weed identification

[mschlee]

i thought there was a dedicated forum but i see posts here so if i should post somewhere else please let me know.

my lawn seems to have been taken over by some long grass that is seeding. seperatly i had a bunch of poa, and have been hitting it with tenacity schedule, but these i've never seen before. any help is appreciated.

[mschlee]

and some close ups

[john5246]

How would you describe the seed head? Is that a panicle style seed head?
How would you describe the leaf from the stem? Folded vernation?

[mschlee]

The more I look at it, I'm pretty sure it is poa. I just never saw it grow like this. I was fighting patched of it but they were all low growing clumps. These just grew straight up in a week and are literally everywhere. If they are indeed poa, I think I've lost the battle.

[andy10917]

"Poa" is not one thing, and you'll wind up with bad advice if you state it that way.

Poa Annua and Poa Trivialis are grassy weeds. Poa Pratensis is Kentucky Blue Grass.

[mschlee]

sorry john, i didnt answer your questions. not sure on the head shape (panicle etc). the vernation looks round not folded but again, i'm not very good at this and i have not seen side by side comparisons in real life so hard for me to tell

[mschlee]

poa annua was what i was thinking but incorrectly articulated. sorry for confusion.

[andy10917]

We're just trying to make sure you get good answers - NP...

[HSB3-LI]

KBG is seeding like crazy right now in my lawn, perhaps nothing to worry about for you too

[mschlee]

hope your right. think i'll wait till warm weather then see what happens (or hit is with a bit of tenacity and see if it lights up......)

[TimmyG]

Occam's razor. It's your desirable grass (KBG) going to seed. Grass grown from seed has a tendency to, you know, produce seed. As HSB3-LI noted, KBG is still seeding like crazy in many areas. Mine (non-elite) has been doing it for a few weeks. I mow every four days, yet by the third day, it's a field of seed heads.

Follow the seed heads. Are they attached to harmless looking grass plants?

[john5246]

hope your right. think i'll wait till warm weather then see what happens (or hit is with a bit of tenacity and see if it lights up......)

If you have some on hand could go ahead and do that in a small section and share the results here? Thanks

[mschlee]

thanks guys.i'm traveling this week but i'll try a little tenacity spot check when i'm back

[EddieN26]

Looks a lot like desirable bluegrass to me, but don't quote me on that. My KBG looks exactly the same when grown to those heights this time of year. The seedheads will disappear relatively soon with continued mowing as the plant moves past the seeding stage.

[EddieN26]

Also, the description of KBG seedheads mentions the seedpods being blue color when fully grown, and from the picture you showed they look to be blue on either side of the "tree." That should hopefully put you at ease, and spraying Tenacity may not be a needed application that would put your turf through undue stress.

[mschlee]

Fears realized. I sent a sample of the weeds to the suffolk cornell extension. This was the response



I received the grass sample and it is Roughstalk Bluegrass (Poa trivialis). I have had several questions about this weed this year after several years of no questions. it was probably something in the weather pattern in the winter and spring that allowed it to be prominent in certain areas on Long Island. This is a perennial grass that spreads by stolons over the ground, so a pre-emergent herbicide won’t do much good for the established plants. Although there are herbicides that can manage this weed postemergently, unfortunately there are none that are registered that can be legally used on Long Island. Poa trivialis won’t tolerate periods high heat or droughty conditions, so it will start to ‘disappear’ as the season rolls on.

[ken-n-nancy]

Fears realized. I sent a sample of the weeds to the suffolk cornell extension. This was the response

I received the grass sample and it is Roughstalk Bluegrass (Poa trivialis).

Welcome to the club.

For Poa trivialis, the only real options are to live with it or to get rid of it. Getting rid of it usually involves glyphosate, or cutting it out, or both.

Ken-n-Nancy's 2018 Front Lawn Renovation - "War on Triv"

[EddieN26]

Sorry to hear that.... I was hoping my observations were accurate for you. But good on you to have it tested while in doubt and catching it now as opposed to later. I wish you the best of luck controlling/eradicating that nuisance.

[KBGkicksazz]

Or use Certainty..:

Fears realized. I sent a sample of the weeds to the suffolk cornell extension. This was the response

I received the grass sample and it is Roughstalk Bluegrass (Poa trivialis).

Welcome to the club.

For Poa trivialis, the only real options are to live with it or to get rid of it. Getting rid of it usually involves glyphosate, or cutting it out, or both.

Ken-n-Nancy's 2018 Front Lawn Renovation - "War on Triv"

[mschlee]

thanks all. i am now devising a plan - maybe put in the basketball court my son has been begging me for......

interesting that the extension is seeing unusually high questions about triv. i had never seen it before and now, suddenly it is all over the place. gues i'm not alone