Anyone else have buffalo grass lawn ?

I'm asking the question to see if I can get some advice on how to kill the other grasses that spout in it. When I moved here to Electric City (Zone 5; 11" precip annually) and built a house the one thing I knew I wanted to try was buffalo grass - I'd tried it in California but it didn't do well. This time I put in the grass plugs sold by High Country Gardens and it grows here like gang busters, and I love it. Yes, it stays dorment longer than the other grasses do but I like that too - it turns a beautiful tawny color and I plant lots and lots of little bulbs in it for spring. Here's the only thing I don't like and its driving me crazy - the grass seed that gets blown over from my pasture grasses and germinates in my buffalo grass ! Yes, I get weeds too but I can take care of those with a little 2-4-D. And I use lots and lots and lots of the corn gluten to hopefully prevent germination of any seeds but for some reason this year I ended up with lots of grasses growing in my lawn. And I don't want them there - they grow faster and taller than my buffalo grass and they are much greener than the lawn so it makes things look weedy. Any advice on how to kill individual grasses w/out harming the lawn? Boiling water? Vinegar?

maybe try to overseed with annual ryegrass. it will die out in the summer when the buffalo grass starts to grow. i know that isn't the answer you were looking for, but it might look more uniform than having weeds and everyother species taking hold. wherever you have an opportunity for something to grow it will unless something else is growing there.

You are so right about any opportunity for something to grow something will grow there unless something is there first! Where my buffalo grass has formed a nice thick mat the pasture grass seed just germinates in it! At present, I dig out each and every grass plant that has germinated and is growing with a long narrow screwdriver that lets me dig out the grass without destroying the grass I want - very tedious, and I have better things to do with my time! I hadn't thought of planting a winter crop like an annual reygrass.

You didn't mention whether you just applied the corn gluten once or if you did it several times--I'm pretty sure it needs to be repeated in order to really be effective. I think the bag that I have says to reapply every 4-6 weeks, maybe more often if it's been raining a lot. In most parts of the country you just need to do it in the spring, but here I have to use it in the fall too just before the rains start because that's what makes all the weed seeds germinate, then I plan to keep using it once a month or so until it gets close to summer.

Unfortunately once the grasses have already sprouted you don't have too many options besides hand pulling--most of the herbicides that will kill your weed grasses will kill your lawn grass too. I think there might be some things specifically for crabgrass that will kill the crabgrass but not the lawn but I'm not sure if those things would work on your grasses or not.

When I was in college in Montana, my thesis project was testing methods for killing crested wheatgrass without killing the native species that grew in the same area. We found that RoundUp is excellent at this. You need to apply the RoundUp when the grasses that you want to kill are green but the grasses you want to keep are still dormant. That's easy with buffalograss because it stays dormant so long in the spring. We tried it on a big field of buffalograss with lots of tufts of crested wheat and the buffalograss and native wildflowers looked great that summer.

Since it's your lawn, you might not want to let the invaders keep growing till spring, and you definitely don't want to hit your bulbs when they are sprouting. You could try a small patch this spring. I've targeted certain plants with RoundUp by covering neighboring plants with scraps of cardboard or plastic bags. You can also wipe it on individual plants with a cloth or paintbrush. The nice thing about RoundUp is that it doesn't stay active in soil like 2-4D so it won't hurt your buffalograss as long as there aren't any green leaves showing when you apply it.

I guess I'm starting to sound like a representative for Monsanto, but I like it because it works. Just don't use the RoundUp in wet areas where you might have frogs or other amphibians because it's shown to cause developmental defects in several species.

Katlian - thank you!!!! - that was exactly the question I have been turning over in my mind, which is whether it is safe to use Roundup on the buffalograss before it starts to green up in the spring. You are right, the pasture grasses green up and start growing vigorously much earlier in the spring. I have hundreds of small bulbs in the lawn so I have to be extra careful of using it in the spring, but I could use it as soon as the foliage dies back, I guess? Every spring I have spent days on my hands and knees digging out the blades of pasture grass out of the lawn and I sure would like to spend that time doing something else! Otherwise, it just looks like a weedy mess. The only local retailer (in Spokane) offering buffalograss has quite selling it for exactly this reason - the unwanted grasses seed in the buffalograss and spoil some of the advantages of having the buffalograss, like not having to mow it. Also, the unwanted grass is a different color and texture so it really looks a mess. Unfortunately, the prevailing west winds blow from my pasture over my lawn areas. I find that even though the buffalograss has formed a thick mat in most places, the unwanted grass simply finds a way to germinate in the mat.

Just out of curiosity, did you go to school in Bozeman? We have property there and plan to retire there some day.

Yep, I spent three years there working on my masters thesis. It was beautiful there but I don't miss the cold and shoveling snow every week (we only have to shovel two or three times a winter here). My test plots were scattered all over the eastern and central parts of the state. The plot that had buffalo grass was beautiful in the summer, it looked just like a putting green.

Here are some tips for spraying:
•Don't get carried away. Many people use way too much herbicide and waste their money.
•If you're worried about some bulbs that are not totally dormant yet, you could cover them with plastic cups.
•Spray on a morning when the weather is very calm and above freezing. Don't spray if rain is forecast within 24 hours.
•The kind of sprayers that have a mixing bottle and fit on the end of a hose work well. They create a coarse spray that won't drift onto other plants or into your face.

Good luck, I hope you have a beautiful lawn this summer.

Thank you !!

Katlian,
We lived in a city that sprayed Roundup on the sides of the road. Unfortunately all it did was leave the wild black berries and then that took over. Making a far worse problem then the grasses they were trying to get ride of. They since then have stopped using Roundup because of that. I suppose where blackberries don't grow that would be find. Just not in Western Washington.

I'm not surprised that the blackberries invaded the bare area. Plants will grow where ever there is soil and moisture and invasive plants will usually find the bare spots first and take over. Glyphosate (regular RoundUp) is very good at killing actively growing herbaceous vegetation and grasses but is not really recommended for woody or brushy plants unless the concentrate is applied directly to freshly cut stumps. Triclopyr amine is much more effective on woody species. It sounds like the city should have done a little extra homework.

I personally think it's silly to try to maintain bare ground, especially in a place that recieves even a moderate amount of rain. The city would have had an easier time mowing the grass than battling the blackberries that invaded. I grew up in Portland and I know how invasive blackberries can be in a disturbed area (and even some undisturbed areas.)