A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Lawn Care Invasive Grass Question

We have Kentucky Bluegrass in our front yard.
We sodded parts of it last summer beacuse of some invasive grass (don't know what kind) taking over.
Now its doing it again...How do we get rid of the invasive grass without ripping out and resoddong the whole front? Roundup?
Please help!
Greg

Round up may work, but it may be coming back from leftover seed. In which case its gonna continue to be a problem. The first step you should take is to positively identify the grass type. I have had a similar problem with creeping bentgrass which I have been fighting for three years and still have not won. If it is creeping bent, I feel your pain. There is no selective control products for it right now. There is an herbicide product in trials called Mesotrione, which has shown excellent results at selectively controlling it, but it is not yet registered for use.

If you can pull up one plant of the grass in question and take a close up photo of it and post it, I may be able to ID it. Or you can use this link to a site with a turfgrass ID key.

Turf ID

Can you describe the invasive grass?
the answer really depends of what type of grass it is.
Is it soft and thin, or thick bladed? Do the roots of this grass show when it is raked over to one side? Does it grow very quickly? What color is it compared to the rest of your lawn? Does this grass grow as a thick patch or individual plants close together?

These questions may help narrow it down a bit.


Mike

I don't have a pic of it right now..
Its lighter in color than out other grass and it come out in clumps easily, not all of it, unfortunately, when we lower out mower.
Its a thinner bladed grass also.
We don't have a clue where it came from so we might end up taking most of it out and resodding it.
Greg

It may be poa trivialis (sp?) which is a weedy type of blue grass.
About your best bet unfortunately is round up then re seeding, (stay away from quick grow seeds!!!) After that keeping your lawn well fertilized and mow it at the proper height for what ever season it is.
spring about 2 - 2.5"
Summer about 3.5"
Fall about 2.5
All basic heights for you area and a standard blue,rye,or fescue lawn.
Last cut of the season about 1.5 inches if you can go that low without scalping areas.

This kind of grass is carried in by birds in their droppings, and takes off in thin or damaged areas, so your best defense is a good healthy lawn.

Yup, could be rough bluegrass too. Given a choice of which to combat with I'd take the P. Triv any day! Much easier to control than bent. If its thinner than your KBG, then my guess still remains bentgrass. Either way though, get rid of it sooner rather then later.

Have you tried weed N Feed? I'd never tried it before this summer, & MAN!... was I impressed! It zapped most of the weeds & the "good" grass took off & got really lush! There were a couple of "weeds" that seemed to be resistant to it, & we had to pull them out by hand, but for the most part it did exactly what it claims it'll do!

weed N Feed, eh? Would that work for gardens?

It depends. You need to positively ID the weed you are trying to combat.

could be poa annua 'annual bluegrass'