Hopefully this forum can answer my question. I live in Louisiana, about 60 miles from the gulf. My back yard was really torn up during hurricane Rita and giant trees were destroyed. Its now beautifully landscaped with Crape Myrtles, Irises, Agapanthus, Azaleas and Lilies. The flower bed is in full sun and has a sprinkler and the stupid weed really loves it . It is growing in and under my new plants.
I don't mind it growing in the grass because we just mow over it and that slows it down a bit. I've tried mulching but now pull it out by the long horrible white roots but I know I haven't gotten them all. It keeps reappearing.
Does anyone know of another way to kill this pest? I really don't want to use poison because of pets and wild birds. Hopefully someone can give me good advise on how to kill this pest. Thanks in advance.
Help my get rid of horrible ^^^^PENNYWORT^^^^!
Which Pennywort do you have? Are you in a position to post a photo?
Does this look like what you have-
http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/images/hires/starr_020803_0094_centella_asiatica.jpg
Its also dollar weed and the Lilly is thicker than your photo. I just got through pulling it up by the long straggly roots but know that they are still roots left. Any ideas for me?
Is it this one? http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/677/
Would you be able to hold off pulling it for a bit. You might have one there that resprouts from any fragment left behind when hand pulled. That would mean possibly 5 plants where once there was one. Can you post a photo or take a look at Chele's link and see if that's what you have?
Here are links to the USDA Plants Database pages with 5 possible species of Hydrocotyle (pennywort) listed. Some have photos and some only drawings. I picked the species based on distribution maps- they are found within the state of LA.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HYBO
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HYPR10
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HYRA
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HYSI
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=HYUM
If you haven't used the USDA database before it can be a little confusing (aren't most of the dot gov sites?) I'm not a botanist, so some of the info is lost on me but there are also maps with plant population distributions.
Thanks for the response. I've found a site that shows this horrible weed. A local name is sewer Lilly or that #@@%ing weed!
I must dig down and try to to get all of the roots because if not than it just SMOTHERS out my plants.
Another garden site suggested putting down sugar to kill them or renting weed eating geese!
Anyone tried these methods?
That looks like a Hydrocotyle to me. I doubt seriously if sugar or even a gaggle of geese would be able to put a dent in that. Matter of fact, I think the geese might make it mad and it would resprout ten-fold.
You might want to break down and take a look at this product-
http://www.yates.co.nz/Products/Lawncare/PestDiseaseWeedControl/Hydrocotyle.asp
thanks for the tip.
We get this weed every yr and we use Scotts weed and feed in the spring and it gets rid of it in the lawn then I just pull it out of the flower beds. I have nearly complete control of it in the summer but in winter it comes back. Fran
Ps, we have St Augustine grass tho but u can probably get scotts for other types of lawn grass.
Sendone2me thanks for the tip . Please tell me about weed and feed? Is it a fertilizer and is it harmfull to animals or birds?
Active ingredient is Propionic Acid in Scotts Weed and Feed. There's a materials safety data sheet on that available that you might want to read because not a lot of toxicological data is available which always makes me a little nervous.
Active ingredient in the Yates Hydrocotyle Killer is Triclopyr and the MSDS to that is at the link above.
Your soil is probably being kept too moist; dollar weed loves that. You way want to dry out the main areas.
Weed and feed is a controversial herbicide as far as I'm concerned. It contains atrazine; which affects (kills) broadleaf plants. So it should never be used close to shrubs and certainly not on grass that girdle your trees. It would be better to remove all grass around your trees and use a heavy mulch there, or ground cover; just not up to the trunk of the tree itself. The weed and feed won't kill your tree right away; but it will stress the tree if you apply this stuff year after year and eventually you might lose the tree. The roots of the tree always go out farther than the drip line - at least another 10 ft. depending on the type of tree. So be careful with this stuff.