Expert: Floyd McMahon - 11/4/2005

Question
I would like to know how you can get rid of (what I believe is) goosegrass.  We our customers of TrueGreen/Chemlawn and they told us that it is barn grass.  Friends of ours told us it's crab grass, but I've been doing some searching on the interent and the grass appears to be goose grass.  We have a beautiful lawn, but this grass is such an eye soar.  It grows faster then our regular grass, very think and dense, it's the only thing growing during a drought and each year we get more.  The only thing we are ever told, is to keep overseeding, but we let Chemlawn do that once, and it didn't help.  In fact, it seem to get worst.  We live near Rockford, IL and I hope you can help.

Thank you,
Dawn

Answer
Good afternoon Dawn:

Goose grass is sometimes referred to as Silver Crabgrass.
First I would like you to print this answer so that you can follow the steps below.

Go to the following web site titled Midwest Turfgrass Weed Identification and Control: (Copy and paste it to your browser and hit "GO".
http://www.turf.uiuc.edu/weed_web/index.htm

After you get on this site, go to the left hand column and click on Goose Grass.
Next scroll down until you see pictures of goose grass in different stages of growth.
This will aid you in your identification.
Next go back to the main menu and scroll down until you see an icon (click on the button) that says "Weed Control Methods".  Next scroll down to  "Controlling Annual Grassy Weeds in Turf". This will give you different methods of control ranging from lawn maintenance culture to pulling it by hand to chemical control.

I would suggest the chemical control with preemergent weed killer be put on your lawn next spring (about a week after the forsythia begin to bloom). It may take a couple of years to stop the goose grass. Remember that it is an annual and will get killed out each winter but the seeds that it distributes in the fall will germinate next spring and that would be the time you must destroy it (Before it begins to germinate).
If your neighbors have it, it will spread to your lawn each year unless they too begin to eradicate it.
If you over seed in the spring you will need a preemergence crabgrass killer that contains "Siduron". Siduron will not kill the blue grass seedlings but will only kill the crabgrass. The best time to overseed  in your area is late August through September.
Have a good lawn!
Floyd McMahon