[NA]Killing lawn weeds[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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west Texas
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Dave Taylor
The pre-emergent worked well (previous thread); I did a test where part of the lawn was untreated and can see a difference.

I still need to knock down tons of dandelions, especially.

Trying to avoid having to spend hours studying on the internet for my Weed-Killing PhD - does anyone have a quick answer to what is best to apply through the summer to keep them at bay?

I am in USDA plant zone 8
30 degrees latitude
Its 80F every day now
The grass is bermuda in direct sun (and we get a lot)
We mow every 10 days to 3"
5000'msl
It is irrigated 3x daily 15 mins
10,000sf
I don't have much time for fussing with concoctions and making plans, I can however find 15 minutes every week if needed to spray or spread.

Will Scotts Triple Action Turf Builder 'do ok'?
 
Pretty much any broadleaf killer will work.

A couple ways:

Granular: Run the sprinklers first, then use a broadcast spreader. The stuff will stick better to wet leaves

Liquid: Hose end sprayer for large areas, pump sprayer for small areas.

Be very careful around tomatoes. They are very sensitive.

Once you get the bulk of them knocked down, spot spraying as needed doesn't take much effort.

I don't know much about your type of grass, but sometimes an extra inch of height can help it keep weeds down, too.
 
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A weed and feed from your local feed store should be climate appropriate and should work fine. My TX lawn looks great but the mulched gardens are more difficult to manage for small weeds, even after Preen application in early spring.

Irrigated three time daily or weekly? I have water thirsty St Augustine and right now I'm watering once a week in two back-to-back cycles. One to wet the ground and then a second cycle to deep soak without runoff. The weeds are simple to manage but I have to guard against fungus. I'll step up the irrigation to twice a week soon as the temps go above 90*.
 
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You need one of these. Put him or her out when the weather is warm, they'll eat weeds like a little machine. They'll munch the grass too.
 
Pro tip. If you already increased your concentration of 2,4D, don't cover the same area of grass twice....
 
In all honesty, I'd learn to love the dandelions. I stopped using lawn weedkillers years ago.

Evidence is mounting for all sorts of possible harmful effects from 2,4-D, which really isn't surprising considering how it works to control plants. It basically causes runaway cell growth, almost like giving the plant cancer. It's also persistent on the soil and has been found in groundwater; and animal studies have found it to cause cancer, increase the risk of birth defects, and interfere with mammalian hormone levels.

I'm not a zero-risk kind of guy. I weigh the risks against the reward. In this case, killing dandelions isn't worth any risk at all, in my opinion. I like Michael's idea better.

Rich
 
It'll take a couple of years for the dandelions to go away. The seeds survive a couple of years before hatching. Pre-emergent each year for 3-4 years when ground temp just hits 55 degrees at 4 inches. Worked like a charm for me, but took 3 years to get there.

Or you can just bring in a flamethrower.
 
Diesel fuel and a sprayer........ it's natural.
 
RJM62 said:
In all honesty, I'd learn to love the dandelions. I stopped using lawn weedkillers years ago.

Evidence is mounting for all sorts of possible harmful effects from 2,4-D, which really isn't surprising considering how it works to control plants. It basically causes runaway cell growth, almost like giving the plant cancer. It's also persistent on the soil and has been found in groundwater; and animal studies have found it to cause cancer, increase the risk of birth defects, and interfere with mammalian hormone levels.

I'm not a zero-risk kind of guy. I weigh the risks against the reward. In this case, killing dandelions isn't worth any risk at all, in my opinion. I like Michael's idea better.

Rich
Click to expand...

+1

I just keep them mowed, don't let them go to seed. Seems to be more than manageable. A perfect lawn was never high on my list of life goals in any case. :D
 
GRG55 said:
+1

I just keep them mowed, don't let them go to seed. Seems to be more than manageable. A perfect lawn was never high on my list of life goals in any case. :D
Click to expand...

When I lived and worked downstate, I found myself mystified by the obsession many people on Long Island had with their lawns -- especially considering how bad the drinking water already was and how much of the problem was caused by pesticides and herbicides. That's in addition to the longstanding contamination of the aquifers by heavy metals and other industrial wastes from manufacturing, dry cleaning, laundry services, leaky septic tanks, run-off from the LIE, and so forth.

One would think that residents would be willing to forgo their lush, green lawns not to make the problem worse, especially given the high cancer rates among Long Island residents. But for the most part, one would be wrong. Millions of gallons of pesticides and herbicides are annually sprayed on Long Island lawns, and quickly leach through the sandy soil to pollute the aquifers, the coastal waters on both the North and South Shores, and countless lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams.

I'm not anti-pesticide. Judicious use of pesticides is one of the reasons we live longer today than we did a century ago. How many people do you know who've died of dengue fever or bubonic plague lately? I just don't consider perfect lawns to be important enough to justify using pesticides, especially since we now know that the degradates of some common lawn-care chemicals are even more toxic than the products themselves.

It just seems pointless and irresponsible to me. I'd rather live with the weeds.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
When I lived and worked downstate, I found myself mystified by the obsession many people on Long Island had with their lawns -- especially considering how bad the drinking water already was and how much of the problem was caused by pesticides and herbicides. That's in addition to the longstanding contamination of the aquifers by heavy metals and other industrial wastes from manufacturing, dry cleaning, laundry services, leaky septic tanks, run-off from the LIE, and so forth.

One would think that residents would be willing to forgo their lush, green lawns not to make the problem worse, especially given the high cancer rates among Long Island residents. But for the most part, one would be wrong. Millions of gallons of pesticides and herbicides are annually sprayed on Long Island lawns, and quickly leach through the sandy soil to pollute the aquifers, the coastal waters on both the North and South Shores, and countless lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams.

I'm not anti-pesticide. Judicious use of pesticides is one of the reasons we live longer today than we did a century ago. How many people do you know who've died of dengue fever or bubonic plague lately? I just don't consider perfect lawns to be important enough to justify using pesticides, especially since we now know that the degradates of some common lawn-care chemicals are even more toxic than the products themselves.

It just seems pointless and irresponsible to me. I'd rather live with the weeds.

Rich
Click to expand...
Don't forget about the golf courses and what's used all around the country to keep the greens, green.
 
RJM62 said:
Millions of gallons of pesticides and herbicides are annually sprayed on Long Island lawns...
Click to expand...
A couple weeks ago I did a back of the envelope calculation and came up with 6 oz of the active ingredients spread over my 10,000 sq ft lawn. The other 98% was corn cobs for fertilizer.
 
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