Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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HoosierLawnGnome
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Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » March 27th, 2019, 9:47 pm

I've been chomping at the bit to post this, but I feel confident now that I can based on my observations last year and this spring.

Basically last year I erradicated quackgrass by low mowing my KBG monostand. My theory is I stressed the quackgrass more then the KBG, while feeding the KBG so it out competed the quackgrass. My kbg is a dwarf cultivar that can tolerate mowing to .5 inches.

For the last 3 years I have had several areas with minor to moderate crabgrass infestations. They have virtually disappeared last fall and i dont see it now in those areas either.

Before I renovated 3 years ago, I sprayed these areas with glyphosate spring until seed down late summer. The following year I painted glyphosate on them. It put a dent in them but never was completely eradicated.

It persisted. :duel:

Then last year, i didnt have time to paint glyphosate. Maybe i painted once in the spring? The spots with quack were there as usual.

I did, however, get a triplex that mowed at around 1.5 in or so. When not travelling I would mow a few times per week, but sometimes I'd travel and it would go over a week and I'd hack off more than half on return. Beginning of the season i mowed several times a week. Mowing tapered off over summer then picked up over the fall again. My mowing habits definitely stressed the KBG, as several times it yellowed when cut back down to 1.5ish inches.

By the fall of last year, i could barely find any quackgrass.

End of fall? I found basically none. And now I see no signs of it this spring, when usually I am starting to see its lime green fugliness.

The only real difference in my program last year was no glyphosate and low mowing heights, and stressful mowing practices on my KBG.

I kept a similar fertility program, herbicide program, watering program, and cultivation practices except for mowing as years before.

Apparently this was enough to stress the quackgrass out and get over crowded by the KBG feeding on regularly supplied nutrients.

I've done my darnedest but cant seem to find much research on low heights of cut weakening quackgrass. Ive heard of it, and I've seen a couple things on this, but not research.

So I guess what I'm saying is I like this. Normally the recommendation is to let the turf grow longer so desirable plants choke out weeds.

But what if low mowing height stresses the one thing you dont want more than what you do want, and kills it over time?

I like this because there weren't lots of herbicides involved.

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ndlutz
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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by ndlutz » March 27th, 2019, 11:45 pm

Interesting. It makes sense to me as research has shown grazing to be an effective control of quackgrass.

https://umaine.edu/weedecology/wp-conte ... gement.pdf

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » April 26th, 2019, 6:59 am

I need to post a follow up.

This spring I didn't get my reels back and the turf grew out to 3 inches or so.

That showed there was still some quackgrass in those areas, although it hadnt spread and appeared less than i remembered. I painted it with glyphosate, and I'm back to mowing at 1.5 in regularly.

At 1.5 in you cannot see the quackgrass as the KBG color is much lighter and the quack doesnt leaf out much.

So I think it's still there, just struggling and not spreading.

Unlike the dwarf KBG, quackgrass doesnt do as well that low.

The KBG is significantly darker at 3 in than 1.5 too, so of the quackgrass IS there it is much closer in color. Plus it removes that wide foliage on the quack.

So it's like masking and suppressing it.

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by llO0DQLE » April 26th, 2019, 3:13 pm

We know that Tenacity doesn't kill Quack, but do you think low mowing plus Tenacity might help stress the Quack even more?

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » April 28th, 2019, 8:21 am

llO0DQLE wrote:
April 26th, 2019, 3:13 pm
We know that Tenacity doesn't kill Quack, but do you think low mowing plus Tenacity might help stress the Quack even more?
I have no faith in Tenacity hurting quack.


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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by kbgfarmer » April 28th, 2019, 9:11 am

On an aside. HLG when do you think it’s appropriate to paint quack with glyphosate on a relatively new stand of kbg. Although I have mostly annual rye in terms of grassy weed coming up I’m concerned about the interspersed quack that I’ve noticed popping up. I want to get it before it develops and extensive rhizome system and takes over from the relatively slow growing Kbg. I’ve pulled a bunch cleanly but that is really time consuming on a half acre plus of new lawn.

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » April 28th, 2019, 9:26 am

It's appropriate to paint with glyphosate when you see it and it is growing.

Nike nailed it when they said "Just do it."

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by bschulte1978 » June 6th, 2019, 11:31 am

I've followed HLG and others on their quackgrass "adventures" for the last few years as a lurker. In 2016, I bought a new house and found the latter parts of my 3/4 acre yard to be littered with quackgrass. Rather than nuke it all and start over, I've been patiently painting with glyphosate in the summers of 16-18, and now 2019. I went from hundreds of leaves popping up and literally an hour plus painting per session in 2016 to this year, where I've found and wiped out a grand total of only ten sets of leaves popping up. I knew I was getting close to having things under control when a particularly bad section of my yard that ALWAYS has quackgrass has not shown a single leaf peaking up above the TTTF. It is definitely controllable, but it takes time, patience, and a willingness to:

1) haul around a mixture of glyphosate, surfactant, notrogen fert, mark it blue, squat in the yard, and...
2) paint it on with either a q-tip or one of those little sponge paintbrushes. I started with q-tips the first year and quickly moved on to the sponge paint brushes...and
3) not care what the neighbors think about you squatting in your yard painting grass blue in the heat and humidity of a transition zone summer with flies buzzing you constantly

I always started the minute I could see it poking up out of the desirable turf a day or two after a mow. I know this forum likes people to report back with actual results. I'm here to tell you HLg's methods work and work well. I thought I'd never get rid of the stuff, but I'm THIS close to being in maintenance mode.

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 8th, 2019, 2:09 pm

Geez you make me blush.

Theres a lot less bending over with a weed wand. Or duct tape that brush to an old broom handle etc.

Quick update on this topic.

I let the grass grow a bit this week and saw some quack in spots I thought it was gone. Keep at it with glyohosate is my advice. The low mowing definitely masks it but once it is over 2 inches you can see it again if it's there.

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by redleader74 » April 12th, 2021, 4:42 pm

Hello there,

I apologize for unearthing this old thread (and my being relatively new here). I've been desparately looking for a solution to my quackgrass. First a little background. I had new sod put in last year in my front and back yards. Before it was a big mess of dirt and weeds I have one other post here that describes that project (this is only my second post!). I've attached a pic of the sod prodcut I have. Within the first couple of weeks I started seeing quackgrass both in the front and back. It wasn't a lot at first and stayed somewhat "controlled" into the winter. However, within the past couple of months there's been a sharp increase, especially in my backyard. I know the basics on it, namely, the impossible to kill rizomes, that there's no target weed killer for just that one type of weed, and basically that it's a nightmare to deal with. Today I found both this thread as well as this article: https://newfarmerproject.wordpress.com/ ... uackgrass/. And in reading the linked .PDF mentioned in a previous post here, all three seem to point towards mowing as a form of treatment and/or control for quackgrass. I'm thinking of going this route of mowing and also feeding (I've been feeding with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KX ... UTF8&psc=1). I would like to know, for those who have done this, did you notice any harmful effects on having your lawn cut that low? I've read everywhere not to cut your grass more than a third of it's full height and I too have been keeping my lawn tall to choke out weeds, etc., and that apparently isn't working for quckgrass. Also, is it the ideal intent that ultimately the rizomes die out (rather than just staying dormant)? Thanks!

Image

bschulte1978
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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by bschulte1978 » April 14th, 2021, 3:24 pm

redleader74 wrote:
April 12th, 2021, 4:42 pm
Hello there,

I apologize for unearthing this old thread (and my being relatively new here). I've been desparately looking for a solution to my quackgrass. First a little background. I had new sod put in last year in my front and back yards. Before it was a big mess of dirt and weeds I have one other post here that describes that project (this is only my second post!). I've attached a pic of the sod prodcut I have. Within the first couple of weeks I started seeing quackgrass both in the front and back. It wasn't a lot at first and stayed somewhat "controlled" into the winter. However, within the past couple of months there's been a sharp increase, especially in my backyard. I know the basics on it, namely, the impossible to kill rizomes, that there's no target weed killer for just that one type of weed, and basically that it's a nightmare to deal with. Today I found both this thread as well as this article: https://newfarmerproject.wordpress.com/ ... uackgrass/. And in reading the linked .PDF mentioned in a previous post here, all three seem to point towards mowing as a form of treatment and/or control for quackgrass. I'm thinking of going this route of mowing and also feeding (I've been feeding with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KX ... UTF8&psc=1). I would like to know, for those who have done this, did you notice any harmful effects on having your lawn cut that low? I've read everywhere not to cut your grass more than a third of it's full height and I too have been keeping my lawn tall to choke out weeds, etc., and that apparently isn't working for quckgrass. Also, is it the ideal intent that ultimately the rizomes die out (rather than just staying dormant)? Thanks!

Image
This is just my opinion, and I'm no expert like some of the guys here. That caveat aside, and based on my personal experience, mowing is always just at best going to mask it and keep it from spreading. If you truly want it gone, get a small container and mix:
1. Roundup
2. Surfactant
3. a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer from any bag you have laying around
4. mark it blue or another coloring option

Get some kind of broom stick, tie a foam paint brush to the end, mix the stuff in the container, dip the paint brush in, and go to work. You want the mixture dabbed on the top of each blade, adding just enough so it rolls down the blade into the center of the plant. I got pretty good at sparing the good tall fescue. Do it once a week for as long as you see quackgrass. The mother plants cannot keep sending out rhizomes if they don't have any top growth. My last update was 2019. I went from hundreds of plants over the back third of my lawn (10,000 square feet or so) in 2016 to none last year, and I see none yet this year. It works, but you have to be diligent, patient, and willing to look like a nut! I'm always a fan of eliminating a problem outright if it is of a reasonable cost.

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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by redleader74 » April 16th, 2021, 3:32 pm

Thanks for the tips. I was really hoping to avoid using Roundup, but my real problem is, there is a LOT of quackgrass, in the worst areas wer'e talking maybe 4-5 per square feet. Granted I have relatively small lawns. Is the precision ("so it rolls down the blade into the center of the plant") needed just to avoid killing the surrounding lawn or is that the only way it will make its way into the root system?

redleader74
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Re: Mowing low to get rid of quackgrass - my experience

Post by redleader74 » May 26th, 2021, 3:13 pm

Ok, I think I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that I'll need some Roundup. However, there seems to be a lot of different ones, which one is the one I should be using in this case?

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