I think someone sent out an invitation to all invasive this spring to attend a grand ball in my yard. I'm about to just RoundUp the whole darned thing! Not only do I have dollar weed, I also have another that is similar to it, some of that poky yellow Spinyfruit Buttercup, and that stuff that looks like little wild strawberries gone amuck. That stuff alone has created about four giant patches in my yard, plus is crawling up into an old whisky barrel. I hate wet winters!
Dollar Weed - Anyone Know How to Get Rid Of It?
We have dollarweed as well!! Not only that, there is tons of other weeds all over the place, front and back! I thought it was just us; sorry but glad at the same time to hear others are having the same problem. We moved into our house at the end of last April so I thought it was something we did. lol i tried the Scotts Bonus S in the front yard and it did not do the trick. Last fall we tried something the previous owner had left, it was Expert brand. Nothing either time. The back yard is really bad and we have two dogs so it doesn't make it any better. We didn't want to use anything we had to leave alone for too long since the dogs have to be able to go in the grass and "take care of business", so we used a Weed B Gone max. It surprisingly worked better than the Scotts. As of right now, what little grass was left back there (thanks to the dogs) hasn't died either. I think if nothing changes in the next week or so we will try Weed B gone in the front as well. Or I might try the broadleaf killer people were talking about earlier.
Good luck to everyone with getting rid of those pesky weeds!
How did the name pennywort turn into dollar weed?
Is it because of the $'s invested to erradicate it?
Is it inflation? : ))
Podster, you are so profound, lol!
I found this link on lawn weeds. has a pic of $weed, for those interested.
My nemesis is nutsedge, which grows on monkey/mondo grass and makes it look hideous. If you hand-pick it it gets worse. Best thing for me has been to spray it w/ broad leaf killer; it doesn't kill the monkey grass.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.afflawn.com/images/weed_dollarweed.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.afflawn.com/WeedID.htm&h=129&w=200&sz=13&hl=en&sig2=f2mHDn-uQGk4zk-_WnPT7A&start=2&um=1&tbnid=xB_QCFQU9GK3YM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=104&ei=jLcRRq60BIKchgTmkN23CA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddollar%2Bweed%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
What I got is sticker grass. Not sure if I want to know its' real name even... In the spring I want to kick off my shoes and run my toes thru the grass but ouch! When I inquire about treating it I hear wait a little while, it'll die back and go away in the heat of summer. Where did this nasty weed come from?
oh, that one's easy. It is the @#$%^+ grass
We got a load of sand to set the bricks when we put in a brick patio. I think we got more than we bargained for. Prior to that I don't remember this @#$%^+ stuff but it has really taken hold. Edited to add: LOL Vossner
This message was edited Apr 2, 2007 9:35 PM
Somebody up there said to just your grass higher. I don't have dollar weed, but my brother who lives in Sugarland has no trouble with it. His grass is cut pretty. He told me the only weed killer he uses is water.
I do keep my grass cut high ( sounds weird ) but it needs less water and is less stressed.
From reading, I think the current dollarweed problem is exacerbated by all the rain some area have been receiving. Reference books indicate it thrives in moisture. pod
Wow! Just saw this, and I am having a major inundation of dollar weed this year too. I've always battled it in some low, wet areas, but this year it is everywhere. We have had good luck with Image in the past. It works better than any of the other herbicides on dollar weed, even Roundup. And you can't use Roundup in your lawns, while you can use Image. I can't remember if you are supposed to add a surfactant. I think so. That is our next chore.
Pod - I think you're right. We've had good rains this year, and the dollar weed is loving it.
Someone also told hubbie that now that the grass is growing and getting green again, it will take care of the weeds. I don't think that is true because we did have weeds last year too.
CJ is Image a liquid or granual ? We have had a big outbreak of something this year and it looks like it is choking out the St. A !! A friend said it was Dichondra(sp).
Another DGer gave me Pennywort for my Koi pond and it is beautiful in the water, but after reading this and seeing how hard it is to get rid of, it will go when the pond gets cleaned this year!!
Thanks Vossner for the great Id thread. http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3349139
I'm sooooo stupid. I'd never had dollarweed in my lawn before. When we first moved into this house, I saw a few bits of it in the flowerbeds in the spring and I thought it was nasturtiums so I didn't pull it up. Boy, was that a mistake. By the time I figured out what it was, it was too late. It's spread like something from a science fiction movie!
Image is liquid, and is good on sedge and dollarweed....It's worked for us in the past.
Dichondra has small round leaves.
A healthy St Augustine lawn will crowd out most weeds. There are a few that didn't read the book. Dollar weed is one of them, and it is impossible to pull in lawns. I almost (remember, I said almost) enjoy pulling it in flower beds. It's kind of a zen thing.
I just saw where Image comes in some different formulations now. Don't use the one that says for southern lawns. It contains atrazine, the herbicide in weed 'n feed fertilizers that sickens trees and shrubs, eventually killing them. (It is taken up by their roots). Use the one that says "kills nutsedge" in big letters on the front. It kills dollarweed also.
Thanks for all the info!
Ceejay, I'll look for Image. This stuff has absolutely taken over my front yard. There's more of it than grass. I kinda agree with some of the folks here who say to just let it do what it will do but my dilemma is the flower beds. If the devil weed wasn't trying to creep into them, I'd have no problem. Pulling it out isn't a zen thing for me....I have many more devils to fight since the pasture is next to me. I'd like to eliminate them all but my hands are only so big and can only pull so fast. Wish I had a magic wand.
Wow, kills Nutsedge too!!! That is my kind of weed killer! The sedge is only around my koi pond in the gravel and I had a few that seeded itself last year! It is very tiny now but I see the writing on the wall. I will pick a week when there is no chance of rains and give it a whirl there too, or get the DH to that is.
After looking closer at the growth in the soil, I think it is the Dichondra and not the $weed. But what I have in the pond is Dollarweed and will be outta there come late Spring or Summer!!
Thanks for the tip CJ. I will miss seeing you at the CS RU this year btw!
Sheila, I've looked at pictures of dollarweed and dichondra and I can't tell the difference at all. I know one os supposed to have rounder leaves but I still can't see it. Probably just me.
I think Dichondra is used as a lawn alternative in some places. And, I've seen it in with nursery plants for sale, at least I think it is that.
One of the links said the petiole of $weed is attached to the center of the round leaf, and the dichondra petiole is attached to the edge of the kidney shaped leaf.
I think they are both very invasive.
Sheila, are you saying you are not going?
Josephine, no I can't make it, I have a date with the surgeon again! I dmailed you, so I am not hijacking this thread with my woes.
Knolan, here are two pics that are large enough that they may show what I see as the difference. The Pennywort is thicker and has a flatter leaf with a dot where the stem connects. The Dichondra is a thin cupped leaf and the stem connects at the edge. IMHO that is, see what you think.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/10943/
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/TOOLS/TURF/TURFSPECIES/dichondra.html
edited to say....Yes Flygirl, I didn't catch your post about the difference, sorry.
This message was edited Apr 3, 2007 11:13 PM
Thanks, Fly & Sheila! Yes, I do see the small difference now. To my eye, it really is such a small difference that it's hard to notice. But, even with glasses these poor eyes aren't the greatest.
If you saw them side by side it would be very obvious. The dichondra is smaller and more kidney shaped - from being cupped. It is more delicate than dollar weed. I guess many people in California use it for lawns. We can't grow it for lawns here. LOL!! And we can't get rid of it either.... Go figure.
Shelia - I'm really sorry that you won't be able to make it. I thought we could mend the mixup once and for all! Back surgery?
CJ, Yes, my second time. I had one in Sept last year on one side and the other side was jealous. This time they are going to fuse me. Too many hard jobs and hobbies in my life.
Those of you that read CJ's message and wonder if we had an argument or something, the answer is no! LOL!! We looked a lot alike it seems to others at the RU last year and people could keep us straight, even when they had pictures. We on the other hand couldn't see the problem! LOL! But CJ.....this time it won't be confusing!
I am so sorry Sheila, we will miss you, let me know it you want me to pick up something for you.
Josephine.
Yes, I was looking forward to seeing both of you at the same time so I could say "don't tell me your names, wait and see if I can guess". lol I hope the surgery works. It worked on the other side didn't it? Will you be able to get back to work in your yard after it heals?
LOL! Silver, I sat next to you at dinner that night, surely you would know me if you saw me again. LOL!
Sending you all kinds of healing, Sheila.
So basically, dollarweed/pennywort looks a little more like a nasturtium leaf than dichondra does. I'm still trying to figure out what is on the path in my herb garden. Maybe now I'll know.
Thanks y'all for the kind words.
Well, Sheila, I don't know. My brain was kind a fuzzy because of all the plants I'd seen that day.:) They can have an intoxicating effect sometimes you know?lol
LOL!! I don't remember much from the next day when we met at Martha's Bloomers either!!
I just remember flowers, flowers, flowers every where. And a very good meal with great friends.:)
dollar weed is a great problem in my shallow earth bottomed ponds...what I can reach I pull out, it comes up easy..grows by runners that take root, any where it breaks ..It seems not to take hold in dry areas, preferring the moisture of well watered beds and lawns....been in the ponds 20 or more years and around the edges, but frotunately my beds and lawns away from the ponds are dollar free...guess our drought is good for something.
dollarweed back behind lotus in picture
lots of rain this season.....dollarweed is taking over my shallow ponds. I have beautiful hardy waterlilies so I can't use an aquacide in the ponds.I am just hoping the lilies will shadow over it and the reduced light will cause it to shrivel......it used to be easy to pull out....now I can't hardly dig it with a shovel where I can reach it........it is growing in over 6 feet of water, tough stuff
well i still do like it not found it any place .
Jacki - lucky you don't have it in your lawn. It's a mainstay these days. I have a lot of moisture in my yard from recent rains and just the plain old humidity. It does seem to be a little more under control than it was in the spring because the St. Augustine has established itself again. However, it is creeping into every single flower bed I have. While, it's pretty and green, it keeps my seeds from growing and I don't want to use chemicals to control it. So every day, I'm out there pulling. and you're right, if you pull it up and it breaks, it seems to go even crazier. You have to get all of those roots up. Bah, humbug! If we could use it in place of grass, I might not be complaining so much. Unfortunately, I'd probably get kicked out of the neighborhood if I even tried. But, it's so adaptable and doesn't need to be fertilized !!!!??????!!!!! Sometimes I wish I didn't have to fight it.
Just by chance, I happen to have an easy and inexpensive solution for dollar weed....Spread canadian spagnum peat moss as a top dressing -roughly 1/3 inch. An inexpensive "bale" will
cover roughly 1000 sq feet. As it breaks down, it affects the acid levels slightly and is enough
to rid the lawns of dollar weed plus the St Agustine loves it.
That's really interesting Buddy. I'm going to tell some people down in Rockport about that. They have dollar weed really bad in their yard.
We just sod-cut out all of our high-maintenance St. augustine grass, and seeded with dichondra. We had tested it in the back last year, but now wanted to do the front, also.
I absolutely love it. It is so pretty in mass, and is evergreen, even in the coldest months. No mowing!!
I had read that CA uses it more than any other type of groundcover for their lawns, and then the saw one in person...it was gorgeous. That did it for me!
-T
seed, how big is your yard?