Controlling Early Summer Weeds in Your Lawn
One of the best parts of the summertime as a homeowner is watching your lawn grow in to its greenest potential. You've spent all winter and early spring waiting for your lawn to come out of its dormant, yellowish brown stage, only to see weeds sprout up instead. Even worse, seeing weeds sprout up that you either do not recognize or cannot get rid of can make for a frustrating summer.
Early summer sprouting weeds, like nutsedge and wild violets, can be tricky to treat. Check out this short guide on how to recognize them, and the typically measures lawn care specialists take to treat them:
Nutsedge
Perhaps one of the most aggressive weeds that you might encounter this summer is a medium-sized grassy weed known as nutsedge or nutgrass. These yellowish green weeds can pop up all over your property, from your lawn to your flower and vegetable gardens.
Since nutsedge can be very aggressive, it almost always must be managed after it emerges. Taking quick action against nutsedge is crucial in many cases, as they can reproduce rapidly.
Wild Violets
While these may look like a pretty wildflower, Wild Violets are one of the most aggressive and invasive weeds when it comes to your early summer weeds. They are most commonly found in our lawns, parks, cemeteries, and other large turf spaces. Wild violet can sometimes appear invincible; it can grow in sunny and shady soil, and it cannot be removed by hand.
While you can try to pull out wild violet by hand, it will always grow back unless you are able to excavate the rhizomes from the soil. You can potentially slow the spread of wild violet with regular soil fertilization, mowing, and even decompaction, but putting an end to wild violet is a tall task
Herbicides that can break down and remove wild violet typically takes a couple of applications over multiple growing cycles to fully eradicate, and just like nutsedge, can only be treated after emergence.
Doveweed
Depending on your grass type, this weed may be extremely easy to spot, or it could nearly blend in with your regular grass blades! Doveweed, a summer annual weed, has become quite the nuisance for homeowners, especially with St. Augustine grass or Centipedegrass. Doveweed grows thick and shiny leaves, which can blend into those grass types, making it blend in almost completely.
This weed has the most success in soils with higher moisture, poor drainage, or areas of high rainfall or overwatering. The saving grace when it comes to Doveweed, are its small purple flowers that bloom in the middle of the summer, making it much easier to spot. For help treating doveweed after it has emerged, contact AgroPro to see how we can help get your lawn looking better!
