My lawn is overrun with bur clover coming up everywhere the st augustine died back in the drought last year. I have it in my calendar to get pre emergent down by mid February. Is it too early to apply it now? I'm in Williamson county just north of Austin.
Too early for pre emergent?
cant tell, are you willing to retreat? your set date was probably there for a reason...is it clover or wild verbena? if its coming up, its time to do something...
If it's already up you'll need to use a post emergent.
OK what is a post emergent? :) what kind do you use ? What kind of pre- emergent do you use? I purchased something off the internet that they were talking about on the Hosta forum. It was good, a orange liquid that yoy mixed with water. I cannot find and I cant remember the name. Any ideas anyone?
It fixes nitrogen, if that makes you feel any better...
"Post emergent" just mean after it's already growing (emerged from the ground). Usually they work best if it's growing actively. We've had a warm winter, so some things are emerging earlier than typical, so planting and poisoning dates might need to be adjusted from "normal".
D3VNT, they're predicting another summer this year like last year. Maybe look at more sustainable grasses for the areas where the St Aug is already struggling?
The Victorians did not fertilize their lawns. They planted low growing Clovers such as Bur Clover. It is truely a blessing. It fixes nitrogen under ground and makes it available to the lawn the following spring. Just mow down the Clover after it has reseeded and allow the dormant grass to grow again.
I know most people wouldnt do this but Bur Clover is beautiful, helpful, it breaks the fertilizer/junkie relationship with grass and it doesnt cause rashes like many grasses do when you play in them. My orchard is covered in it right now and we everyone thinks it looks like an English countryside.
There are other types of low growing clover that create beautiful flowers and dont have burs.
It nice to get different points of view.
Good luck on whatever you try.
I am looking for alternatives. I have struggling St Augustine that is on a slope so what little water it got, just trickled away. I don't know if a HOA would accept bur clover in a front lawn but I will look into it for the back.Other suggestions welcome...for shade
What I have and thought was burr clover must not be. It grows low and spreads, but is full of little "v" shaped burrs that stick to EVERTHING! The cats drag it in, it covers the bottom of your shoes and then gets stuck in the carpet. i just wish they would let us burn off our yards like they did in the old days, 'cause I think fire is the only thing going to kill my weeds.
I think you are thinking of "sticky burs" which are horrible and are a summer plant. Bur Clover is a winter crop but has larger burs in spring that arent that sticky and are softer.
This message was edited Jan 11, 2012 11:11 PM
Sand spurs? I think the recomended longterm solution is fertilize - support the desired grass in growing nice and thick and choking the bad grass out. But probably that's a several years process, you'd want to be poisoning or digging to knock it out sooner. It is possible to get rid of. I bought this house three years ago, with the back yard completely trashed. Mostly bare dirt, with patches of bermuda and sand spurs. Even with two of those three years being serious drought, the sand spurs are gone. I didn't even poison, just a few sessions of serious digging, and then planting in some vigorous native grasses to choke out the bits I missed.
bananna18, down here the st augustine alternative is a blend of buffalo grass and blue grama. I imagine that would be the same first choice for yall. Start installing at the top of the slope, so that it will seed itself going down, but also so that the extensive native root systems will improve the water retention. In the meantime, mow the st augustine as high as your mower will let you. (It will stop growing on its own about four inches, with a lovely waving waves of grass effect when the wind blows.) Just taking a touch off the top won't stress the grass as much as having hald it's body whacked off.
4" St Augustine, how tidy. Gets taller than that down south when its wet...I like the prairie grasses, but fire didnt kill the stuff-roots came back, JuJu? do your 'sticky burs'have a more definitive name? or a picture?
I think this is the culprit.
Galium aparine
stickywilly
catchweed bedstraw
cleavers
goosegrass
yup, thats the one I was imagining, didnt expect it to be an edible, tho...
I found out what pre emergent I was using two years ago. Its called Surflan, anybody know anything about it? I had some problems with a mulch, just want to make sure it was not a contributing factor. :)
Has anyone used corn meal in your garden fro a pre emergent, fungal treatment and fertilizer?
Used it to feed my worms, don't have anything else I could imagine it being good for- you don't think it would restrict the oxygen in the soil?
I used it last fall. Maybe I needed to do more than one application, but by the look of my "lawn" , it didn't work very well
When I had this stuff last year, it was definitely Bur Clover, Medicago hispida according to the A&M website. It's definitely not pleasant. I don't care if it fixes nitrogen... Wouldn't care if the flowers were real gold. ;-) The burs on it are awful.
I sprayed Southern Lawn Weed-b-gone and it's fading. I'm hoping to replace the St Augustine with something more drought tolerant. Right now my back yard is 1/3 st Augustine, 1/3 crab grass, 1/3 weed. The previous owner neglected it for the 5 years leading up to me buying it in 2010.
Het jujubetexas, I just saw your note... Yeah maybe this stuff was the winter variety. I just saw small forming burs and freaked out thinking I was having an invasion of the summer variety. I didnt realize it came in a less-evil variety. Thanks for the info!
Corn meal will draw the local fly population.
I only plant Zoysia now and Empire is my favorite sod. No bugs, no fertilizer needed and it will over grow most weeds (even perennial weeds). Does need some water, but, not much.
I use groundcovers that can be mowed at some of the places I work.
In Miami>
