I have issues with these two nasties every year and every year I poke around to see if anything new is introduced to help me get rid of these most unwanted volunteers. Just recently while poking around, I ran into a horticulturist who teaches and I am posting a link to his suggestions. I must admit that I was laughing throughout the whole thread until I got to the bottom where he evidently has been sent a sample and exclaims, "You have sent me one of the most beautiful samples of large crabgrass - Digitaria sanguinalis - I have ever seen! So good in fact, that I’m having it mounted to show to my future turfgrass management classes".
Call me slap happy over these two nasties but I found his comments to be extremely amusing. He has the patience of a saint and a sense of humor to boot. I suppose it gets old after a while. He did have some great suggestions regarding how to address quack in iris though.
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/hortiscope/lawn/quack.htm
About crabgrass and quack grass
He did have some real and funny advice. I have used it with paying customers and they laugh less. Although most homeowners for this area could not tell you the difference between crabgrass,tall fescue and quackgrass. I have done the early season hand painting for quackgrass in perennial beds and it works pretty good.
I suppose by the time somebody gets to you, they've lost their sense of humor. Me on the other hand, I just keep plugging along trying to supress and kill the stuff. Corn glutten meal helps with the crabgrass when applied the end of winter and again in early spring and late spring but not so easy with quack grass. I have come to hate quack grass and I do mean I hate it. I glove it whenever I see it. I see it a lot. It gets gloved a lot. That's one of those plants that takes a lickin and comes back for more.
Try this Lauren...
This site has a lot of good tips on keeping an organic garden with less, to no weeds.
Another easy way to add nitrogen to your soil is to add some Dutch white clover seed to your lawn. Though lawn purists may shudder at the thought, white clover is a low-growing leguminous plant. It responds well to mowing, is non-invasive and — most critically — takes nitrogen from the air and adds it to the soil. Think of it as free fertilizer.
“Clover will choke out weeds, feed the grass, and soften soil. Bacteria around roots of clover actually pull water vapor out of the air. It’s unbelievable how beneficial clover is,” said Scheffler.
It came from : http://consciouschoice.com/2006/07/organiclawns0607.html
o/~~
Hey there! How are you!
Back at you with indigenous alternatives to what's being recommended at that above site-
White Prairie Clover (Petalostemum candidum)
Purple Prairie Clover (Petalostemum purpureum)
Dutch White Clover is Trifolium repens.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TRRE3
It's formally identified as an invasive species and has been for a while for us here in the US but perhaps not where the writer of that article is from?
Trifolium repens naturalized in my state up north where I live although we're not showing on the map yet. Here's a map indicating where they have documented Trifolium repens as having naturalized but it's a tad outdated-
http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/map/trre1.htm
Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba) has also naturalized by me and that's a major problem child too. Some sites are claiming this Sweet Clover isn't invasive too but it's documented as being highly invasive also. I think both of those plants are Eurasian.
I'm biding my time and am going to basically eliminate practically the whole lawn anyway... it's only a matter of time. I wiped out another good 10% last year and I'm going for another 10% wipe out this coming year. I like the no-mow native grasses however I will be planting White Prairie Clover (Petalostemum candidum) and Purple Prairie Clover (Petalostemum purpureum) which is a native non-invasive species around the bases of the fruit trees in my little orchard and those fix nitrogen even better than the Trifolium repens showcased at that site. I'll get around to literally wiping out my entire lawn to make it wildlife friendle save a strip of old grass right around the perimeter of the house.
I hear ya Lauren! So your already up in the Clover.. I believe the invasiveness can be subjective, as in, some people don't like Clover. However, if you like it and want to cover an area, you would want it to take a strong hold and cover really well. Most Clovers are fairly low growing, and for my back yard it is a good idea. For my sister's country yard it's great for the back fifty feet.. All I know is it does choke out less desirable weeds. The T repens is also a host plant for several pretty little butterflies.
It might be helpful to know why crabgrass is so hard to get rid of, despite the fact it's an annual. If you look at the seeds on a crabgrass awn closely, you'll notice the seeds are smaller toward the tip, larger toward the base of the awn. This size is due to thickness to a coating on the seed that delays germination. The small seeds will germinate same or next year; the larger seeds about ten years later; and there's a size for every year in between. So any one good crop of crabgrass lays down ten continuous years' worth of seed. It only takes one crop per every ten years to have an unending seed supply for every year. Therefore, if you want to try to reduce its presence (assuming other conditions of the lawn remain approximately the same), you'd have to lay down a pre-emergent control every year for 12 to 15 years to be safe, without missing year.
Oh, and eliminate the wind off of neighboring areas after the 10+ year process is finally done. --grins
We love crabgrass. We sow it for grazing purposes. It fills in during bad years, and sits waiting in years when rains permit other grasses to shade the crabgrass and keep it from germinating.
There ya go Lauren... grazing fodder! Now all you need is a couple of cute little goats. Wonder how Twinkletoes would like that?
Grazier~ Very good info. ...Seeds good for 10 years, whew! That Crabgrass may be a weed to some, (me for one), but less effort providing food for grazing animals to a farmer!
Yes, I know about the seedbank created (sigh). That's one of the reasons I love to hate crabgrass.
Twinkletoes would love a goat. I would not. You get the goat and I'll borrow it!
This message was edited Aug 22, 2009 7:32 AM