Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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Turk
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Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by Turk » April 1st, 2021, 12:00 pm

I got my Dimension granular down last week before the rains came (yay me :cool: )

I've got quite a bit of poa annua around the yard, and I saw some saying they were pulling it up as they walk around the yard (nice therapy, IMHO).

Would pulling up the poa disrupt the pre-M boundary? (I was wondering since my wife said she pulled up some moss for "decoration" (???), and I wondered if I need to sprinkle some more Dimension around where she pulled up the moss).

Thanks in advance, Turk.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by MorpheusPA » April 1st, 2021, 2:47 pm

Yes, since the layer's pretty thin. But it'd only disrupt it in that one particular spot.

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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by Turk » April 1st, 2021, 4:08 pm

Thanks.

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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by northeastlawn » April 1st, 2021, 4:13 pm

You could also spray again with Prodiamine, it has a different active ingredient.

Also even if pulling the poa-a damages the pre-m layer, it does prevent hundreds of little poa-a seeds getting in the lawn and sitting there for years to come up.

Despite my fall pre-m, I noticed a bumper crop coming up again because our winter was so mild. I'll be dragging a bucket around the lawn and pulling the seed heads as soon as I see them pop up.

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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by ken-n-nancy » April 1st, 2021, 5:53 pm

northeastlawn wrote:
April 1st, 2021, 4:13 pm
Also even if pulling the poa-a damages the pre-m layer, it does prevent hundreds of little poa-a seeds getting in the lawn and sitting there for years to come up.
+1

I would not hesitate to pull out a Poa annua plant due to having already applied pre-emergent. You'll be better off disrupting that one spot than allowing that maturing plant to disperse more seeds!

If you have pulled a lot of Poa annua throughout the lawn, re-apply pre-emergent again. If just a small area, then just spray a little more pre-emergent in that area.


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MorpheusPA
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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by MorpheusPA » April 1st, 2021, 6:18 pm

Or spray the annua plant with Tenacity until it screams in pain. That's what I do.

Now that April's here, that's my game plan.

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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by Turk » April 1st, 2021, 6:28 pm

I hadn't thought about using a different Pre-M to go over the pulled-up poa annua, thanks. I just ordered a small amount of Prodiamine 65 WDG for the sprayer so I can spray after pulling up some weeds.

Question re timing: when would the seed-heads drop (I saw a Clemson video pointing out it's nearing the end of its life cycle)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvA9x8q5weM&t=0s

I guess the anti-poa marathon is about to begin.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by MorpheusPA » April 1st, 2021, 10:24 pm

Grasses seed in June-August as a general rule, with sprout in August to early September in their native environments during the "wet" season. Poa is a cool-season grass that dies back in the heat.

Except that, if it doesn't have to, it won't, and it'll be very happy to remain essentially immortal and entirely happy in a moist environment, constantly spreading via seed AND rhizome.

Seriously, this thing is pernicious.

My strategy is always to spray it repeatedly in April to June when I see it, trying to weaken it before summer when I don't irrigate anyway. This strategy seems to work well as outbreaks have gone from dozens to a few to, so far the last few years, a couple plants here and there.

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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by northeastlawn » April 2nd, 2021, 10:05 am

I 2nd what MorpheusPA said, but will just add that a few years ago I really stretched out my watering in an attempt to kill off the poa-a.

What I always thought was disease was actually poa-a. I thought it was dieing, but what I found is that a lot of the seemingly dead poa-a will bounce back next spring.

Thats why I will often hand pull, I may try the tenacity route again this spring, but have found there are no magic bullets that kill it off and that even includes summer heat.

What i wouldn't give for that poa-cure product.

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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by Turk » April 3rd, 2021, 9:57 am

I appreciate all the comments, makes sense to pull out the poa-a when I have time (and spray the exposed areas with prodiamine), spray with Tenacity a few times to weaken it before summer heat, and keep up the pre-emergent year round.

Long term I just gotta figure out how and when I'll be able to overseed the thin parts of the TTTF lawn (or bare spots of the formerly poa-a fields) without letting the poa-a come back. Prefer not to go the glyphosate route.

This is definitely going to be a long term project as I'm dealing with 24,000 square feet. Overseeding is going to need to be in stages over many seasons.

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Re: Would pulling up poa annua disrupt the pre-emergent layer?

Post by MorpheusPA » April 3rd, 2021, 5:09 pm

Constant vigilance is best. The ones with the ongoing problems tend to be those who are intermittent with the attention, and where the lawn has open areas where it can seed in. Like any other weed, it needs available space and the proper environment (mostly, in this case, any area that isn't actively toxic to it).

Even with surrounding infested properties, my own issues are minimal.

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