Expert: Long Island Gardener - 10/17/2006

Question
How can I kill Wire Grass in Ky 31 tall fescue?


Answer
First things first!

Are we talking about "Wire Grass" as in "Cynodon dactylon" aka "Bermuda Grass" (www.blueplanetbiomes.org/bermuda_grass.htm)aka "Devilgrass"?

There's a closeup photo at the Virginia Tech Weed I.D. Guide (www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/cynda.htm).

Yes?

Start praying, my friend.

You have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting rid of this stuff.  As they write at Virginia Tech, Wiregrass "has both rhizomes and stolons and is capable of forming a turf or mat of fine leaves."

Although there are numerous attractive, desirable varieties sold as "Bermudagrass" for use as lawns, THIS creeping, Cynodon variety from Africa is "a very troublesome and hard-to-control weed" found growing uninvited in lawns "as far north as southern New Jersey."  Elephants like it.  Farmers do not.

Reports AllAllergy (www.allallergy.net/fapaidfind.cfm?cdeoc=141): "The seeds, like the flowers, are tiny, with as many as 4.4 million seeds in one kilogram."  

See that?

4.4 MILLION seeds in a single kilogram.

Some "Lawncare Professionals" swear by a mean, ugly chemical called Fusillad II.  But this will also wipe out all your other lawn grasses so far as I can tell, along with the microbes in the soil and if you get enough exposure yourself maybe it will even wipe out YOU.

But there is no definitive eraser for this awful weed.  Can't even smoke it.  They're working on it because it is so invasive it poses ecological problems.  The only safe way to get rid of it is to solarize your soil for the summer - which it is too late to do that now - and by fall you'll have Wiregrass-free soil ready to amend and seed.  You're probably going to object to this, but it's the only way I know of right now to eliminate this stuff.  You lay a flat thick black or plastic sheet under the area you want to save, watering it well first so that you germinate any dormant seeds, then weight down the area to keep the plastic down.  By September, hopefully, you will have sent the Wiregrass packing.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.  I'll let you know if I see anything else.

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How's your Wire Grass doing, Delano?