on a crabgrass treatment will not do anything to help.

There are a number of thick bladed grasses that can grow in lawns around here. Quack grass or twitch grass, brome grass, orchard grass, timothy, and others as well. The names are less important than what one does to tackle the issue.

Since these are perennial grasses, there isn’t a selective treatment that you can apply to the whole lawn and make only the grasses we don’t like disappear. A herbicide containing glyphosate is the best. Roundup is the most common brand name for such a product.

By the way, (again), I don’t recommend trying to dig up the thick bladed grasses. Several years ago, I went to do a lawn quote. The homeowner met me and showed me his lawn. He had at least fifty nice round spots of fresh soil on his lawn. “What happened here?” I asked. He told me he had dug up all the areas of the thick bladed grasses on his lawn. “Did you spray the grasses first?” When he said that he had not, I told him that unfortunately, the roots on these grasses can be deep and if a small piece of root was left it could grow back again. Sure enough, a few months later, around the edges of the spots he had dug out, there were little sprigs of the thick bladed grasses starting to grow back.

More on how to fix this problem later.

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:

Turf King Home
Click here to Request a Quote Online -

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

If you would like more information, please Contact us

Follow us on Twitter  http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen

Join our Facebook page  

http://www.bit.ly/FacebookTK

Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.